Oxford Australia Blog

Sharing our love of education, language, and books

Category: Politics

  • How well do you know the Australian Constitution? Take our quiz to find out

    How well do you know the Australian Constitution? Take our quiz to find out

    Which provisions of the Australian Constitution reference Australia’s First Peoples? The preamble Section 51(xxvi) Sections 51(xxvi) and 127 None of the above 2. How did the Australian Constitution become law? By a vote of delegates to the Australian Constitutional Conventions By enactment of a British Act of Parliament By approval in a referendum By ratification…

  • The Australian Constitution protects (some of) our rights

    The Australian Constitution protects (some of) our rights

    The Australian Constitution is distinctive in many ways. These are explored below; for further reading, we suggest the The Oxford Handbook of the Australian Constitution. One feature of obvious comparative interest is the lack of constitutional rights protection. In contrast to constitutions elsewhere, the Australian Constitution contains no preamble, no explicit statements of value, and…

  • The National Party

    The enduring strength of a rural-based party in Australia—the National Party—has been rightly judged ‘unique’ (Costar and Woodward 1985, p. 2). Other developed countries have had rural-based parties, but none continued to prosper into the second post-war generation. In the 1920s ‘farmers’ parties’ burgeoned in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland, but in the post 1945 period…

  • Australian Foreign Policy and the New International Disorder

    Australia’s foreign policy elites could be forgiven for thinking that they live in especially challenging times. The current international order appears to throw up a number of problems that not only defy easy resolution but also threaten to overturn many of the ideas and principles that have underpinned policy-making in Australia for many decades. To…

  • Legacies of Politicians

    Politicians as a species are known for their lyrical, and sometimes ludicrous, use of language. Australian politicians are no exception and our parliamentarians, senators, and even prime ministers have had a role in shaping Australian English. But pollies don’t deserve all the credit – in turn, they benefit from the relaxed banter that is typical…

  • The importance of debate in active learning and the development of critical thinking skills

    Daniel Baldino, Head of the Politics and International Relations Discipline, University of Notre Dame, Fremantle, discusses why the use of a debate style framework in undergraduate political textbooks is so important. The structure of Australian Foreign Policy: Controversies and Debates is based around a deliberate pedagogical design that aims to encourage critical thinking, reflective learning and…