Political Science: Critical Reviews of News Items Assignment

This assignment presents three short answer critical reviews of Australian political news items from different weeks. The first review analyzes the response of Prime Minister Morrison to a comment made by Richard Di Natale, contrasting it with Carson's critique of the political system's handling of environmental issues. The second review examines the trade deal discussions between Turnbull and May, alongside McDougall's perspective on the complexities of Brexit's impact on Australia. Finally, the assignment reviews Gillard's white paper on Australia in the Asian Century, comparing it with Johnson et al.'s arguments about Australia's ambivalent view of Asia. Each review summarizes the news item, identifies the key arguments, and critiques them using relevant scholarly readings, providing a comprehensive analysis of the topics.

Critical Review: Week 5
Morrison, S. (2018) Response to Richard Di Natale question without notice, Question Time,
Parliament of Australia, 26 November 2018.
Carson, L. (2011) Dilemmas, disasters and deliberative democracy, Griffith Review Edition 32:
Wicked Problems, Exquisite Dilemmas, May 2011.
Morrison (2018) is a response to Richard Di Natale’s comment in the senate about certain
senator acting like a “pig.” This comment came after Barry O’Sullivan and some other senators
continued harrassing the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young with sexist remarks. Di Natale
admonished the Liberal party senators in the senate for continuing for weeks to target his female
colleague. Morrison, the Prime Minister, found this behavior on part of the Greens senator
questionable and called him out for it.
Carson (2011) has written a criticism of the present political system from the point of view
of addressing certain crucial questions of the environment. He argues that while there is a great
amount of eagerness among the public to pressurize the government on the issue of the
environment, both the media and the parliament act (as in the case of 2010 when there were massive
public protests) to suppress this popular opinion in favor of the status quo. He argues that even a
party like the Greens, which has come up with the mandate of representing environmental politics
in the parliament, reneges on the popular mandate at such times. Thus, this is an indictment of the
righteous stand which Senators Hanson-Young and Di Natale took in the parliament as shown
above. Carson is arguing that even when they have an opportunity, the Greens senators fail to act,
and are only adept at blaming the other parties for not taking their opinion seriously.

Critical Review: Week 6
Turnbull, M and May, T. (2017) Turnbull and May confident of free trade deal, The Guardian, 11
July 2017.
Derek McDougall (2016) Australia and Brexit: Déjà Vu All Over Again? The Round
Table, 105:5, 557-572.
In the above article, Turnbull & May (2017), Theresa May argues that the UK and Australia
have been allies in fostering each other’s growth, and will continue to do so positively after the
successful Brexit negotiations, while Turnbull notes how they were the first to approach the UK
with a trade agreement post-Brexit. At the same time, Turnbull expresses Australia’s inclination
towards a trade agreement with the European Union.
McDougall (2016, p.559) had observed at an early stage that Australia would need to look
into the possibilities of having trade negotiations with both the EU as well as the UK. However,
McDougall has rightly warned that the nature of this trilateral co-operation would depend deeply
upon the various possible forms which Brexit takes. While May is confident that it will be a
successful transition, McDougall is not. For example, he alludes to the co-operation between
Australia and New Zealand as a model of regional co-operation between countries for the European
states to consider (p.565). Furthermore, McDougall is interested in understanding the underlying
significance of Brexit, which he doesn’t consider far-right populism; this would be crucial in
determining the future of Australia-UK relations (p.570-571). Thus, McDougall is critical of a
seamless establishment of the new deal.

Critical Review: Week 7
Gillard, J. (2012) In Conversation: Australia in Asian Century White Paper, The Lowy Institute. 21
November 2012.
Johnson, C., Ahluwalia, P., and Gregg, T. (2010) Australia's Ambivalent Re-imagining of
Asia, Australian Journal of Political Science, 45:1, 59-74.
The main argument which Gilliard (2012) wishes to make in this white paper is that it has
become well established that the coming era would be characterized by the ascendance of Asia in
world politics. Therefore, she argues, Australia would also need to strategically align its policy to be
a part in this regional ascendance. The white paper goes on to show for various sectors – agrarian,
manufacture, services – the emergence of Asia, the state of present co-operation, and possibilities of
future shift in policy.
Johnson et al. (2010) argue that Asia has always had a double role to play in Australia’s
regional discourse: on the one hand, it has excited fear among Australians as a power capable of
overshadowing itself; on the other, it has also signified hope as a domain which could provide
stability. Partly, they argue, the hope is also fed into by the fear (p.64). Prime Minister’s white paper
appers to possess a hope superficially: she congratulates the emergence of the Asian economies in
global dominance, and shows hope in closer co-operation. However, underlying this hope can also
be seen a fear. For example, the fear of falling out of the raw materials and energy trade-off among
the emergent Asian economies. Hence, Johnson et al. are correct in arguing that Australia’s fate is
irrevocably linked with that of Asia.

References
Carson, L. (2011) Dilemmas, disasters and deliberative democracy, Griffith Review Edition 32:
Wicked Problems, Exquisite Dilemmas, May 2011.
Derek McDougall (2016) Australia and Brexit: Déjà Vu All Over Again? The Round
Table, 105:5, 557-572.
Gillard, J. (2012) In Conversation: Australia in Asian Century White Paper, The Lowy Institute. 21
November 2012.
Johnson, C., Ahluwalia, P., and Gregg, T. (2010) Australia's Ambivalent Re-imagining of
Asia, Australian Journal of Political Science, 45:1, 59-74.
Morrison, S. (2018) Response to Richard Di Natale question without notice, Question Time,
Parliament of Australia, 26 November 2018.
Turnbull, M and May, T. (2017) Turnbull and May confident of free trade deal, The Guardian, 11
July 2017.