Dissecting Prime Ministers' Australia Day speeches
New University of Sydney peer-reviewed reveals that past Prime Ministers鈥� speeches on national ceremonial days such as Australia Day and Anzac Day do not always reflect the diversity of Australians and have marginalised minority groups.
Published in the Australian Journal of Political Science, the research, by , Lecturer in the and Mr Alexander Page, Postdoctoral Research Associate in the , was based on an analysis of 135 Prime Ministers鈥� Australia Day and Anzac Day speeches and media releases over a 27-year period (1990-2017).
They used computer software to identify certain variables (class, gender and sexuality, and race and place), as well as the top 25 words of three letters or more. They found that 鈥淧rime Ministers often use these national days to share, shape and reproduce their understanding of what and whom is representative of Australian identity and nationalism and simultaneously pursue their own policy agendas.鈥�
鈥淲hilst prime ministers sometimes use inclusive language and affirm Australia鈥檚 proud egalitarianism, they often rely on clich茅d hetero-masculine, and Anglocentric Australianness, regardless of the individual prime minister or their party affiliation.
鈥淭he activism, law and policy reforms that Indigenous peoples, women, migrants and workers have initiated over decades has had little impact on Prime Minister鈥檚 representation of these people.鈥�
...any critique of class division or wealth disparity would negate the myth-making of a unified and egalitarian Australian society...
Class
According to their evaluation, Prime Ministers tend to present Australia as 鈥榗lassless鈥�.
鈥淭he tendency of prime ministers to avoid discussion of class can be explained first by Australia鈥檚 culturally embedded tradition of egalitarianism. Secondly, neoliberal economic norms see challenges to market-based policy making as divisive,鈥� the researchers said.
鈥淔or example, in 1999, John Howard said: 鈥淲e believe very deeply that a person's worth is determined by their character and by the effort they put into being a good citizen, not according to their social class, or their background鈥�.
鈥淚n this context, any critique of class division or wealth disparity would negate the myth-making of a unified and egalitarian Australian society, regardless of real class difference.鈥�
Gender and sexuality
Dr Bromfield and Mr Page further found that the speeches, more so on Anzac Day than Australia Day, reinforced traditional gender norms. They did this through subject selection, as well as through binary stereotypes, which privilege 鈥榤asculine鈥� traits like strength, ambition and independence and diminish 鈥榝eminine鈥� ones like passivity and fragility.
John Howard, for example, dedicated whole Australia Day addresses to the achievements of Australian male cricketers such as Don Bradman (in 1997), Mark Taylor (in 1999), and Steve Waugh (in 2004) yet only reserved a few sentences for female athlete Cathy Freeman when she won Australian of Year in 1998.
Further, heteronormative depictions of families abounded in the materials studied, while only one LGBTQI-related word was identified 鈥� the word 鈥榞ay鈥� on Australia Day 2015.
...Prime Ministers reflect the relationship with Asia on Australia Day in transactional terms, whilst presenting a warmer and more personal image of Australia鈥檚 connection to the Anglosphere
Race and place
鈥淥n Australia Day, the Anglosphere and Europe is the category that is most frequently mentioned by both major political parties, followed by the Asia Pacific, then the Middle East,鈥� the researchers said.
鈥淭his tendency can be explained by the privileging of the history of white colonialism.
鈥淢oreover, Prime Ministers reflect the relationship with Asia on Australia Day in transactional terms, whilst presenting a warmer and more personal image of Australia鈥檚 connection to the Anglosphere.
鈥淔or example, in 2016, while Malcolm Turnbull spoke of a cosmopolitan, multicultural and advantageously positioned Australia (鈥溾�︹�堿ustralia is so well positioned. Once isolated from the economic powers in Europe and North America, we now share the same hemisphere as the Asian economic giants鈥�), his enthusiasm did little more than highlight the economic advantage of Australia鈥檚 proximity to Asia; another example of Prime Ministers framing Asia in transactional terms.鈥�
Additionally, Dr Bromfield and Mr Page鈥檚 research suggests that Prime Ministers鈥� speeches, including Scott Morrison鈥檚, reproduce dominant racial identities through language regarding Indigenous peoples as 鈥渙ur First Australians鈥�, which implies ownership of Indigenous peoples.
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About the broader project: The politics of identity and agenda setting on Australia Day and Anzac Day
Dr Bromfield and Mr Page鈥檚 research forms part of a larger project that studies Australian national identity as represented by Prime Ministers over time. Dr Bromfield鈥檚 recent research has focused broadly upon issues of nationalism and identity in political science, public policy and international relations. Mr Page鈥檚 research focuses on Indigenous policy analysis, the sociology of race, and social movements.