History & Policy

Carolyn Holbrook (Australian Policy and History): Failure to Attach: Australians and their Federation The Australian federation was hailed as a beacon of democratic governance at the time of its establishment in 1901—a cutting-edge fusion of representative and federal ideals. The shimmer faded rapidly, however. Deficiencies such as service duplication and fiscal imbalance between an enriched Commonwealth and impecunious states, have proved stubbornly resistant to reform. Australians have rejected thirty-six of the forty-four proposed amendments to the Constitution since 1901. This paper examines the link between Australians’ resistance to reform of the federation and their lack of affection for it. It shows that the failure to attach can be traced to the very earliest years after Federation. Carolyn Holbrook is an Alfred Deakin Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Contemporary Histories Group at Deakin University and Director of Australian Policy and History. She published Anzac: The Unauthorised Biography