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The Australian Moment
There's no better place to be during economic turbulence than Australia. Brilliant in a bust, we've learnt to use our brains in a boom. Despite a lingering inability to acknowledge our achievements at home, the rest of the world asks: how did we get it right?
George Megalogenis, one of our most respected political and economic writers, reviews the key events since the 1970s that have forged institutional and political leadership and a canny populace. He examines how we developed from a closed economy racked by the oil shocks, toughed it out during the sometimes devastating growing pains of deregulation, and survived the Asian financial crisis, the dotcom tech wreck and the GFC to become the last developed nation standing in the 200s. As a result, whatever happens next, we're as well positioned as any to survive the ongoing rumblings of the Great Recession.
Drawing on newly declassified documents, fresh interviews with former leaders and unique ability to bring the numbers to life, Megalogenis, describes how, at just the right time, the Australian people became more farsighted than our politicians. We stopped spending before the rest of the world, and at the top of a boom voted out a government that was throwing around the biggest bribes over offered.
The Australian Moment is packed with original insight, challenging our often partisan selective memories and revealing how our leadership and community have underestimated each other's contribution to the nation's resilience.
George Megalogenis, one of our most respected political and economic writers, reviews the key events since the 1970s that have forged institutional and political leadership and a canny populace. He examines how we developed from a closed economy racked by the oil shocks, toughed it out during the sometimes devastating growing pains of deregulation, and survived the Asian financial crisis, the dotcom tech wreck and the GFC to become the last developed nation standing in the 200s. As a result, whatever happens next, we're as well positioned as any to survive the ongoing rumblings of the Great Recession.
Drawing on newly declassified documents, fresh interviews with former leaders and unique ability to bring the numbers to life, Megalogenis, describes how, at just the right time, the Australian people became more farsighted than our politicians. We stopped spending before the rest of the world, and at the top of a boom voted out a government that was throwing around the biggest bribes over offered.
The Australian Moment is packed with original insight, challenging our often partisan selective memories and revealing how our leadership and community have underestimated each other's contribution to the nation's resilience.
400 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2012
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418 people want to read
About the author
George Megalogenis
16 books35 followersGeorge Megalogenis has written three previous Quarterly Essays. His book The Australian Moment won the 2013 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Non-fiction and the 2012 Walkley Award for Non-fiction. He is also the author of Faultlines, The Longest Decade, Australia's Second Chance and The Football Solution.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews
December 14, 2012
I was introduced to George Megalogenis by a lovely lady sitting next to me on a flight to Frankfurt and I've enjoyed every minute of him since. From his Quarterly Essay entitled Trivial Pursuit to interviews with Richard Fidler, George is always clear, articulate, entertaining and believe it or not for a journalist these days, credible. His assessment of Julia Gilliard and Kevin Rudd is extremely helpful to an old political voyeur such as I, confused about the apparent lack of policy and the loss of a "grand narrative" despite the high levels of media accessibility these days. The story of Australia since Whitlam is great one and Megalogenis has done it justice in The Australian Moment.
April 24, 2014
Annabel Crabb calls Megalogenis an 'explainer' and I think that's exactly right. Like an umpire on a sport field, he has no interest in changing the field of play. Rather he wants to blow the whistle or ensure that he's in the right position to observe the reckless dash toward goal. Sometime compelling (particularly in his consideration of the 1970s), sometimes schoolmasterish (the dismissal), often interesting - this is likely to be the basis of the received version of our recent political history. For better and for worse.
April 24, 2013
I loved this book! Fascinating read. Definitely recommended
January 6, 2015
The Australian Moment is a summary of recent Australian history (last 40yrs) from a political and economic perspective. It focuses on the prime ministers of the era time (from Whitlam to Rudd) and attempts to draw out the themes of each government. For an Australian immigrant like me, it provided a great deal of context I missed out on for comprehending the current Australian political position (like the Australian people's disdain for Keating and the Labour government of the 1980s pioneering zeal).
Necessarily for such a rich period of historyin only 300-odd pages, Megalogenis has focused on a few areas. The Commonwealth parliament is the fulcrum around which the narrative turns -- little reference is made to the politics of the states. Additionally, Megalogenis's lens is primarily political and economic rather than social, with a considerable emphasis on interviews with the former PMs and economic statistics.
I must admit to experiencing some intellectual fatigue at points during this book -- there is a rather inevitable chronological path to the narrative with regular updates of GDP growth, fiscal positions and polling numbers having a slightly soporific effect.
Overall: as someone interested in contemporary Australian politics but without the background of having grown up here, I found this an enjoyable read.
Necessarily for such a rich period of historyin only 300-odd pages, Megalogenis has focused on a few areas. The Commonwealth parliament is the fulcrum around which the narrative turns -- little reference is made to the politics of the states. Additionally, Megalogenis's lens is primarily political and economic rather than social, with a considerable emphasis on interviews with the former PMs and economic statistics.
I must admit to experiencing some intellectual fatigue at points during this book -- there is a rather inevitable chronological path to the narrative with regular updates of GDP growth, fiscal positions and polling numbers having a slightly soporific effect.
Overall: as someone interested in contemporary Australian politics but without the background of having grown up here, I found this an enjoyable read.
March 3, 2012
Second half is better than the first. Stick with it.
June 13, 2012
The Australian Moment (2012) by George Megalogenis is a book that recaps the fate of Australia from the early 1970s until 2012. In 360 pages it Megalogenis explains why he believes Australia is now doing so well. It’s a shorter book that Paul Kelly’s epic books and is well worth reading. Megalogenis attempts to provide an economic and political analysis of why Australia now looks to be performing so well.
The book starts by looking at Australia towards the end of the Liberal period of office that started in 1949. Megalogenis derides the Menzies and later coalition governments and states that it essentially did nothing, which is largely true except for over doubling the population, massively increasing tertiary education, presiding over the construction of the Snowy Mountains Scheme, the construction of Canberra, being involved in two wars and presiding over superb growth rates and approximately 3% unemployment. Some might suspect all that was something. It’s a needless cheap shot that shows where Megalogenis stands. Some years ago in a journalism forum at Melbourne University Megalogenis stated that he thought that journalists were with a large majority centre-left types. In the book on a number of occasions he confirms it is certainly where he stands. It is certainly arguable that the rigid, regulated economic system of the post war period could have been far more flexible and may have been better but it’s also hard to ignore that during the period the West and Japan saw fantastic levels of economic growth. The system worked very well.
The Oil Shock, Stagflation and the collapse of the Bretton Woods agreement led to the end of the post war boom. But at the time it didn’t look that way. The idea that high inflation and a reduction in economic growth might be the future didn’t occur. The new ALP PM Gough Whitlam took little interest in economics and made speeches about how the dealing with more leisure was going to be a major issue. Instead his government was consumed by dealing with inflation and deficits. The book makes clear that Whitlam’s ministers were not up to the job of running the government and were at times fairly comical. While their final removal involved trickery the behaviour of the government during the extraordinary Khemlani Affair was quite something.
Whitlam’s government took a considerable step towards the liberalisation that was to come by reducing tariffs unilaterally by 25%. The description of this in the book provides interesting detail. It was, apparently, largely designed to be a step to reduce inflation rather than the beginning of deregulation.
Megalogenis also extensively explores immigration in the book which is clearly a matter close to his heart. In the section on Whitlam he does some impressive mental gymnastics to avoid the conclusion that Whitlam’s treatment of the Vietnamese was heartless and possibly driven by racism. There is also a reference to ‘Balts’ in the section that possibly deserves some explanation given the odd step by Whitlam of recognising the annexation of the Baltic Republics into the Soviet Union. Had it been a Liberal PM no doubt the verdict on the refugee issue would have been harsher.
The section on Fraser is good and Megalogenis goes into the problems within the Fraser government due to its recognition of the failures of the post WWII economic setup but the failure to take steps to do much about it. The massive increases in wages of around 13% per year in 1980-81 to 1982-83 and subsequent jump in unemployment to 10% represented the very end of the post WWII system in Australia. Interestingly, the then head of the ACTU, Bob Hawke, had been involved in these substantial pay rises as he had been for similar jumps in the early 1970s resulting in Keating saying that Hawke had almost broken the Australian economy twice before he came into office.
The remarkable Hawke government is then given extensive treatment. The major reforms of embracing deregulation in the floating of the dollar is studied and the accounts where Keating claims credit for everything against those of everyone else are amusing. It’s almost a wonder Keating didn’t claim to have inspired Kylie Minogue during the 1980s. But the combination of Keating and Hawke did indeed work very well. The former ACTU boss also managed to avoid explosive wages growth that would lead to inflation from happening. The current account issue and Keating’s famous ‘Banana Republic’ comment are well written up.
The Australian changes of the 1980s are contrasted with those in the UK & US. In the US inflation was contained earlier than in Australia where it wasn’t until the late 1980s and the very high interest rates brought inflation under control. There was some truth, as Keating insensitively said about ‘the recession we had to have’ . The experience could, with hindsight, have been better managed.
Megalogenis exhibits a sizable crush on Paul Keating which balloons to amusing levels when he described the 1993 election as the last serious election as the ‘It was the last argument that the media didn’t try to trivialise by asking each leader if they knew the price of milk’ . During the 1994 election campaign the ultimate price of milk trip up question was asked when Hewson was asked what the GST on a cake would be. The 1993 election was interesting, but because a cunning politician managed to sacrifice pretty much everything, including his own credibility on the budget, and torpedo a clever but politically utterly inept leader primarily by running a successful scare campaign.
Megalogenis has an interesting chapter on housing where he argues that Australia has too much of its wealth in housing. It’s certainly a plausible argument. What’s less clear is why Australian housing has risen so much over the past 40 years. Megalogenis, as is his tendency, suggests that it has been driven by Federal Government policy and in particular the first home owner grants and the ability to write off interest payments off tax on investment properties. Megalogenis didn’t do his research here. According to the Reserve Bank of Australia, most countries have similar taxation laws for housing.
The section of the Howard government is weak and biased. Megalogenis can hardly bring himself to give Howard and Costello any credit for bringing in a GST that was opposed by the ALP and for balancing the budget for over a decade. Indeed, on the budget Megalogenis states “In the 21 years between 1987-88 & 2007-2008, Labor and the coalition delivered twelve surplus budgets between them, and another two were in balance.” Almost all the surpluses were in the coalition years.
Megalogenis has a strange section on his odd Generation W idea, and it’s really quite funny, Generation W. The W stands for ‘Why on earth didn’t the editors shred this?’ The W actually stands for Generation ‘Wogs and Women’ for people born after 1964. No end date is given although apparently growing up in the 1970s was required so perhaps it ends it in 1974 or so. Megalogenis wisely pans the labels Generation X and Y before launching into his own strange generational adventure. This idea of his, which he launched in his previous book The Longest Decade becomes more stretched and silly here.
When Megalogenis returns to an ALP government he then credits their brilliance as being the reason Australia avoided the GFC. The fact that years of budget deficits allowed the government movement and that Australian exports to China suffered little detriment are given little regard.
The book would have been better if more figures and more graphs showing growth, current account, budget deficits global comparisons had been included. The book doesn’t provide as good or as detailed a political view of the events as Paul Kelly’s books but it is considerably shorter. The other weakness with the book is the repeated use of overly simplistic causal relationships between events. For example housing price bubbles are caused by more than just two government policies. Megalogenis wants to turn history into a neat tale which unfortunately it isn’t. But the book is worthwhile reading in order to learn more about Australia’s recent political history.
The book starts by looking at Australia towards the end of the Liberal period of office that started in 1949. Megalogenis derides the Menzies and later coalition governments and states that it essentially did nothing, which is largely true except for over doubling the population, massively increasing tertiary education, presiding over the construction of the Snowy Mountains Scheme, the construction of Canberra, being involved in two wars and presiding over superb growth rates and approximately 3% unemployment. Some might suspect all that was something. It’s a needless cheap shot that shows where Megalogenis stands. Some years ago in a journalism forum at Melbourne University Megalogenis stated that he thought that journalists were with a large majority centre-left types. In the book on a number of occasions he confirms it is certainly where he stands. It is certainly arguable that the rigid, regulated economic system of the post war period could have been far more flexible and may have been better but it’s also hard to ignore that during the period the West and Japan saw fantastic levels of economic growth. The system worked very well.
The Oil Shock, Stagflation and the collapse of the Bretton Woods agreement led to the end of the post war boom. But at the time it didn’t look that way. The idea that high inflation and a reduction in economic growth might be the future didn’t occur. The new ALP PM Gough Whitlam took little interest in economics and made speeches about how the dealing with more leisure was going to be a major issue. Instead his government was consumed by dealing with inflation and deficits. The book makes clear that Whitlam’s ministers were not up to the job of running the government and were at times fairly comical. While their final removal involved trickery the behaviour of the government during the extraordinary Khemlani Affair was quite something.
Whitlam’s government took a considerable step towards the liberalisation that was to come by reducing tariffs unilaterally by 25%. The description of this in the book provides interesting detail. It was, apparently, largely designed to be a step to reduce inflation rather than the beginning of deregulation.
Megalogenis also extensively explores immigration in the book which is clearly a matter close to his heart. In the section on Whitlam he does some impressive mental gymnastics to avoid the conclusion that Whitlam’s treatment of the Vietnamese was heartless and possibly driven by racism. There is also a reference to ‘Balts’ in the section that possibly deserves some explanation given the odd step by Whitlam of recognising the annexation of the Baltic Republics into the Soviet Union. Had it been a Liberal PM no doubt the verdict on the refugee issue would have been harsher.
The section on Fraser is good and Megalogenis goes into the problems within the Fraser government due to its recognition of the failures of the post WWII economic setup but the failure to take steps to do much about it. The massive increases in wages of around 13% per year in 1980-81 to 1982-83 and subsequent jump in unemployment to 10% represented the very end of the post WWII system in Australia. Interestingly, the then head of the ACTU, Bob Hawke, had been involved in these substantial pay rises as he had been for similar jumps in the early 1970s resulting in Keating saying that Hawke had almost broken the Australian economy twice before he came into office.
The remarkable Hawke government is then given extensive treatment. The major reforms of embracing deregulation in the floating of the dollar is studied and the accounts where Keating claims credit for everything against those of everyone else are amusing. It’s almost a wonder Keating didn’t claim to have inspired Kylie Minogue during the 1980s. But the combination of Keating and Hawke did indeed work very well. The former ACTU boss also managed to avoid explosive wages growth that would lead to inflation from happening. The current account issue and Keating’s famous ‘Banana Republic’ comment are well written up.
The Australian changes of the 1980s are contrasted with those in the UK & US. In the US inflation was contained earlier than in Australia where it wasn’t until the late 1980s and the very high interest rates brought inflation under control. There was some truth, as Keating insensitively said about ‘the recession we had to have’ . The experience could, with hindsight, have been better managed.
Megalogenis exhibits a sizable crush on Paul Keating which balloons to amusing levels when he described the 1993 election as the last serious election as the ‘It was the last argument that the media didn’t try to trivialise by asking each leader if they knew the price of milk’ . During the 1994 election campaign the ultimate price of milk trip up question was asked when Hewson was asked what the GST on a cake would be. The 1993 election was interesting, but because a cunning politician managed to sacrifice pretty much everything, including his own credibility on the budget, and torpedo a clever but politically utterly inept leader primarily by running a successful scare campaign.
Megalogenis has an interesting chapter on housing where he argues that Australia has too much of its wealth in housing. It’s certainly a plausible argument. What’s less clear is why Australian housing has risen so much over the past 40 years. Megalogenis, as is his tendency, suggests that it has been driven by Federal Government policy and in particular the first home owner grants and the ability to write off interest payments off tax on investment properties. Megalogenis didn’t do his research here. According to the Reserve Bank of Australia, most countries have similar taxation laws for housing.
The section of the Howard government is weak and biased. Megalogenis can hardly bring himself to give Howard and Costello any credit for bringing in a GST that was opposed by the ALP and for balancing the budget for over a decade. Indeed, on the budget Megalogenis states “In the 21 years between 1987-88 & 2007-2008, Labor and the coalition delivered twelve surplus budgets between them, and another two were in balance.” Almost all the surpluses were in the coalition years.
Megalogenis has a strange section on his odd Generation W idea, and it’s really quite funny, Generation W. The W stands for ‘Why on earth didn’t the editors shred this?’ The W actually stands for Generation ‘Wogs and Women’ for people born after 1964. No end date is given although apparently growing up in the 1970s was required so perhaps it ends it in 1974 or so. Megalogenis wisely pans the labels Generation X and Y before launching into his own strange generational adventure. This idea of his, which he launched in his previous book The Longest Decade becomes more stretched and silly here.
When Megalogenis returns to an ALP government he then credits their brilliance as being the reason Australia avoided the GFC. The fact that years of budget deficits allowed the government movement and that Australian exports to China suffered little detriment are given little regard.
The book would have been better if more figures and more graphs showing growth, current account, budget deficits global comparisons had been included. The book doesn’t provide as good or as detailed a political view of the events as Paul Kelly’s books but it is considerably shorter. The other weakness with the book is the repeated use of overly simplistic causal relationships between events. For example housing price bubbles are caused by more than just two government policies. Megalogenis wants to turn history into a neat tale which unfortunately it isn’t. But the book is worthwhile reading in order to learn more about Australia’s recent political history.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 24, 2019
Although I've admired George Megalogenis as a balanced commentator on Australian politics (and football) I probably wouldn't have read this except for it being our next book club read. The argument of the book overall is that through a combination of good luck, (some) good leadership and the Australian character, we've managed to ride through the ups and downs of the decades since the Whitlam government was elected and come out as an example of how a small country like ours could show the world a thing or two.
I wasn't wholly convinced by the argument but admit to skimming a fair bit of the economic details when my head began to spin at yet more statistics and economic analysis, so I probably haven't given Megalogenis a fair go. And is that what the Australian character is about - a 'fair go'. The current Prime Minister says it's about 'a fair go for those who have a go' and Megalogenis does have a good deal of pertinent things to say about the attitudes of many Australians to those they perceive as 'bludgers'. I found his chapters called Transitions the most interesting, because they summed up various stages of our political history without the detail I got bogged down in. They also reflected his view as an 'outsider' born to Greek parents.
As his book concludes before the end of the last decade, he only touches on the shameful issue of Australia's treatment of refugees. It does seem somewhat dated now. Also the book focuses on political and economic issues, rather than the social ones that interest me more. That said, I found much of what our different Prime Ministers had said in interviews with Megalogenis fascinating: snippets of insight were gems within the dross.
It's useful to look back and compare what we thought then and what we might believe now. All the members of my book club are elderly and will remember the events that form the basis for this book. It will be interesting to see how Megalogenis' analysis stacks up against their own memories and opinions.
I wasn't wholly convinced by the argument but admit to skimming a fair bit of the economic details when my head began to spin at yet more statistics and economic analysis, so I probably haven't given Megalogenis a fair go. And is that what the Australian character is about - a 'fair go'. The current Prime Minister says it's about 'a fair go for those who have a go' and Megalogenis does have a good deal of pertinent things to say about the attitudes of many Australians to those they perceive as 'bludgers'. I found his chapters called Transitions the most interesting, because they summed up various stages of our political history without the detail I got bogged down in. They also reflected his view as an 'outsider' born to Greek parents.
As his book concludes before the end of the last decade, he only touches on the shameful issue of Australia's treatment of refugees. It does seem somewhat dated now. Also the book focuses on political and economic issues, rather than the social ones that interest me more. That said, I found much of what our different Prime Ministers had said in interviews with Megalogenis fascinating: snippets of insight were gems within the dross.
It's useful to look back and compare what we thought then and what we might believe now. All the members of my book club are elderly and will remember the events that form the basis for this book. It will be interesting to see how Megalogenis' analysis stacks up against their own memories and opinions.
September 29, 2020
Very happy to have read this book. Its a great political/economic summary of the years of 1970-2010 in Australia. I had little to no knowledge of either so I was a sponge in drawing information out of this book, though I did saturate at points.
This book provided me with the knowledge regarding some explanation for Australia's global position in the world and its seemingly remarkable economic and political resilience as explained from an economists viewpoint.
It covers the main hits, such as the end of the Menzies era into the stagflation decade, of the Fraser/Hawke eras and that economic reform around tariffs, of the Hawke/Keating era of radical economic reform to incorporate the union's upward pressure on wages into the Accord to overcome stagflation, of floating the dollar, of the WorkChoices mistake of Howard, of the rise of Pauline Hanson, the tendency of persistent critque as a political strategy rising in Abbott, and how Rudd/Swan navigated the GFC whilst simultaneously alienating himself from Australians.
I have missed heaps of other great elements of history that this book includes, but gives an idea of the scope and goal of the book.
This book provided me with the knowledge regarding some explanation for Australia's global position in the world and its seemingly remarkable economic and political resilience as explained from an economists viewpoint.
It covers the main hits, such as the end of the Menzies era into the stagflation decade, of the Fraser/Hawke eras and that economic reform around tariffs, of the Hawke/Keating era of radical economic reform to incorporate the union's upward pressure on wages into the Accord to overcome stagflation, of floating the dollar, of the WorkChoices mistake of Howard, of the rise of Pauline Hanson, the tendency of persistent critque as a political strategy rising in Abbott, and how Rudd/Swan navigated the GFC whilst simultaneously alienating himself from Australians.
I have missed heaps of other great elements of history that this book includes, but gives an idea of the scope and goal of the book.
May 29, 2025
A journalist’s history of the Whitlam to Rudd years. Quite disappointing to be honest, this book has a lot of praise but I really don’t see it. I am generally a massive fan of George Megalogenis, but I come away from this book feeling as though I have wasted my time.
I don’t think any of the observations are that groundbreaking. There are a lot of broad sweeping statements about the views of the Australian electorate which cannot really be substantiated (or, at least, no sources or evidence are provided). One gets the sense Megalogenis omits important details so he can craft his (very vague) ‘Australian Moment’ narrative. That he worked for The Australian ought to be disclosed at the beginning.
I am being overly-critical as a reaction to over the top praise this book has received - it is by no means bad and would probably be useful for someone as an introduction to this era of politics, but it is not a serious historical work.
I don’t think any of the observations are that groundbreaking. There are a lot of broad sweeping statements about the views of the Australian electorate which cannot really be substantiated (or, at least, no sources or evidence are provided). One gets the sense Megalogenis omits important details so he can craft his (very vague) ‘Australian Moment’ narrative. That he worked for The Australian ought to be disclosed at the beginning.
I am being overly-critical as a reaction to over the top praise this book has received - it is by no means bad and would probably be useful for someone as an introduction to this era of politics, but it is not a serious historical work.
February 27, 2024
As a relatively recent immigrant to Australia (been here 9 years), I've always been amazed by the Australian success story. It's an incredibly tolerant and multicultural society with super high wages, low inequality, strong democratic institutions, and an awesome capacity to weather outside shocks, like the GFC in 2008.
However, since Australians don't tend to look favourably upon themselves, it's very hard to find Australian books that explain how this remote country ended up being one of the best places to live in on Earth.
This one is just that - a primer on the last 50-odd years of Australian economy and politics for the newly initiated, and one that focusses not on what Australia still needs to work on as a society (closing the gap, climate action, etc) - but on the incredible achievements of the past few decades and how they were won.
However, since Australians don't tend to look favourably upon themselves, it's very hard to find Australian books that explain how this remote country ended up being one of the best places to live in on Earth.
This one is just that - a primer on the last 50-odd years of Australian economy and politics for the newly initiated, and one that focusses not on what Australia still needs to work on as a society (closing the gap, climate action, etc) - but on the incredible achievements of the past few decades and how they were won.
November 3, 2021
You know you've found a good history book when you find it's a page turner. This is a really concise and accurate examination of Australian politics, economics and culture by an authoritative voice. Megalogenis writes about complicated matters in a simple, easy to read way. I found this totally fascinating as a follower of politics and as a history buff. Although I got a little lost in the statistics sometimes, that didn't detract from my overall enjoyment. I borrowed the copy I read, but I'm thinking I should have my own copy to sit proudly on my bookshelf with my favourite reads.
January 17, 2024
A brilliant summary of the social and political events that made modern Australia, from Whitlam to Gillard. The writing is so sharp that you don’t feel like you’re reading what is essentially a history book.
The shift from big, bold reforms in the Hawke-Keating years to the breathless incrementalism of Rudd-Gillard, and even late Howard, is stark and a bit depressing.
Not a problem unique to Australia and you worry if political leaders will ever find a way to return to delivering big, future focused change without being eaten alive first. Such is the world we’ve created.
The shift from big, bold reforms in the Hawke-Keating years to the breathless incrementalism of Rudd-Gillard, and even late Howard, is stark and a bit depressing.
Not a problem unique to Australia and you worry if political leaders will ever find a way to return to delivering big, future focused change without being eaten alive first. Such is the world we’ve created.
November 28, 2023
Surprisingly enjoyable to read. (Took me over two weeks because I was in a bit of a reading slump, not because it wasn't engaging.) However, the author's rosy and one-sided view of immigration/multiculturalism irked me and to me it felt as if he was taking every opportunity to denigrate those of us who aren't so enthusiastic while retaining a neutral/professionally detached tone for everything else.
May 27, 2020
Good summary of the past ~50 years of Australian politics. Contextualises a lot of decisions that were made. The thing that stuck with me most was the explanation of what allowed Australia to avoid the GFC. It wasn't in fact the mining sector as their lobbyists would have you think, that was a factor but only one of many.
May 25, 2022
The book is fast-paced and very informative. I really like that fact that it is so easy to understand even for someone who did not come from Australia and only had basic understanding of recent events in Australian history. I now understand Australian politics much better after reading this book. Highly-recommended
August 10, 2018
Forgot how much I hate politics. So many pages of numbers and really convoluted sentences that I had to re-read to even attempt to comprehend. Didn’t mind the historical insight and I liked the author’s even, unbiased tone.
November 27, 2022
Best round up of the Australian Political Scene during later part of 20th century and first decades of 21st century, well written and very informative
January 9, 2024
Such a massive body of work, put together with great understanding of politics across generations, to have a sense of where we are today.
January 5, 2017
Great overarching analysis of the major political and economic events/themes in Australia since the 1970s, which provides an explanation as to why Australia over the past quarter-century has been able to overcome many economic hurdles while much of the world has crashed.
August 27, 2012
This book somewhat selectively and at no great depth covers Australia’s political history
from roughly 1970 to today. The author's main thesis is that through financial reform and some vaguely defined facets of the Australian character we are a shining example to the world of how to manage an economy. All a bit glib probably.
Having said that Australia did weather the GFC storm ( so far) better than most nations, and not just because of the China factor, and the Author’s explanation is as good as any I’ve heard. Also it was great to brush up my fading memory of events ( I'm 69) and to hear about some that I’ve either forgotten or was unaware of. His quotes from former Prime Ministers are interesting and most of his economic analysis, particularly on key reforms, was informative. It weighs in at 370 odd pages but is not a ‘heavy’ or academic read; in fact at times it’s a bit of a page turner.
This is not a history book so many other reforms and events not closely linked to economics, that have been important to the development of Australian society, are either mentioned in passing or not at all.
I enjoyed this book.
from roughly 1970 to today. The author's main thesis is that through financial reform and some vaguely defined facets of the Australian character we are a shining example to the world of how to manage an economy. All a bit glib probably.
Having said that Australia did weather the GFC storm ( so far) better than most nations, and not just because of the China factor, and the Author’s explanation is as good as any I’ve heard. Also it was great to brush up my fading memory of events ( I'm 69) and to hear about some that I’ve either forgotten or was unaware of. His quotes from former Prime Ministers are interesting and most of his economic analysis, particularly on key reforms, was informative. It weighs in at 370 odd pages but is not a ‘heavy’ or academic read; in fact at times it’s a bit of a page turner.
This is not a history book so many other reforms and events not closely linked to economics, that have been important to the development of Australian society, are either mentioned in passing or not at all.
I enjoyed this book.
February 11, 2013
This book is a brief political history of Australia since the 1970s, from the Whitlam to the Rudd Governments, with an economic slant. Megalogenis strives to be non-partisan, which he mostly achieves. His basic aim is to answer the question of why Australia seems to have dodged a bullet and has remained successful over the past few years when other major economies like the US have tanked. Credit goes to a series of reforms from previous governments (Howard, Hawke-Keating, even some credit to Whitlam and Fraser) and institutions like the RBA and Treasury that have learned their lessons from previous mistakes. Even Kevin Rudd gets some kudos for listening to their advice (for once) during the GFC. A good read from one of the more balanced Australian political journos.
July 4, 2014
Wonderful brief history of the past forty years by Megalogenis. The ending, looking to the future and whether Australia will become 'great' is saddening as I don't see us getting there anytime soon. 2 years on from when Megalogenis published this, things have only gotten worse and I have little faith in the political process pushing positive reform and long-term decision making.
I did quite enjoy Megalogenis's thesis though and his summation of why we avoided the GFC and what led us to doing so.
I did quite enjoy Megalogenis's thesis though and his summation of why we avoided the GFC and what led us to doing so.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 23, 2016
This was enjoyable but I thought the focus on the economic issues facing Australia and the Prime Minister of the time was a bit narrow. Megalogenis certainly went through the last 40 years of Australian political history and the associated economic conditions with a clear and non-biased documentary. It seems we are the lucky country as the politicians (at times) showed an amazing lack of economic knowledge, took policy decisions based on being re-elected (always) and seemed to have wasted the opportunity to save from the good years and put money away for the future. Quiet sad really.
January 26, 2016
Covers the political and economic history of Australia over the past 40 years and articulates why as a country we have weathered the GFC and the current Eurozone crisis. No matter what your political preferences, the conclusion is that our elected leaders have collectively done a great job in positioning Australia to capitalise on our strengths into the future. It remains to be seen whether we will be able to leverage it or whether we hold ourselves back because we have self doubt as to us being entitled to this position. Better to be here than elsewhere!
July 14, 2016
Great read covering Australian politics from Harold Holt's death and Gough through to Rudd, explaining structural changes that allowed Australia to slide easily through the global financial crisis and no, it wasn't China. Well written and easy to understand with clear explanation of all things economic. Allowed me to understand why I got 10% interest on my savings account at 15 in 1975 but never will again I suspect, why I paid 17% on my home mortgage in the 90s and why my super's looking pretty good now. Unfortunately didn't explain why credit card interest rates are still so high.
April 3, 2012
This is a must read for anybody who wants a non-partisan assessment of how Australia survived the GFC. An intelligent and thoughtful assessment of the Australian reform agenda since Whitlam took office in 1972. Slightly depressing at the end because it is difficult to identify any true reformers in the current Parliament....the current batch seem to be more focussed on the short time and sound bites, rather than the hard work of presenting a considered policy position.
July 19, 2012
Bravo! Full marks for a well-thought out, ideological-free, and and entertaining overview of Australian political, economic and cultural life over the past 30 years.
Bob Ellis's contarian take:
http://www.ellistabletalk.com/2012/03...
Bob Ellis's contarian take:
http://www.ellistabletalk.com/2012/03...
December 1, 2012
brilliantly fascinating, and far removed from the whining, self serving and derogatory political commentary that the media seemingly so loves to run in the digital age.
Megalogenis gives credit where credit is due on both sides of politics, and acknowledges mistakes and the lessons we can learn by them without resorting to political spurn. The result is a well crafted text that examines the politics of the last 40 years of Australian economics.
Megalogenis gives credit where credit is due on both sides of politics, and acknowledges mistakes and the lessons we can learn by them without resorting to political spurn. The result is a well crafted text that examines the politics of the last 40 years of Australian economics.
May 5, 2014
The Australian Moment is a clear, evidence-based analysis of Australian politics and economics over the last 30 or so years. More detail of the Rudd years would have been beneficial, but otherwise the book was comprehensive. A basic understanding of economics would help understand many of the terms used, and this arguably makes the book a little bit inaccessible. However, I'm not sure the subject matter could be adequately covered using less technical language.
March 21, 2012
This is a great read. Really enjoyed the balance between detail and broad sweep of history of Australia. You could wish that George Meg would engage with other policy or topic areas across the sweep - but, the selection of Australian moments that he makes illustrates the tensions and opportunities of the country. I enjoyed his retake on some prevailing ideas (eg. generation W). Recommended.
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