An excellent and easy to follow introduction to Australian Politics.

Publisher:	Milton, Queensland : Wiley Publishing Australia Pty Ltd, [2010]
ISBN:	9781742169828
Characteristics:	xviii, 339 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.
Source:	YPRL

For a great introduction to the topic, Australian Politics for Dummies, is an easy and enjoyable read. It covers the history and structure very well. Each political party is covered in enough detail, but the book is showing its age here as some the the party dynamics have changed.

I think how the elections and preferential selection work could have been better explained with some diagrams, although the text is easy to follow.

The Power of Tens

A fine end to the book, shorts lists of notable politicians and some significant speeches.

Politicians

Politicians are the first list of ten that the book gives, and some very interesting examples. Pauline Hanson is probably the most controversial addition, she represents the “working” people’s views which many don’t like.

• John Christian Watson (1867-1941)
• John Curtin (1885-1945)
• Robert Menzies (1894-1978)
• Gough Whitlam (1916-2014)
• Malcolm Fraser (1930-2015)
• Bob Hawke (1929-2019)
• John Howard (b.1939)
• Don Chipp (1925-2006)
• Bob Brown (b.1944)
• Pauline Hanson (b.1955)

Speeches

The book mentions some memorable speeches that are worth a listen to, if only they could be found. Some are on YouTube and others only links could be located.

Speech Links

The following speeches don’t appear to have the audio or video version anywhere,