When Shirley's uncle leaves her a house in his well, she flies in from London. Port Bruce is a remote town in Far North Queensland, and everything is strange to a city girl from England.
This book provides a comprehensive coverage of one of Australia's most historic elections, which produced a hung parliament and a carefully crafted minority government that remains a heartbeat away from collapse, as well as Australia's first elected woman Prime Minister and the Australian Greens' first lower house Member of Parliament. The volume considers the key contextual and possibly determining factors, such as: the role of leadership and ideology in the campaign; the importance of state and regional factors (was there evidence of the two or three speed economy at work?); and the role of policy areas and issues, including the environment, immigration, religion, gender and industrial relations. Contributors utilise a wide range of sources and approaches to provide comprehensive insights into the campaign. This volume notably includes the perspectives of the major political groupings, the ALP, the Coalition and the Greens; and the data from the Australian Election Survey. Finally we conclude with a detailed analysis of those 17 days that it took to construct a minority party government.
Louis Morin is a type-2 dreamer. No wonder he’s been drawn to Australia, the Dream Land of the Aboriginal people’s culture. In the wake of the new carbon trading laws, he dreams of turning the parched Red Centre back to green and the Great Salt Lakes back to blue. As always in Australia, big business is not far behind a big, profitable dream. It is October 2000, at the beginning of the Southern hemisphere summer, and at the end of the Sydney Olympics, which troublemaking-tragic Helen came to watch. While a three-day affair with Louis is in the swing of things to expect, falling in love with him isn’t. Along comes Horace, another type-2 dreamer who also wants to change the world, with powerful allies to back up his "LFV" dream and a more radical approach to making it come true, including body count. It also includes his, unfortunately. A challenge to her sanity, already heavily tested, Helen fears for her son’s life. Compelled to blend two dreams in one, Louis finds himself on the shaky grounds of corporate and political worlds, places he, as a researcher, had never been prepared for. But there is always the next dream, and it may well be just waiting for him... at home! About every seven years, the Great Australian Lakes flood, and flamingos return.