Queensland

3. Fitzgerald et al., Made in Queensland (11 Feb 2023)

by kurto

Narrates politics and government from formation in 1859 to the early 2000s, lamenting the persistent, centrifugal influence of such industries as ranching, sugar, and mining while emphasizing education and the arts in a state not known for such disciplines. The book often reads as a historicist critique, for example failure to sooner adopt 20th-century voting standards – notwithstanding the Sunshine State and Australia being in the world’s vanguard. Left unexplored are such matters as how the Australian Labor Party’s assumption of party supremacy over parliamentarians became Peter Beattie-era ‘consultative government’ or why ‘primary industries’ and country regions have retained influence despite two-thirds of the citizens coming to live in the southeast portion of the state (‘imagined ruralism’ lacking explanatory rigor).
Of note:
• In the late 1800s, the bias toward inland rails, rather than coastal connections, evinced opposition to Brisbane interests
• Queensland uniquely favored importing islanders, running contrary to white Australian policy – notably favored by the ALP as a means of raising wages
• The period 1903-15 marked a political sea change, including such innovations as industrial wages arbitration, as the state reacted to 1893’s depression with ‘New Liberalism’ – the state fostering equality of opportunity – as well as Federation
• During the Depression, the Labor government funded infrastructure without upending the primary industries, in part because the ALP was strongest in the country districts. The party believed regionalization had helped sidestep some urban hardships of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia
• Queensland modernized in the postwar era: railway mileage exploded; suburbs were retrofitted for utilities and sewage; motels were popular as women’s holidays. Politically, the state was isolated from Australia by the reactionary, sleazy Bjelke-Petersen government (to 1988). More specifically, Brisbane’s 1987 Fitzgerald policy-corruption industry offset the 1982 Commonwealth Games and 1988’s World Expo
From the 1990s, globalization (as if international competition was a new economic phenomenon) changed public policy from regionalization to neoliberal rationalization, as evidenced in the closing of state schools in small towns. Fly-in, fly-out employment took root. At last a falsifiable thesis, if minimally unexplored. The book lacks an analytical structure to underpin the state’s character. (On the policy side, schools and the arts are perpetually underfunded, and reconciliation is always exacerbated, unfinished; there is no discussion of sport, especially rugby league.)
It seems the continuing role of primary industries as well as tourism reflect the scale of revenue and employment, which along with expansive landmass countervails Brisbane; the state has continuously attracted intranational migration; and citizens are consciously proud of their work and lifestyle.

See also: http://www.oeler.us/2021/07/07/19-gorman-heartland-30-oct-2020/

19. Gorman, Heartland (30 Oct 2020)

by kurto

            Narrates Queensland’s rising fortunes in Australian rugby league since 1980, asserting an underdog mentality and ‘racial reconciliation’ are mainly responsible the state’s pulling level with New South Wales. Though Queensland’s traditional game, closely associated with Labor and Catholic schools such as Brothers, league inevitably lost its best players south, mirroring professional migration in business, the arts, and politics. Upon debut, State of Origin, reclaiming locals for the languishing interstate series, was an instant sensation. The 1982 Commonwealth Games and 1988 Expo also boosted Queensland’s self-esteem. In the 1990s, commercial development north of the border gathered momentum through the brash Brisbane Broncos and later the regionally iconic North Queensland Cowboys. But concentration undermined Queensland’s country clubs and regional competitions, Brisbane being closer to Sydney than Townsville, and in 1997 rival professional codes nearly sundered the sport nationally. Team culture (including consistency of selections); a succession of iconic players and coaches including Artie Beetson, Mal Meniga, Alf Langer, Darren Lockyer, Jonathan Thurston, Wayne Bennett, and Meniga again; and more black players in the team explain the Maroons’ series dominance. ‘Us versus them’ is colorfully explicated; racial reconciliation raises more questions than answers. The book would benefit from a broader purview, for example league in the context of Australian sport or Queensland culture contrasted with other Australian states (not simply Sydney).