
Despite years of critique, the Australian national parliament has been overwhelmingly white and male, unlike the country as a whole. But something changed at the 2022 election – most clearly around racism and sexism. How might this play out in the negotiations to come?
The Whitlam government supposedly ended the White Australia policy in 1973. For 50 years though, White Australia has hung on in the elite structures – Commonwealth cabinets, the High Court and the ABC board, for example – even while changing at state and especially local levels.