PLUCK: AUSTRALIAN MANIFESTO

This free-wheeling polemic argues it’s time for Australians to stand up to a corrupt establishment.

Stewart begins by saluting the iconically plucky Australian populace—among them, pre-colonial aborigines, who lived a “culturally rich, refined and satisfying life”; later mavericks, from Robin Hood-like outlaw Ned Kelly to brassy feminist Germaine Greer; and the current crop of ordinary farmers, miners, small businesspeople, and innovators. Keeping this last group down, the author contends, is a rogue’s gallery of pernicious institutions. Pride of place goes to government bureaucrats—Stewart likens them to parasitic aphids. He also attacks the finance industry (“You puffed up, fat lazy arrogant bankers, you should not be proud of stealing the savings of trusting little old ladies”); schools that “force children to…grovel before the power of the state” until they become “frightened little snowflakes”; the “pustule of politicians” in Parliament; “young, green zealots” and their “loony, lazy, Lefty lamentations”; and British aristocrats, whom he calls “deeply flawed and depraved dipsticks” who perpetrated a “genocide” on Australian soldiers by roping them into the world wars. The author’s argument leans right—he’s intensely skeptical of illegal immigration and big government—but he takes on concentrated economic power as well. Stewart lays out a vision of a society that’s autonomous and adaptable, structured not around centralized institutions but families and villages. He offers a raft of policy proposals, some wistful (banning lawyers from Parliament because they have a vested interest in passing complicated laws that provoke suits) and others more serious (the author suggests having companies run by German-style councils with worker representation). Stewart’s punchy prose revels in aggressive alliteration, but he also provides a thoughtful, probing social critique. (“Medical treatment is mistaken for health care, social work for the improvement of community life, police protection for safety, military poise for national security, the rat race for productive work.”) The result is a provocative challenge to Australia’s entrenched interests.

An energetic populist manifesto that scores hits on a wide range of targets.