" You just weave your message into everything you say, and by the time the public gets the message the journos and the pollies want to vomit because of the repetition, and you've heard yourself say it so many times you want to vomit too"

Attributed to Neville Wran, Premier of NSW 1976-1986, Pamela Williams, The Victory, Allen & Unwin, 1997, p. 35

Latest Papers

The working papers collection comprises historical papers as well as current ideas and works in progress on some of the major issues and topics of our times.

The Little Green Book (released 8 June 2021)
Don Russell’s “little green book” will be a heavily underlined bible on the desks of senior public servants, ministerial staff and policy makers.
» more
Champion (released 5 March 2021)
Mark Newman, 1967-2021
» more
"The Barbarity of our own Countrymen" (released 27 November 2020)
The ghost of Charles Throsby haunts south-west Sydney, the Illawarra, and the regions south to Lake George and west to Bathurst. He opposed the pattern of violence that would extend from Sydney to Tasmania and to the Port Phillip district (Victoria). The words of his Glenfield Farm letter of 5 April, 1816 reflect on Australia' s original sins: of barbarous violence, appropriation of Aboriginal lands, environmental destruction and subjugation of Aboriginal culture.
» more
I Just See Life: A Conversation with Alex Podolinsky, 2006 (released 8 May 2020)
This conversation with Alex Podolinsky was never released. I can't remember whether it was Alex or I that felt it needed a bit more work. Now Alex is no longer with us I feel it is important to release it as it conveys something of his philosophy. Alex had a profound influence on Australian agriculture and he held true to Steiner's original biodynamic principles that were lost in Europe and had to be re-imported. He is sorely missed.
» more
Milliya Rumara: Reflections and Homage, 30 Years On (released 28 March 2020)
“Bran Nue Dae” is kriol, pidgin spelling. There were so many different nationalities aboard the pearling luggers of late nineteenth and twentieth century Broome that a dialect had to emerge. Not only did a dialect emerge but so too did a unique cultural creativity that was busting at the seams to talk about justice, life and freedom. That is what is at the heart of Bran Neu Dae, perhaps Australia’s greatest musical ever written to date.
» more
Working Papers 2006-2020 (released 18 January 2020)
Bushfire reflections on fourteen years of working papers, reports and writing.
» more
Stephen "Bamba" Albert (1950-2019): Patron Saint of Broome (released 18 January 2020)
Stephen “Bamba” Albert was a giant on whose shoulders we are all carried.
» more
Ancient Future: The "Kakadu Plum" Story, Food and Knowledge from Aboriginal Australia for the Twenty First Century (released 7 January 2020)
Kakadu plum (Terminalia ferdinandiana) which is known as gubinge, madoorr, madoorroo (Bardi), garbiny (Yawuru), kabinyn (Nyul Nyul), marnybi (Wadeye), nghul nghul, manhmohpan, murunga (East, Central, North East Arnhem) \äṉ’ka-bakarra (North East Arnhem) and colloquially “billy goat plum”, has come, correctly, to be labelled, as a `’super food` but it is much more than that.1 Of all Australian native fruits the chemistry of the kakadu fruit and tree has multi-various therapeutic and bio-active applications for world food, medical, bio-security, beauty, health and manufacturing industries. For the many Northern Aboriginal worlds this borum (bush fruit) symbolizes a strength, vitality and healthfulness of an ancient world that for the first time, the modern world, has come to recognise and seeks in great quantities.
» more
My Island Home - the origins (released 27 September 2019)
In 1995 Mrs. P. B. Burarrwaŋa and the students of Gatirri School, Mata Mata illustrated a song that she and her nephew George had written and reflected on. It was all about their homeland and the life they led in North East Arnhem land and the islands of the Arafura sea.
» more
Just a Woman from the Bush (released 23 September 2019)
A Tribute to Ḻiya-ŋärra’mirri - Mrs. P. B. Burarrwaŋa, July 2 1956 – December 19 2018 & Goŋ-gurtha Mrs. A. M.M. Burarrwaŋa, circa 1954-2019
» more

Pages