A remarkable feature of this book is that its thirty essays were commissioned, written, edited and printed for distribution within four months of the Howard government’s declaration on 21 June 2007 of an emergency in the Northern Territory. Seldom can there have been such a rapid and comprehensive set of responses to a major federal government policy initiative, bearing as it did all the signs of political opportunism in its timing. By contrast with the massive legislation embodying the reforms, most of the essays are thoughtfully cast and well written: a good advertisement for the way deadlines can concentrate the academic mind. The ironic twist is that the contributors’ principal target now is the Rudd government, whose own political opportunism in Opposition ensured bipartisan support for John Howard and Mal Brough during the legislation’s scandalously brief parliamentary consideration. Significantly, Minister Jenny Macklin’s actions so far suggest that she is in sympathy with the book’s main thrust.
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