The Idea of Australia Season 1 Episode 2 - Making The Nation

Airdate: 2025-Oct-22

Episode summary:

Australians know little about the debates, dreams and compromises involved in making the nation in 1901. This makes it hard to change the constitution. If more were known, would change be possible? The process of Federation that created the nation is a mystery to most. The 1890s was a difficult period marked by booms and busts, but it was also a time of active debate. It took more than a decade, two polls in each colony and months of negotiation with Britain, to create the foundation of a democracy that others wanted to copy.Australians are proud of the country's long democratic history and robust electoral systems, apologetic about the racial exclusion that followed, but reluctant to contemplate changes in a constitution written in a very different time. Re-telling the creation of the nation (as opposed to colonial settlement) as a debate between competing interests, dreams and compromises, is important to breathe new life into the idea of Australia in the 21st century.

About The Idea of Australia series:

This bold and provocative four-part series asks the question – What is the idea of Australia and how might we learn from the past to make it stro...Show more >