Essays for Australia Volume 3

13 September 2023

Our constitutional founders are on trial. Edmund Barton, Samuel Griffith and, most recently, Alfred Deakin are under the spotlight for their contribution to Australia’s racist past. Talk of removing Barton’s statue and renaming Griffith and Deakin universities; all are now in the mix. But such talk is misguided, making sacrificial lambs of long-dead politicians when the real spotlight should be