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    The Wonks’ Dictionary: Australian Democracy in High Definition
    The Wonks’ Dictionary: Australian Democracy in High Definition
    The Wonks’ Dictionary: Australian Democracy in High Definition
    Ebook129 pages29 minutes

    The Wonks’ Dictionary: Australian Democracy in High Definition

    By Jeffrey James and Jon Kudelka

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    About this ebook

    What is a democracy sausage? Where is Antony Green? Why is a prime minister? And what on earth is that big, shiny golden club on the table in the House of Reps? Discover the answers to all these and more as Jon Kudelka and James Jeffrey take the definitive journey through Australian democracy from A to Z.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMelbourne University Publishing Ltd
    Release dateMar 29, 2019
    ISBN9780522875966
    The Wonks’ Dictionary: Australian Democracy in High Definition

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      Book preview

      The Wonks’ Dictionary - Jeffrey James

      Postscript

      Introduction

      When Samuel Johnson’s dictionary was published in 1755 after a linguistic odyssey of seven years, its impact was profound. As his devoted biographer James Boswell would eventually write, ‘the world contemplated with wonder so stupendous a work achieved by one man, while other countries had thought such undertakings fit only for whole academies’.

      Yet amid its 40,000 definitions, there were moments when Johnson took off his scholar’s cap and, giving something of a glimpse of an inner monologue that oscillated between the concise, the self-amused and the scathing, arrived at what might be considered a deeper truth. ‘Lizard’ was defined as ‘an animal resembling a serpent, with legs added to it’, while the even more streamlined explanation of ‘sock’ was ‘something put between the shoe and the foot’. ‘Bum’ was ‘the part on which we sit’.

      But it was when Johnson cast his eye upon officialdom that his quill ran wild. ‘Excise’ was ‘a hateful tax levied upon commodities and adjudged not by the common judges of property but wretches hired by those to whom the excise is paid’.

      And a politician? ‘One versed in the arts of government’—so far, so good—and ‘a man of artifice, one of deep contrivance’. Ah. While not quite as blunt as his offering for the humble stoat (‘a small, stinking animal’), it was surely greeted with wild enthusiasm by the masses.

      Johnson was paid a vast amount for his work—the equivalent of the price tag on a reasonably pleasant Hobart dwelling, or a Sydney house deposit— and cranked out one of the few publications to dwarf Kevin Rudd’s memoirs in terms of its likelihood to cause a hernia.

      It was precisely in this spirit—give or take the huge pay and the quest to illuminate—that Jon Kudelka and I set out to create The Wonks’ Dictionary. In this work that is focused on the workings of the Australian political system (such as it is), we peer through the murk and the confusion to address questions such as What is Antony Green? Where is a democracy sausage? Why is a prime minister? And Eric Abetz—what’s that all about then? We are confident you will agree that each time, we arrive at an answer, if not necessarily the answer.

      But when it comes to exploring words, other words will only take you so far. Illustrations cast a greater light. And, given a picture is meant to be worth a thousand words, you hold in your very hands a truly substantial volume.

      Jon was left in charge of the pictures, and James had most of the

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