This book aspired to document the economic and social reforms of the Hawke-Keating era, to analyse the origins of the reform age in its economic and cultural dimensions and to claim this period as a historic turning point because of its repudiation of the protection and regulation that had been the Australian orthodoxy since Federation. The opening sentence summarised the theme: “The story of the 1980s is the attempt to remake the Australian political tradition.”
Kelly had begun work on the book after the 1987 election and over five years he conducted dozens of interviews with the main politicians, advisers and policy leaders. The book sought to capture the policy revolutions underway in both the Labor and Liberal parties and in the wider culture. It was the historical framing of the 1980s that drew much of the initial response to the book.
The argument was that the five pillars that had defined the Australian Settlement from the inception of nationhood – White Australia, Industry Protection, Wage Arbitration, State Paternalism and Imperial Benevolence – were being demolished in a decisive transition. The book was launched by the Governor-General, Bill Hayden, at the National Press Club. It is probably still the book for which the author is best known.
Reviews
“Quickly accepted as the most comprehensive account of Australian polity since that of Sir Keith Hancock half a century ago” – Ferdinand Mount, The Times Literary Supplement.
“A genuine tour de force…Paul Kelly’s masterpiece” – Robert Manne, Quadrant.
“The best account of the framework of 20th century Australian politics and economic policy I have read” – Max Suich.
“The great virtue of Kelly’ book is that it closes that chapter which was the 1980s. It is no longer a question of should we dissolve/preserve the Australian Settlement but what are we to do in the wake of its dissolution” – Gregory Melleuish.
“As Kelly says, this introspective, defensive, dependent framework is a crumbling legacy…I am inclined to agree almost entirely with Kelly….there is no doubt that his analysis is basically correct” – Paul Keating on The End of Certainty.
“Destined to be the definitive work on the period it covers and a reference source for years to come” – Senator Peter Walsh.
“He has talked to everyone and persuaded them to confide” – Professor Patrick Weller.
In its March 2004 issue the Australian Journal of Political Science conducted a symposium based on the ‘Australian Settlement’ thesis with contributions from a range of academics including Geoffrey Stokes, Judith Brett, Stuart Macintyre, Marian Sawer and Paul Smyth. In his contribution to the debate Kelly reiterated his thesis arguing it was more relevant than ever and that “the course of post-1980s politics cannot be comprehended adequately without this framework.” He said the underlying question in politics more than a decade later was “the tension between the new polity and the old political tradition of the Settlement.”
