What does the new political landscape look like in Australia?

Australian politics is shifting. The two-party system was broken at the last federal election, and a minority government is a real possibility in the future. Politics-as-usual is not enough for many Australians.

In this richly insightful essay, George Megalogenis traces the how and why of a political re-alignment. He sheds new light on the topics of housing, the changing suburbs, the fate of the Voice to Parliament, and trust in politicians. This is an essay about the Greens, the teals and the Coalition. In a contest between new and old, progressive and conservative, which vision of Australia will win out? But it's also about Labor in power - is careful centrism the right strategy for the times, or is something more required?

In Minority Report, Megalogenis explores the strategies and secret understandings of a political culture under pressure.

The sword of minority government hangs over the major parties. Neither side commands an electoral base broad enough in the twenty-first century to guarantee that power, once secured, can be sustained for more than a single three-year term. Now the question turns to whether a return to minority government will further damage our democracy, or, perhaps, revitalise it.-George Megalogenis, Minority Report

This essay contains correspondence relating to Quarterly Essay 95, High Noon, from Thomas Keneally, Emma Shortis, David Smith, Bruce Wolpe, Paul Kane, and Don Watson

Winner of the 2013 Prime Minister's Literary Award, 2012 Walkley Book Award, and Australia's bestselling political book of 2012 The book of the TV series Making Australia Great

There's no better place to be during economic turbulence than Australia. Brilliant in a bust, we've learnt to use our brains in a boom. Despite a lingering inability to acknowledge our achievements at home, the rest of the world asks: how did we get it right? George Megalogenis, one of our most respected political and economic writers, reviews the key events since the 1970s that have forged institutional and political leadership and a canny populace. He examines how we developed from a closed economy racked by the oil shocks, toughed it out during the sometimes devastating growing pains of deregulation, and survived the Asian financial crisis, the dotcom tech wreck and the GFC to become the last developed nation standing in the 2000s. As a result, whatever happens next, we're as well positioned as any to survive the ongoing rumblings of the Great Recession. Drawing on newly declassified documents, fresh interviews with our former prime ministers and a unique ability to bring the numbers to life, Megalogenis describes how, at just the right time, the Australian people became more farsighted than our politicians. We stopped spending before the rest of the world, and at the top of a boom voted out a government that was throwing around the biggest bribes ever offered. The Australian Moment is packed with original insight, challenging our often partisan selective memories and revealing how our leadership and community have underestimated each other's contribution to the nation's resilience. With a new afterword and appendix for the 2015 edition.

When Richmond won the 2017 AFL premiership, thousands celebrated the return to glory of one of the games oldest and most successful clubs. But outside of the suburb of Richmond--who cares? Megalogenis is a Richmond nut, but he's also the foremost interpreter of our national narrative. In Richmond's victory, he argues, we can understand our past, diagnose some of the ills of the present, and see a path towards our future. Football is more than a game, it's Australia's bellwether. It tells us more about ourselves than any other institution in the land. Richmond has more members than the federal Labor and Liberal parties combined. As many people are members of AFL clubs as are members of private sector unions. The AFL is one of the biggest, richest and most influential organizations in our culture, expected to take a leading stand on racism, depression, marriage equality, domestic violence. At a time when politics is increasingly conducted like a sport--full of one-eyed supporters and captain's calls--sport has been filling the vacuum left by the loss of respect for parliament, media and the church. Megalogenis tells a characteristically sweeping, revealing story about how Australian Rules contains the DNA of the gold-rush prosperity in which it was conceived; came of age in the depression that followed, spawning the world's first mega-rivalry (Richmond/Collingwood); absorbed the changes immigration brought after World War II; and became the mega-business it is now. And Richmond is the key to it all--by revising its leadership structures, and by embracing diversity, it points to the solution to our national impasse.

A sport unlike any other in the world, football has always been Australia's bellwether. But at a time when politics is increasingly conducted like sports - full of one-eyed tribalism, captain's calls and policy dictated by the Newspoll scoreboard - football is the one institution that's more relevant than ever. And it's Richmond that's out in front of the pack. Before it could win the 2017 premiership, the club had to change how it thought about good leadership. By weaving together the game's conflicted history, a sharp-eyed analysis of Richmond's off-field turbulence and his own love of the Tigers, Megalogenis reveals just how Richmond found a new way to win - and how Australia might do the same. 'Megalogenis has done it again, but with an unexpected twist.' HUGH MACKAY 'A public intellectual who barracks for Richmond argues that the Tigers' 2017 flag contains the seeds of our national resurgence. That's some footy argument . . .' MARTIN FLANAGAN 'Richmond are not yet ahead in the premiership wars, but through inspired leadership, they're streets ahead in the culture wars.' BARRIE CASSIDY 'Manages the incredible feat of igniting hope again for something called Australia. Whatever football code you follow, or even if you don't follow sport at all, I urge you to read this book. It's bracingly sane and beautifully told.' CHRISTOS TSIOLKAS

In the wake of the pandemic, will we see a new politics of social security and concern for the future?

Between the fires and the plague, Scott Morrison had no choice but to adapt his style of leadership. But does he have an exit strategy for Australia from the pandemic?

In this original essay, George Megalogenis explores the new politics of care and fear. He shows how our economic officials learnt the lessons of past recessions and applied them to new circumstances. But where to from here? Megalogenis analyses the shifting dynamics of the federation and the appeal of closed borders. He discusses the fate of higher education - what happened to the clever country? And he asks: what should government be responsible for in the twenty-first century, and does the Morrison government have the imagination for the job?

Morrison has no political interest in talking about the future. But passivity does not reduce the threat of another outbreak. In any case, the future is making demands on Australia in other ways.

In Trivial Pursuit George Megalogenis considers Australia's political dead zone.

The Hawke, Keating and early Howard years were ones of bold reform; recently we have seen an era of power without purpose. But why? Is it down to powerful lobbies, or the media, or a failure of leadership, or all of the above? And whatever the case, how will hard decisions be taken for the future?

In Trivial Pursuit, Megalogenis dissects the cycle of polls, focus groups and presidential politics and what it has done to the prospect of serious, difficult reform. He argues that politics-as-usual has become a self-defeating game and mounts a persuasive case for a different style of leadership. From now on, he argues, it is the key divisions between young and old, and north and south, that will shape the nation's future. But can a hung parliament and a pragmatic Labor leader rise to the challenge?

Rudd, Gillard and Abbott sought power in 2010 on the same dangerous premise, that no sacrifice is required to secure our future. Government on this basis is never worth it because the promise of painless change can never be kept. The voters knew it, which is why they spared them- selves the inevitable let-down by hanging the parliament. George Megalogenis, Trivial Pursuit

'One of Australia's most incisive political analysts' -The Australian

This issue also contains correspondence discussing Quarterly Essay 39, Power Shift, from Gareth Evans, Bruce Grant, Michael Wesley, Lyric Hughes Hale, Robert D. Kaplan, Harry Gelber, David Uren, Hugh White

In this urgent essay, George Megalogenis argues that Australia risks becoming globalisation's next and most unnecessary victim. The next shock, whenever it comes, will find us with our economic guard down, and a political system that has shredded its authority.

Megalogenis outlines the challenge for Malcolm Turnbull and his government. Our tax system is unfair and we have failed to invest in infrastructure and education. Both sides of politics are clinging defensively to an old model because it tells them a reassuring story of Australian success. But that model has been exhausted by capitalism's extended crisis and the end of the mining boom. Trusting to the market has left us with gridlocked cities, growing inequality and a corporate sector that feels no obligation to pay tax. It is time to redraw the line between market and state.

Balancing Act is a passionate look at the politics of change and renewal, and a bold call for active government. It took World War II to provide the energy and focus for the reconstruction that laid the foundation for modern Australia. Will it take another crisis to prompt a new reconstruction?

Australia is in transition. Saying it is easy. The panic kicks in when we are compelled to describe what the future might look like. There is no complacent middle to aim at. We will either catch the next wave of prosperity, or finally succumb to the Great Recession. -George Megalogenis, Balancing Act

This issue also contains correspondence discussing Quarterly Essay 60, Political Amnesia, from Bernie Fraser, Amanda Walsh, Tarah Barzanji, Allan Behm, Jennifer Rayner, Anne Tiernan, Graham Evans, John Quiggin, Scott Ludlam, Michael Keating, Stephen Sedgwick, and Laura Tingle

The bestselling author of The Australian Moment asks the most important question confronting the country right now - how do we maintain our winning streak? Most nations don't get a first chance to prosper. Australia is on its second. For the best part of the nineteenth century, Australia was the world's richest country, a pioneer for democracy and a magnet for migrants. Yet our last big boom was followed by a fifty-year bust as we lost our luck, our riches and our nerve, and shut our doors on the world. Now we're back on top, in the position where history tells us we made our biggest mistakes. Can we learn from our past and cement our place as one of the world's great nations? Showing that our future is in our foundation, Australia's Second Chance goes back to 1788, the first contact between locals and migrants, to bring us a unique and fascinating view of the key events of our past right through to the present day. With newly available economic data and fresh interviews with former leaders (including the last major interview with Malcolm Fraser), George Megalogenis crunches the numbers and weaves our history into a riveting argument, brilliantly chronicling our dialogue with the world and bringing welcome insight into the urgent question of who we are, and what we can become.