Politics, Protest, Pandemic: The Year That Changed Australian Politics by Eddy Jokovich and David Lewis

 

 

Politics, Protest, Pandemic is the story of the 2020 year in Australian federal politics, told through a collection of extended essays from the New Politics Australia podcast series. This was one of the most remarkable years in human history and there was an expectation that partisan politics could be put aside in the public interest and while that occurred in the earlier parts of the pandemic, it was back to business as soon as possible: point-scoring, media manipulations, corruption, and outright mistruths told by political leaders who should know better. The year commenced with the remnants of the catastrophic bushfire season still lingering in the air: Prime Minister Scott Morrison was pilloried for his lack of adequate responses at this time but was rescued, politically, through the arrival of the coronavirus. Australia performed remarkably well during this pandemic, but it could have been so much better. Opportunities to reset the economy and Australian society were overlooked, with the government's desire to 'snap-back' to the ways of the world before coronavirus started, even though that's a world that might have disappeared forever. An excellent guide to a dramatic year in Australian politics, providing historical viewpoints and references which enable the reader to navigate a thorough context and understanding of a confusing year.