Issue 1 - May 2006 > Institute of Advanced Studies: The University of Western Australia

Critics Old and New - David Ritter

The Critic, a journal of the University of Western Australia which was published from 1961 to 1970, was a local manifestation of a national feeling of deepening unease. Today, Australian liberal culture of the right, left and centre, is again contesting a status quo that seems to some to be both sterile and malignant...

Iron Filings - Cedric Davis

The mining industry as a whole employs more people and contributes more to the WA economy than any other. Mining infuses the identity and history of WA's people and is by far the dominant force affecting the State's political and socio-economic climate. Left or right, it doesn't matter in WA - one is pro-mining, the other is very-pro mining...

Homelessness - Max Beckerling

A decade since the election of the Howard government and, with an eighth successive Commonwealth budget surplus on the cards, it is an apt time to consider how Australiaâs homeless have fared...

Federal Electoral Reform - Gough Whitlam

Last year I was invited by the Western Australia Labor Lawyers to send a note of greeting to a dinner held in Perth on 11 November 2005 to mark the 30th anniversary of the successful conspiracy by Governor-General Kerr, Chief Justice Barwick and Opposition Leader Fraser to remove the Labor Government which had been reelected 18 months previously...

Landscape - Richard Woldendorp

The landscape has always meant a lot to me and more so as a professional landscape photographer. I have been attracted to the Australian landscape because of its size and subtle differences - a sense of wonderment, how it all came about, the evolution of the landscape. Like the rest of the world it has gone through many stages to be what it is today â uniquely Australian...

Seek Wisdom - Richard Bosworth

âSeek wisdomâ â when you think about it a curious motto for UWA. Not make a profit, not find a job or a career or a lifestyle; not win victory, unity, national glory, gold medals or cleverness. âSeek wisdomâ. OKOK. Somewhere in the Bible there must be a line about seek and ye shall find and so an eventual status in the suburbs or the cemetery must be imaginable. But seek remains an active, even activist term, critical, unsatisfied, urging a life as a happening and not a thing, to steal a phrase from the historian, E.P. Thompson...

Chancellor's Inauguration Speech - Michael Chaney

It is a great honour for me to address you today at my inauguration as Chancellor of this distinguished institution...

George Seddon: in Retrospect - Belinda Probert

Cartoonists responded to Howardâs definition of Australian-ness by suggesting a National Identity Test that requires knowledge about the application of the LBW rule. Seddon might prefer us to know the difference between a boab and a banksia tree. But his is no simple environmental nationalism, even if he does give us many reasons to think twice about planting Mexican poppies or other exotic garden âescapeesâ. Indeed, kookaburras are as invasive and destructive in Perth as lantana in the north-east of the continent...

The Ins and (absence of?) Outs of the Occupation in Iraq - Bryn Dodson

On 1 May a forum was held at the University of Western Australia entitled âPost-Invasion Iraq: Exploring the Ethics of Troop Withdrawal.â The forum posed the critical question: given that the invasion and occupation of Iraq has occurred, what should happen next? The three speakers were the United States Consul-General in Perth, Ms. Robin McClellan, and two UWA academics, historian Professor Norman Etherington and political-scientist Associate Professor Samina Yasmeen...

The Intellectuals and their Ideas: Reviews of events by Robert Manne and Frank Moorhouse - Michael Ondaatje

Let me start by congratulating the organisers of the 2006 UWA Perth Writersâ Festival for bringing together such an impressive array of intellectual talent to discuss and debate some of the key political, cultural and social issues of our time â from sexual relations and âhappinessâ in an age of plenty to religious fundamentalism and national security in an age of terror. Several imposing international guests were in Perth this January to tackle issues of profound global importance, yet arguably it was the presentations of two local Australian commentators â the political scientist Robert Manne and the award-winning novelist Frank Moorhouse â that provoked the most discussion and debate...

Institute of Advanced Studies

Issue 1 - May 2006

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