Top 10 events of the decade
I confess to being a complete sucker for an end of year list. So let's finish 2009 with a look back over the decade, and a question: what were Australia's ten most significant events of the noughties. Here are my suggestions, in no particular order and with the disclaimer that it's by no means exhaustive - not even close:
1 - 2000 Sydney Olympics: Australia staged what arguably remains the best modern-day Olympiad, finally killing off any lingering sense of 'cultural cringe' with a fun-filled showcase that set the gold standard for other host cities.
2 - 9/11: John Howard, the then prime minister, was in Washington on that dreadful day and thereafter offered unwavering support for the Bush administration's War on Terror. Australian diggers were dispatched first to Afghanistan and then Iraq. At home, anti-terror legislation was minted in law, and security was noticeably tightened in the major cities and at airports. Many returning Australians, who left before 2001, reckon that their homeland has become a lot more authoritarian as a result (comments please), as well as more watchful and suspicious.
3 - The Bali bombing 2002: 88 Australians were killed after the explosion of three separate bombs in a murderous plot executed by Jemaah Islamiah. As Clive James wrote at the time: 'The shock wave from the car-bomb outside the nightclub in Kuta Beach in Bali went all the way to Australia in a matter of minutes.'
4 - The continued rise of China: it helps explains the big economic story of the past decade, a remarkable 10 years of recession-free growth for Australia. Of course, Australia helped make it own luck, with a tightly-regulated banking system, and what many economic commentators would say was fiscal responsibility of the Howard government.
5 - John Howard's fourth election victory in 2004: with control of the Senate as well as the House of Representatives, John Howard pushed through his unpopular WorkChoices legislation, a key factor in his ultimate defeat. During his fourth term, he also mounted the federal takeover of the Murray-Darling river system, a major change to federal/state relations, and announced the controversial Northern Territory National Emergency Response. He also refused to stand down in favour of Peter Costello, and the failure to put in place a succession plan until it was too late explains much of the present-day turmoil in the Liberal Party.
6 - The ongoing drought: in rural Australia, especially, the big story during the back half of the noughties was surely the Big Dry, the worst drought in a century. The big cities were hit as well, with tough water restrictions.
7 - The Sorry: Kevin Rudd's national apology to indigenous Australians for past injustices will surely be viewed by historians as the decade's single most important contribution to the ongoing process of reconciliation between white and black Australia.
8 - Black Saturday: the worst disaster in Australian peacetime history, which led to a rethink of how to respond to bushfires.
9 - Tampa crisis in 2001: the Tampa crisis, where the Australian navy blocked a boat which had rescued 438 Afghan asylum seekers, led to John Howard's controversial 'Pacific Solution'. The crisis also helped him win the 2001 election, thus reinforcing the view that being tough on asylum seekers yielded a big political dividend.
10 - Cronulla riot in 2005: most Australians were shocked by the ugly sight of a racially-motivated crowd going on the rampage in Cronulla, Sydney, targeting Australians of Middle Eastern background. A creeping Islamophibia was arguably stopped in its tracks.
Obviously, there's no shortage of noteworthy events- the election of Kevin Rudd, for one. The global financial crisis has also demonstrated the resilience of 'the Australian model'.
Perhaps the fact that Chinese immigrants have just overtaken new arrivals from the UK and New Zealand might come to be viewed as a major turning point in terms of Australia's changing demography.
Perhaps we might one day speak of Cate Blanchett's Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire, for it produced yet more evidence that the cultural cringe has been replaced by the cultural creep.
Perhaps it will be the introduction of a new broadband network, which will make Australia more wired. Lots of options. I would love to hear yours...
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