Oxford Australia Blog

Sharing our love of education, language, and books

Category: Politics

  • 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…