Cirrus@Austlit

'Birth is a throw of the dice. The consequences last a lifetime.

'We like to think of Australia as the land of the 'fair go', a land of choice and equal opportunity. But behind the facade of meritocracy lies an uncomfortable truth: much of your life is already decided by the lottery of where you are born and who you are born to. Entrenched inter-generational poverty, like the property of the wealthy, can be handed down from parent to child.

'With one in eight adults and one in six children living below the poverty line in Australia, Glyn Davis asks the question: If life is a game of chance, what responsibility do those who are given a head start have to look after those less fortunate?'

Source : publisher's blurb

'Hugh Stretton knew he was a lucky man – someone born well in the lottery of life. Born in 1924, he came into a thoughtful family with a strong record of public service. He was educated at fine private schools and excelled in his arts and legal studies at the University of Melbourne. When war intervened, Stretton served in the navy for three years without suffering injury and then won a Rhodes scholarship before completing his undergraduate qualifications.' (Introduction)

'Every year an oration honours former Australian prime minister Sir Robert Menzies. Over decades, education leaders from Cambridge and Oxford, Harvard, Manchester and Dublin, alongside speakers from numerous Australian universities, have taken the platform to celebrate the role of Sir Robert Menzies in shaping Australia’s higher education.'  (Introduction)

'Art speaks to its moment, and our own. We rummage through familiar plays and books, images and songs, apparently secure in our understanding. Then the times shift ever so slightly and new readings appear.'  (Publication abstract)

'There was excitement. David Marr, newly appointed editor of the National Times at just thirty-three, had agreed to speak with politics students on campus. Volunteers were dispatched to buy the obligatory felafel and cheese, plastic cups, and cask wine, and at 3 pm the famous journalist arrived to address a small but enthusiastic group of undergraduates.' (Introduction)

'Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second-rate people who share its luck. It lives on other peoples ideas, and, although its ordinary people are adaptable, most of its leaders (in all fields) so lack curiosity about the events that surround then that they are often taken by surprise.'

'This tough minded verdict by Donald Horne, central to The Lucky Country, lost its force over time. Speech-makers quote the tagline but not the stinging judgement it introduced. Shorn of irony, criticism became affirmation.' (Introduction)

'The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, created in 1932 and reconstructed in 1983, is a public-funded national broadcasting organisation. It was established to provide a comprehensive, innovative and impartial radio and television service for all Australians.' (Abstract introduction)