HIST2227 Australian Political History

How HIST2227 is assessed

The four tasks total 100%. You are expected to attend all twelve tutorials, and more than two tutorial absences without an acceptable, documented reason may lead to a Fail (N) for the course. Late work loses 5% of the available marks for each working day and is not accepted after 10 working days; extensions are requested in writing through the Canvas portal before the due date. Check each assignment page on Canvas for current details.

Current HIST2227 dates

Dates are as published in the Semester 2, 2026 course outline. Confirm exact deadlines and submission settings in the live LMS.

What HIST2227 covers

Eleven chapters follow the teaching topics, from the politics of writing history and First Nations sovereignty, through colonial democracy and the postwar settlement, to the 1970s, the reform era and the present.

The 2026 offering moves through twelve topics. It opens with the politics of writing history itself, then follows First Nations and settler sovereignties, the making of colonial democracy, public servants and diplomats, the postwar settlement, environmental politics, gender, the 1970s, political advertising and the media, the reforms after 1983, and politics from Kevin07 to today.

A Week 5 visit to the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House takes the place of one topic.

How it is taught

A normal week brings a two-hour lecture and lectorial and a one-hour tutorial, with a primary Document and Core Readings set for discussion.

The outline asks you to attend every tutorial: more than two tutorial absences without an acceptable, documented reason may lead to a Fail (N) for the course.

The course runs on campus only, and recordings are meant only to cover occasional absences from the lectorial.

What the assessment rewards

Two in-class quizzes, each worth 20%, test the lectures, readings and tutorials of the preceding weeks through multiple-choice and short-answer questions.

The Final Paper, a 3,000-word essay worth 50%, asks for a persuasive argument built on scholarly reading and primary sources, footnoted in Chicago style. Participation in tutorials is worth the final 10%. Across all of it, the course rewards the historian’s habits: reading sources critically, weighing interpretations, and connecting topics into an argument.

Worked example · free

Putting four colonial reforms in order

Key terms

Secret Ballot

A voting method in which the government prints the ballot paper and electors mark it in private, introduced in Victoria in 1856.

Manhood Suffrage

The vote for adult men without a property test, legislated for New South Wales in 1858.

Legislative Council

A colonial upper house that, in Bongiorno’s account, was designed from the outset as a brake on democracy.

Terra Nullius

The legal premise that Australia was uninhabited land, overturned by the High Court’s Mabo decision in June 1992.

Treaty

A negotiated agreement between peoples; Judith Wright, quoted by Langton, argued it would put Aboriginal rights beyond the reach of parliaments.

Makarrata

A Yolngu word for the coming together after a struggle, used in the Uluru Statement for agreement-making and truth-telling.

Marriage Bar

A public service rule that required women to resign when they married, dropped in 1966.

White Australia Policy

The policy of excluding non-European migrants that shaped immigration from 1901 until it was dismantled in stages by 1975.

Transnational Whiteness

The concept Smith and Varnava use for the shared racial anxieties that opponents of immigration reform drew on in the Cold War.

Sexual Citizenship

A frame that treats sexual rights as a question of the rights and duties between citizens and the state.

Economic Rationalism

The label supporters gave to deregulation from the 1980s, which Bongiorno reads as accepting markets as the arbiter of policy.

Policy Narrative

The justifying story insiders tell about a policy regime, which historians test against outcomes and community reaction.

Settler Nativity

A settler sense of belonging to the land, which Ekkel argues interwar bushwalking encouraged.

Primary Source

Material produced in the period under study, such as a journal, speech or newspaper, read as evidence.

HIST2227 FAQ

Questions students ask in each HIST2227 chapter

What does history as politics mean in this course?

It is the idea that writing about the political past is itself a political act. The opening tutorial tests it on a 2025 history by Tony Abbott and the critical reviews that followed, then asks with E. H. Carr whether history is only rival sides holding rival facts. Chapter 01 · History of Politics, History as Politics

Why does Langton describe Aboriginal status in Australia as an anomaly?

Because, unlike Canada and New Zealand, no treaty or agreement was ever concluded with Aboriginal people, and courts declared the land uninhabited. She argues that this denial of prior Aboriginal nations leaves Indigenous rights in Australia weaker than in comparable settler societies. Chapter 02 · First Nations and Settler Sovereignties

Why does the lecture call colonial democracy a paradox?

Because colonies founded as convict settlements became, within decades, places their leaders boasted were behind no nation in the world. The lecture then asks whether it is really a paradox, since democratic reform and the dispossession of Aboriginal people happened in the same places at the same time. Chapter 03 · Making Settler Democracy

Why read a diplomat's memoir in a political history course?

A memoir shows how government looked from inside, including recruitment, culture and the relationship with ministers. It is written with hindsight and a reputation at stake, so its most persuasive passages are those where the author admits something that cuts against his own account. Chapter 04 · Politicians, Bureaucrats and Diplomats

Why does Dufty-Jones call the 1940s a turning point for housing?

Citing Freestone, she describes the 1940s as the highpoint of inclusionary housing policy. Housing stopped being seen as a product the market should provide and was reimagined as a right of every Australian that governments were prepared to defend, which she contrasts with the market-led debate of 2017. Chapter 05 · The Australian Settlement

Why was the Melbourne Women's Walking Club founded?

It began in October 1922, when partners of members of an all-male walking club formed their own society out of frustration at being excluded. Ekkel describes it as Australia's first women's walking club, with about seventy members by 1927. Chapter 06 · Environmental Politics

Why didn't more women in parliament change its culture?

Maley and Sawer argue that norms built for members with wives managing family life, together with adversarial politics and members' power over staff, proved hard to shift. Even after women reached a critical mass, complaints were treated as political problems rather than workplace issues. Chapter 07 · Gender and Politics

Was the 1980 Victorian law a decriminalisation?

Boucher and Reynolds argue that it reworked how sex between men was criminalised rather than decriminalising it wholesale. The Act created a new offence of soliciting for immoral sexual purpose and stated that parliament did not intend to condone immorality. Chapter 08 · Changing Australia: The Coming of the 1970s

Why did the anti-smoking campaign of 1971 succeed?

Holbrook, Westmore and Kehoe identify three prongs: scientific evidence for politicians, humorous television advertisements to move public opinion, and policies to ease the concerns of growers and media companies. Stations rejecting one advertisement also handed the campaign valuable publicity. Chapter 09 · Ads, the Media and Public Relations

Why does Bongiorno call the 1980s reforms a revolution from above?

Because they were the project of an elite in government, unions, the bureaucracy, think tanks and universities, not a response to popular demand. Unlike earlier recalibrations of Australian policy, voters never welcomed the shrinking of the protective state. Chapter 10 · Reinventing Australia, 1983 to 2025

What does the Uluru Statement ask for?

It calls for a constitutionally enshrined First Nations Voice and a Makarrata Commission to oversee agreements with governments and truth-telling about history. It grounds these requests in sovereignty it says has never been ceded or extinguished. Chapter 11 · Kevin07 to Today

How to prepare for the assessments

Treat the semester as preparation for one argument. Before each tutorial, read the week’s Document and Core Reading, and write two sentences: what the author argues, and what evidence carries the argument. Those notes are your quiz revision and the raw material of the Final Paper.

For each primary source, ask who produced it, for whom and why, and what it reveals that its author did not intend; that habit wins marks in both the short answers and the essay. Choose your Final Paper option early, list the chapters it connects, and start in the ANU Library and the National Library rather than on open websites, since an essay built mainly on web sources receives an N.

Keep your notes and drafts as evidence of your process. In the final week, check the essay against the thirteen criteria in the outline, especially the introduction, the use of primary sources and the consistency of your footnotes.

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