Shocks, alchemy and John Howard’s ‘long shadow’ have shaped 21st century Australian politics

It says something not too flattering about Australian politics that respected academic Paul Strangio’s new book The Alchemy of Leadership only discusses 21st century prime ministers, but still needs to cover seven of them .

Or eight, if you count Kevin Rudd twice.

A possible reason for this volatility, according to the latest book by award-winning political journalist George Megalogenis, is three poorly handled “shocks”.

Three Shocks: Who We are Becoming in the 21st Century – George Megalogenis (Penguin) The Alchemy of Leadership: Seven Australian Prime Ministers in a Turbulent 21st Century – Paul Strangio (Melbourne University Press) Coincidentally, both authors describe their books as the conclusion of a trilogy.

Megalogenis is building on The Australian Moment (2012) and Australia’s Second Chance (2015).

Strangio is following Settling the Office (2016) and The Pivot of Power (2017), both co-written with Paul ’t Hart and James Walter.

Cosmopolitan Australia There is an interesting contrast in the way the two authors tell the story of recent Australian politics.

Strangio focuses on prime ministers.

Megalogenis puts more weight on external trends.

He draws on his interviews with the four most recent prime ministers, but makes extensive, at times excessive, use of demographic and electoral data.

His eponymous “three shocks” are: for the first time since federation, we have a population that’s majority migrants and their children; professional women are now the largest segment of the workforce, replacing blue-collar men; and on the world stage, both our allies and our key trade partners have proven unreliable.

Megalogenis argues the traditional parties of government have been slow to come to terms with the implications of these shocks.

Labor has adapted better than the coalition parties and the crossbench better still.

Megalogenis comments that, when these shocks occurred in the new millenium, the federal parliament was largely “suspended in a white-bloke past”.