National Observer Home > No. 46 - Spring 2000 > Book Reviews

PARADISE DIVIDED

by Paul Kelly

Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 2000, pp. 280 and index.

This book contains a collection of articles and commentaries from the 1990s during Mr. Kelly's time as editor in chief of "The Australian" and then as that paper's international editor.

Mr. Kelly is described on the back of the book as "Australia's leading political commentator", a description that is unduly flattering and that would be depressing if were true. The various attitudes that Mr. Kelly reveals recall the years of the Hawke-Keating governments and the varying demands of political correctness.

So, for example, he favours a national apology to Aboriginals, he is critical of the dismissal of the government of Mr. Gough Whitlam by Sir John Kerr in 1975 and he provides arguments in favour of Australia becoming a republic, repeating here as elsewhere many of the views that other Australian journalists share.

"The Australian" has been a disappointing publication. There is a need in Australia for a high-quality national newspaper. However, "The Australian", despite its occasional pretensions, represents a set-back for the cause of high-calibre journalism, and this collection of Mr. Kelly's articles and commentaries illustrates these deficiencies.

I. C. F. Spry

 

 

National Observer No. 46 - Spring 2000