Vol. 26 No. 22 · 18 November 2004
pages 30-31 | 3586 words
Diary
Tom Nairn
The swagman he up and he jumped in the water-hole,
Drowning himself by the coolibah tree,
And his ghost may be heard as it sings by the billabong,
Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?
‘Waltzing Matilda’, A.B. ‘Banjo’ Paterson (1895)
Three weeks before the American presidential vote, the political right was victorious in the Australian federal elections of 9 October. On 12 October I went to a book launch in Melbourne at which suicidal depression prevailed. The mood matched the text being launched, Boris Frankel’s Zombies, Lilliputians and Sadists, a withering condemnation of socio-political non-progress over the past decade.[1] Australia has come to be run by zombies, who as they gain in confidence turn into four-wheel-drive, roo-bar sadists (‘roo-bars’ are the Australian version of ‘bull-bars’). Footling left-wing Lilliputians have failed to contest this shift, occasionally making things worse.
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[1] Curtin, 336 pp., $29.95, September, 1 920 73122 9.
[2] Profile, 192 pp., £7.99, June, 1 861 97739 5.
[3] Cambridge, 168 pp., £15.99, December, 0 521 60370 6.
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Letters
Vol. 26 No. 23 · 2 December 2004
From George Wedd
As Tom Nairn says, ‘Waltzing Matilda’ is a wonderful tune (LRB, 18 November). It was equally wonderful when used for a recruiting song called, I think, ‘The Kentish Fusileer’, which from its words must date from the early 18th century. The chorus goes:
And he sang as he marched through the
streets of bonny Rochester,
‘Who’ll be a sojer for Marlbro’ wi’ me ?
Sojer for Marlbro’! Sojer for Marlbro’!
Who’ll be a sojer for Marlbro’ wi’ me ?’
George Wedd
High Littleton, Somerset
Vol. 26 No. 24 · 16 December 2004
From John Roberts
As a former resident of Australia who now lives in France, I was struck on reading Tom Nairn’s Diary by similarities in the left’s response to electoral defeat across national boundaries (LRB, 18 November). When an ordinary conservative (Chirac or Bush or Howard) defeats a feebly socialist or mildly progressive challenger (Jospin or Kerry or Latham) the losers cry ‘catastrophe’, accuse the right of surrendering to the electorate’s baser instincts, and find fault with the democratic process. Nairn denounces the voters as ‘zombies’, calls it a ‘pseudo-election’ and casts doubt on the country’s democratic institutions, based, he claims, on ‘a clapped-out British template’. But Australia is, clearly, a functioning democracy, with an educated and generally well-informed electorate. However regrettable to some of us, it was hardly surprising that, in a period of economic upswing, the government defeated an opposition which offered only a marginally different approach.
John Roberts
Labastide-Paumès, France
From Stephen Sasse
Yes, we have recently had a federal election in Australia, and yes, we have delivered a significant majority to the Liberal/National Coalition in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. What Tom Nairn didn’t make clear is that the same electorate has, in every state and territory jurisdiction, elected ALP (Labour) governments. Nairn must think we’re a bit dysfunctional if we vote for his decent, principled ALP at the state level, but turn into a bunch of four-wheel-driving rednecks every three years at the federal level.
But give us a bit of credit. The result reflects the eminently reasonable view that the ALP is not fit to govern at the federal level.
Stephen Sasse
Queens Park, New South Wales
