Recognising Australian oligarchy

And organising to beat it

I’ve just finished reading and writing about a new book by Julianne Schultz called The Idea of Australia: A search for the soul of the nation, and a full review will be published shortly.

IN the meantime, I wanted to pick up on what I think is its central lesson.

The book is a tremendously interesting and thorough account of, if not our national soul—a concept I find unhelpful—then at least the country’s underlying operating system, and what I found especially helpful in reading the book is that it clarified my understanding of how Australian oligarchy functions.

I don’t use the word oligarchy lightly either: the book provides ample evidence that since the time of invasion, and then through the formation of the Commonwealth of Australia, the nation has been dominated by several key sectors which have remained in charge ever since, and I think the word is appropriate.

Schultz writes:

The phrase ‘culture wars’ conjures an arcane dispute between ideological opponents about matters of interpre…