This is an essay about “quarry vision”, the mindset that sees Australia’s greatest asset as its mineral and energy resources – coal especially. How has this distorted our national politics and our response to climate change? What happens now that our coal-fired resources boom has gone bust? In this powerful essay about the national interest, Guy Pearse discusses the future of the coal industry and argues with the economic orthodoxy. He exposes the shadowy world of greenhouse lobbyists; how they think, operate and skin cats. Quarry vision, he argues, is a carbon-laced trap and a blind faith and a mentality we can no longer afford.

This book explores the global financial crisis, its social implications and its potential outcomes for Australia. It examines neo-liberalism and economic rationalism, and discusses their consequences. After the GFC, how might we rethink the challenge of climate change, of care, of quality of life more generally? What is the proper role of the market? What parts of the social fabric need to be mended to create a more sustainable, fairer Australia? Contributors: Kevin Rudd, Robert Manne, Jean Curthoys, John Quiggin, Michael Pusey, Anne Manne, David McKnight, Ian Lowe, Guy Pearse.

In 1835 an illegal squatter camp was established on the banks of the Yarra River. In defiance of authorities in London and Sydney, Tasmanian speculators began sending men and sheep across Bass Strait - and so changed the shape of Australian history. Before the founding of Melbourne, British settlement on the mainland amounted to a few pinpoints on a map. Ten years later, it had become a sea of red. In 1835 James Boyce brings this pivotal moment to life. He traces the power plays in Hobart, Sydney and London, the key personalities of Melbourne's early days, and the haunting questions raised by what happened when the land was opened up. He conjures up the Australian frontier - its complexity, its rawness and the way its legacy is still with us today.

This book provides an analysis of the impact of the climate crisis on corporate law and theory in the coming decades as the world seeks to meet the target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Net zero targets are a particular challenge for an economy such as Australia which has a historical reliance on fossil fuels, and powerful interests arguing for the continued use of coal and gas. The book examines four recent corporate case studies in Australia. The first two follow the Adani group of companies and coal in Queensland and Rio Tinto and the destruction of ancient rock shelters in the midst of iron ore mining in WA. The book then covers the pension fund member Mark McVeigh, issuing proceedings against REST super in relation to long-run investment decisions and the need to take into account climate risk. Finally, it discusses Sharma, a representative action taken by school children against the Federal government in relation to expansion plans in relation to fossil fuels alleging breach of the duty of care. These case studies highlight some of the key trends and challenges in the intersection between corporate activity and the need to account for climate risk and adaptation, with Australia as a G20 economy having much to contribute to the global debate. The book will be of interest to students and researchers in the field of climate and environmental law, as well as corporate law and theory.

In Power Shift, Hugh White considers Australia’s future between Beijing and Washington. As the power balance shifts, and China’s infl uence grows, what might this mean for our nation? Throughout our history, we have counted fi rst on British then on American primacy in Asia. Now the rise of China as an economic powerhouse challenges US dominance and raises questions for Australia that go well beyond diplomacy and trade – questions about our place in the world, our loyalties and our long-term security. Will China replace the US as regional leader? If so, we will be dealing with an undemocratic and vastly more powerful nation. Will China wield its power differently from the US? If so, should we continue to support America and so divide Asia between our biggest ally and our biggest trading partner? How to defi ne the national interest in the Asian century? This visionary essay considers the shape of the world to come and the implications for Australia as it seeks to carve out a place in the new world order. “This year China overtook Japan to become the world’s second-biggest economy. It is already bigger, relative to the US, than the Soviet Union ever was during the Cold War. A Chinese challenge to American power in Asia is no longer a future possibility but a current reality. Few issues are more important to Australia’s future than how this plays out. You would not know it to listen to our leaders.” —Hugh White, Power Shift

Military and civilian organizations in the past have attempted to understand culture and the cultural environment of conflict zones through anthropology. While there is a small and growing number of studies examining the use of anthropology for counterinsurgency, no studies have compared the Anglo-Saxon ABCA Armies' approaches to understanding cultural factors for counterinsurgency and civil-military operations.Crisis of Cultural Intelligence: The Anthropology of civil-military Operations thus represents a timely investigation into a number of issues regarding the past and present relationship between militarized anthropology, settler colonialism, and Indigenous militancy and the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which has internationalized the claim of encapsulated nations for equal rights. Covering issues such as the use of militarized anthropology in the Vietnam War and the controversial Human Terrain System (HTS) program used in Afghanistan, this book addresses the need for constructive and informed discussions about the nature and function of cultural data collection and analysis for counterinsurgency, peace-building, and conflict prevention operations.Crisis of Cultural Intelligence: The Anthropology of civil-military Operations is particularly important today, as cultural values and heritage continue to inform civil-military interventions of intrastate armed conflict amongst the people. Following the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, this book will provide some insights into how militaries will now need to look ahead and consider the types of conflicts they may become involved in.

Once the country believed itself to be the true face of Australia: sunburnt men and capable women raising crops and children, enduring isolation and a fickle environment, carrying the nation on their sturdy backs. For almost 200 years after white settlement began, city Australia needed the country: to feed it, to earn its export income, to fill the empty land, to provide it with distinctive images of the nation being built in the great south land. But Australia no longer rides on the sheep’s back, and since the 1980s, when “economic rationalism” became the new creed, the country has felt abandoned, its contribution to the nation dismissed, its historic purpose forgotten. In Fair Share, Judith Brett argues that our federation was built on the idea of a big country and a fair share, no matter where one lived. We also looked to the bush for our legends and we still look to it for our food. These are not things we can just abandon. In late 2010, with the country independents deciding who would form federal government, it seemed that rural and regional Australia’s time had come again. But, as Murray-Darling water reform shows, the politics of dependence are complicated. The question remains: what will be the fate of the country in an era of user-pays, water cutbacks, climate change, droughts and flooding rains? What are the prospects for a new compact between country and city in Australia in the twenty-first century? ‘Once the problems of the country were problems for the country as a whole. But then government stepped back ... The problems of the country were seen as unfortunate for those affected but not likely to have much impact on the rest of Australia. The agents of neoliberalism cut the country loose from the city and left it to fend for itself.’ Judith Brett, Fair Share ‘Brett is one of our most experienced and sober commentators on currents in the conservative/rural stream, and always deserves a hearing. Fair Share gives a clear and solid account on how we have come to focus on the Big Country as a problem.’ —The Canberra Times ‘A clear and compelling account of how the country went from being a key source of the nation’s economy, pride and sense of self, to a problem that needs to be addressed.’ —The Week ‘An unalloyed expose of the plight of those who live in the countryside.’ —Ross Fitzgerald, The Australian

In The Happy Life, David Malouf returns to one of the most fundamental questions and gives it a modern twist: what makes for a happy life? With grace and profundity, Malouf discusses new and old ways to talk about contentment and the self. In considering the happy life – what it is, and what makes it possible – he returns to the “highest wisdom” of the classics, looks at how, thanks to Thomas Jefferson’s way with words, happiness became a “right”, and examines joy in the flesh as depicted by Rubens and Rembrandt. In a world become ever larger and impersonal, he fi nds happiness in an unlikely place. This is an essay to savour and reflect upon by one of Australia’s greatest novelists. “How is it, when the chief sources of human unhappiness, of misery and wretchedness, have largely been removed from our lives ... that happiness still eludes so many of us? ... What is it in us, or in the world we have created, that continues to hold us back?” —David Malouf, The Happy Life

Responding to the global flowering of commitment to environmental issues, this handbook shows activists and citizens how to pressure governments and businesses to create a framework for large and rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. With examples of climate-action movements in the United States, the UK, and Australia, this manual draws inspiration from these successes. In presenting these positive case studies of grassroots social movements that brought about change, the guide refutes the myths disseminated by vested interests and the greenhouse mafia who are trying to undermine effective action.

For the first time in history, humans sit unchallenged at the top of the food chain. As we encroach on the wild and a vast wave of extinctions gathers force, how has our relationship with animals changed? In this dazzling essay, Anna Krien investigates the world we have made and the complexity of the choices we face. From pets to the live cattle trade, from apex predators to scientific experiments, Krien shows how we should – and do – treat our fellow creatures. As she delves deeper, she finds that animals can trigger primal emotions in us, which we are often unwilling to acknowledge. This is a clear-eyed meditation on humanity and animality, us and them, that brings out the importance of animals in an unforgettable way. “I am not weighing up whether our treatment of animals is just, because it isn’t. That age-old debate is a farce – deep down we all know it. The real question is, just how much of this injustice are we prepared to live with?” —Anna Krien, Us and Them