Former prime minister, Tony Abbott, is bringing out a book in October. The book is Australia: a History, and the words on the front cover are 'From Convict Colony to Great Democracy'. The cover illustration looks like Sydney Cove, circa 1800 and there is to be a foreword from eminent historian, Geoffrey Blainey.
None of that is a surprise but we'll wait to read the book before passing judgement. 'This book is intended', the blurb says, 'to give anyone interested - as every Australian should be - an account of our past that's positive, while not oblivious to our mistakes and imperfections as a nation. If to be an Australian is still to have won the lottery of life, the history that's produced us is surely something to savour.'
Pre-savouring, we have a fascinating podcast from 7 May, on the website of former Nationals Deputy Prime Minister, John Anderson. Anderson and Abbott have a lively chat, perhaps edited later to include cutaways of Anderson listening to Abbott in full flow. The two of them are almost entirely on the same wavelength, though, once or twice, the viewer gets the impression that Anderson might be egging Abbott on, even taking the Abbott piss.
Abbott needs very little encouragement. This blast sets the tone: 'There has been a war on our culture for the best part of 50 years. The long march of the Left through the institutions is essentially a war against Anglo-Celtic culture ... and the Judeo-Christian ethic' (marks 0.01, 52.15).
Anderson takes up the theme: 'I'm a sixth-generation Australian. I've been here a long time and my family has been enmeshed with the country for a long time ... I'm passionate about what we've achieved. We've made our mistakes but we've achieved a great deal.' (mark 10.52)
'We need to resist the attack on our culture', Abbott says, 'just as Indigenous people are praised if they want to protect and preserve what they see as their culture ... [I]t's surely right for people like us to protect and preserve the Australian version of English-speaking civilisation in turn; I would argue perhaps the finest flowering of Western civilisation more generally ... It's our patrimony, it's our heritage, it's us.' (mark 52.30)
Abbott and Anderson turn to Anzac. 'What would the Anzacs think of us?', Anderson asks. 'Well, they would shake their head in bewilderment', Abbott responds, 'at things like gender fluidity, cultural self-loathing, Magic Pudding economics, the virus hysteria that we lived through for two years, the climate cult. I think so many of our forebears would wonder what madness had taken over.' (mark 53.20)
Anderson continues about Australians who died in two major wars 'so that you [Australians today] could be free'. He complains that Australians in 2025, 'won't muscle up to the internal challenges or the external challenges'. Abbott agrees: 'Freedom should be an opportunity to be our best selves and not an opportunity to be weak and self-indulgent.' (mark 54.00)
In response, we could ask what those Anzacs, huddled in their trenches at Gallipoli or on the Somme, would have thought if they had known the history of their Wide Brown Land. Would they have wondered whether that land was worth all that blood, sweat and tears? Did they know they were dying to protect a 'patrimony' wrung from First Nations people?
We recommend a close listen to the Abbott-Anderson podcast for what it says about Anglo-Celtic - yesterday's - Australia. There are also some interesting comments on the election.
We picked up a few more gems, but here is just one:
Abbott: Sure, some things we've got wrong, no doubt about that. But, fundamentally, what happened subsequent to the 26th of January 1788 was a very good thing ... That was the moment when so much that is good, so much that Aboriginal people today enjoy, first came to this ancient continent: the rule of law, concepts of human rights, notions of equality, the idea that everyone had a duty to everyone else. These were all things that were completely foreign to ancient Australia. Sure, I guess the Aboriginal clans inevitably ceded sovereignty and much possession to the newcomers but what happened was a vastly better society and a vastly better way of life for everyone, including the descendants of the original inhabitants (mark 39.40; emphasis added).
'Inevitably ceded sovereignty'; that's one way of putting it. 'Completely foreign to ancient Australia'; really?
Tony Abbott's current term on the Australian War Memorial Council expires in September. He may, of course, get another term, as he did in 2022.
Picture credit: detail of cover of Tony Abbott, Australia: a History.
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