The right to a ‘castle’
This year marks the 20th anniversary of one of Australia’s iconic feature films: ‘The Castle’. It‘s a comedy with a message.
Articles tagged with: democracy
Latest articles
The Same, But Different: the UK election compared to Australia
Ahead of the UK election, what are the key similarities and differences between politics and parliaments in the UK and Australia.
The Thieving Diva: Behind the scenes of the opening ceremony at Parliament House
Hilda Abbott was a distinguished guest whose recollections reveal that behind the public performance, VIPs are only people after all.
Young People and the Right to Vote: Some exceptions to the rule
All Australians aged 18 or over have the right to vote and have a say in their democracy. But it wasn’t always this way.
Besties (or not) from the West: PMs and Presidents
As the world looks on as Donald Trump becomes the 45th U.S. President, researcher Campbell looks at meetings between other presidents and Australian prime ministers, and what effect they had on Australia.
Donald Grant – from gaoled Wobbly to elected Senator
Of the twelve members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) sentenced in Sydney in 1916 to five to 15 years’ gaol for conspiracy, none is more fascinating than Donald MacLellan Grant.
An Australian guide to American elections
With Americans set to vote this week, most Australians would not have missed that the USA is facing a presidential election. But you might not know how things are different to Australian elections, or what the system entails. Researcher Campbell explains how American elections work, and how they compare to Australian elections.
How Billy Hughes lost the 1916 conscription referendum
100 years ago Australia was divided over the issue of conscription. Australia was one of the few countries without conscription, and Prime Minister Billy Hughes was determined to introduce it. Guest blogger Professor Joan Beaumont examines why the popular and bombastic Hughes, a man used to getting his own way by hook or by crook, failed in his mission.
Would you vote for conscription? Five objects to help you decide
A hundred years ago, Billy Hughes put the question of overseas conscription to the Australian people, in the hopes of gaining support for his plan to boost troop numbers in Europe. If you had been a voter in 1916, what would your answer be? Here are five objects from the Museum’s collection to help you make up your mind the way they helped Australian voters a century ago.
Sixty years of television: friend or foe of democracy?
Television in Australia turns 60 on 16 September. Dr Barry York looks back at some of the concerns about its introduction, and the Royal Commission on Television, convened in 1953.
The UN’s International Day of Democracy
On the UN’s International Day of Democracy, historian Alex McDermott looks back at the second conscription plebiscite of 1917.
The one that got away: the last time a government lost a vote in the House of Representatives
The government just lost a vote in the House of Representatives for the first time since 1962. Researcher Campbell explores what that means and what happened all those decades ago.
Pairing Up: What is pairing in parliament?
Pairing arrangements are entirely unofficial. Because they’re unofficial, they can be altered or ignored at the discretion of the members themselves, or the whips, or the party leaders.
Deakin’s Great White Gamble
On this day 108 years ago, a prime minister took a stand and invited some warships to visit Australia. Did he realise at the time what a monumental impact he would have on Australia’s place in the world?
The churches and the anti-Apartheid movement
The Rev. Dorothy McRae-McMahon looks back at her involvement in the Ecumenical Movement and anti-Apartheid in Sydney during the 1980s and 1990s.
What’s so ‘royal’ about a royal commission, and what are they, anyway?
Whenever there is a very serious issue in our public life – especially when it involves possible illegal activity, impropriety or incompetence – there are calls for a royal commission to look into the matter.
On a Knife-Edge: Six other times Australia’s elections were down to the wire
With the election over, people are now analysing the very close result. The government’s very small majority is not unusual in Australian history, and plenty of elections have come down to the wire and shown a very close result. Our researcher Campbell has examined six of them.
Jane Harris and the anti-apartheid movement
Jane Harris tells the story of her involvement in the anti-apartheid movement and her late brother John, a member of the African Resistance Movement (ARM) during the 1960s.
How does an election work? Part Three – Rock the Vote
Following on from Parts 1 and 2, in the final of this 3-part series our researcher Campbell explains what happens on polling day before and after you cast your vote.
On Paper: some election ephemera
As the election campaign wraps up, our researcher Campbell has unearthed some ephemeral items from our collection; things designed to be thrown away that have been preserved to tell us stories about past elections in Australia.
