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In Australian Story, Mungo MacCallum investigates the political success of Kevin Rudd. What does he know about Australia that his opponents don’t? This is a characteristically barbed and perceptive look at the challenges facing the government and the country. MacCallum argues that the things we used to rely on are not there anymore. On the Right, the blind faith in markets has recently collapsed. The Left lost its guiding light with the demise of the socialist dream. In entertaining fashion, MacCallum dissects the myths that made Australia: the idea of the Lucky Country, with endless pastures, a working man’s paradise, a new Britannia, and more. In newly uncertain times, MacCallum argues, Rudd has sought to tap into these myths, in the process reclaiming them from John Howard. Australian Story is both a canny assessment of the Rudd government’s election-winning approach and a broader meditation on the nation’s core traditions at a time of major change and challenge. “Rudd has made it clear that he is looking forward to a long time in office … If the polls are to be believed, he is still seen as the best man for the job by an overwhelming majority of Australians. But Why? What is it about this repetitive, boring, God-bothering nerd that appeals to the proverbially laid-back, cynical, disengaged public?” Mungo Maccallum, Australian Story Mungo MacCallum is one of Australia’s most influential political journalists. Over a career spanning more than four decades, he has worked for most of Australia’s leading newspapers and magazines and been a journalist and broadcaster for the ABC and SBS. His books include Mungo: The Man Who Laughs, How To Be a Megalomaniac and Poll Dancing: The Story of the 2007 Election. Quarterly Essay presents significant contributions to the general debate. Each issue contains a single essay written at a length of about 25,000 words. It aims to present the widest range of political, intellectual and cultural opinion. Contents: 1 – Australian Story: Kevin Rudd and the Lucky Country Mungo MacCallum 69 – Is Neo-Liberalism Finished?: 2009 Quarterly Essay Lecture Robert Manne 93 – Correspondence “Radical Hope” Christine Nicholls, Chris Sarra, Tony Abbott, Peter Shergold, Peter Sutton, Fred Chaney, Jane Caro, Andrew Leigh, Noel Pearson 137 - Contributors
Author
Mungo Wentworth MacCallum (21 December 1941 – 9 December 2020) was an Australian political journalist and commentator. From the 1970s to the 1990s he covered Australian federal politics from the Canberra Press Gallery for The Australian, The National Times, The Sydney Morning Herald, Nation Review and radio stations 2JJ / Triple J and 2SER. He wrote political commentary for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) current affairs and news analysis program The Drum, frequently wrote for the magazine The Monthly, and contributed political commentary to Australia's national Community Radio Network, columns for the Byron Shire Echo and The Northern Star, and a weekly cryptic crossword for The Saturday Paper. He also authored several books, including Run, Johnny, Run, written after the 2004 Australian federal election. His autobiographical narrative of the Australian political scene, Mungo: the man who laughs – has been reprinted four times. How To Be A Megalomaniac or, Advice to a Young Politician was published in 2002, and Political Anecdotes was published in 2003. In December 2004, Duffy & Snellgrove published War and Pieces: John Howard's last election.
