It’s all John Howard’s fault, says Amy Remeikis
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
A listener production. Hello, it's Sasha Barbagat. Welcome to The Weekend Briefing, where we chat with the humans behind the headlines. When I say John Howard, what do you think? Maybe the phrase great economic manager comes to mind. Perhaps you remember him as popular or not, depending on where on the political spectrum you sit. Maybe you just think of eyebrows. Whatever your personal thoughts, there's no denying the enduring legacy of Australia's 25th Prime Minister, who has become a symbol of a time when things in Australia were bad. Good. The elder statesman we turn to for advice in these uncertain times. But according to today's guest, that's revisionist history. And a lot of what's wrong with Australia today, from the housing crisis to the mess that is our private health system and everything in between, is thanks to one John Howard.
Amy Ramakis is a political journalist and commentator, and she joins me today to talk about not only...
What is John Howard's legacy in Australian politics?
her take on Howard's legacy, but also the Canberra bubble, Me Too, and how a daughter to One Nation voters went on to become one of the country's leading progressive voices. A little later in the show is The Weekend List with our new senior producer, Alex Tai, where we recommend what to watch, see, do, eat and listen to. But first, here is my chat with Amy Ramakis. Amy Ramikis, welcome to The Weekend Briefing. Thank you for having me. What lured you to Canberra and the world of Australian politics? I can't say it's the most welcoming place.
No, it's not. And I can't say that I ever had a huge desire to come to Canberra. I very happily am a Queensland girl. I was covering Queensland state politics. I did the Campbell Newman government. And at the end of that, my editors at then Fairfax were like, OK, it's time for you to come to Canberra. And I was like, oh, I'm not sure I want to do that. But I also look at politics as storytelling and narratives about people's lives. And that while we often see it as this horse race where we're talking about, you know, it's blah, blah versus blah, blah. It's actually the policies that matter. And it's policies that matter to people who are not always represented by Canberra. And whenever we think of political journalism, it's often, you know, the scandals or the incrementalism.
But I find that political journalists... don't tend to have as much life experience as the people that they're covering politics for. It's quite a wealthy media class now in the press gallery and in journalism in general. And that's partly because you have to do so much free work in order to even make it as a journalist, that unless you are financially secure, you actually can't make it through those beginning years. And I was lucky enough to have spent so much time in regional journalism and really built my way up that I was able to come to Canberra quite a bit older than most people do when they get to Canberra. But I had an understanding of life, of what it meant to, you know, survive on Centrelink, on what it meant to survive on, you know, single parent income in
and what health policy meant and what it was like having a chronic illness and trying to navigate some of those systems. And so I thought, okay, well, maybe I should go to Canberra and see what it's like. And went, was picked up by the Guardian and was lucky enough to be able to lead their live blog for about seven or so years, where I covered absolutely everything and was able to filter that through my experience, but also understanding how policy lands and why that is so important.
How does Amy Remeikis critique John Howard's policies?
It might seem like an obvious question, but what do you think is the impact of having not only journalists, which is actually a really important point, but also politicians who are from increasingly wealthier backgrounds and very essentially out of touch with the regular working class Australian? What impact does that then have on not only politics, but how politics is reported?
I think you get an out-of-touch media class for their audiences and I think you're seeing that reflected in declining audience and declining trust in media in general.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–0:57
2
What is John Howard's legacy in Australian politics?
0:57–3:51
3
How does Amy Remeikis critique John Howard's policies?
3:51–8:51
4
What experiences shaped Amy Remeikis's perspective on politics?
8:51–22:00
5
What are the implications of class background in political journalism?
22:00–33:04
6
How does the Canberra bubble impact political journalism?
33:04–39:58
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from The Briefing
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