Allan James “Jim” Baker, who has died aged 94, was one of Australia’s more interesting philosophers, intellectuals, and gadflies. He was a prominent member of the Sydney Push, the Bohemian intellectual circle that met in Sydney’s city and inner-city pubs from the late 1940s.
The government’s decision to abolish 457 visas, its indeterminate references to “reviews” of skilled immigration policy, and the uncertainty of transitional arrangements is madness.
Philippe Paquet’s Simon Leys Navigator Between Worlds is the first book length biography of the author, sinologist, and critic Pierre Ryckmans (1935-2014) who published under the pseudonym Simon Leys. A splendid achievement, on literary, philosophical, historical, and interpretative perspectives, this is arguably the finest ever account of any Australian.
Thank you, Gerard and all, for the opportunity to briefly speak to you and your colleagues on the Australia Defence Association (ADA).
As Australian labour history goes, Robert Murray’s The Split (1970) on the tumultuous splits in the mid-1950s, is only rivalled by H.V. Evatt’s Australian Labour Leader (1942), a sympathetic account of the life, disillusionment and failures of one of the movement’s pioneers, one-time NSW Labor Premier William Arthur Holman who ratted on the ALP in 1917.
I cannot give you an update on the lunch I’m afraid. I’ve just been told to keep going. I can assure you however that if when I ran for General Secretary of the Labor party in 1983, if I’d been victorious, you’d all have a three-course meal! [Audience laughter]
John (“Johno’) Richard Johnson, shop assistant, union leader, politician, raffler of puddings, chocolates, Melbourne Cup sweeps – anything for a quid for the ALP – passed last Wednesday morning from a world which had long failed to understand him.
Michael Danby is a passionate man, unusual for today’s breed of careful, calculating, uncontroversial politicians. He takes up causes. His exuberance can stun, occasionally his choice of words eviscerates. There is something unnerving about a character that calls on the rest of us to think.
The Show, sub-titled Another Side of Santamaria’s Movement, is authored by Mark Aarons with the assistance of John Grenville, a one-time enthusiast and activist in, turned fierce opponent of, Bob Santamaria’s anti-communist campaign.
Race Mathews new book on Catholic influence – once prominent now largely faded – on the ALP in Victoria is a fascinating story.