The Alfred Deakin Prize for an Essay Advancing Public Debate: Winner and Shortlist 2008

Judges: Peter Browne (Convenor), Sarah L’Estrange and Terry Lane

Winner

The winner of the 2008 Alfred Deakin Prize for an Essay Advancing Public Debate is:

• 'Trapped in the Aboriginal Reality Show'
  by Marcia Langton (Griffith Review)

Shortlist

	Out of Control: The Tragedy of Tasmania’s Forests Richard Flanagan (The Monthly) Richard Flanagan has the audacity to go into dangerous territory for any commentator on Tasmanian politics - the influence of the timber company, Gunns, on both the Labor government and the Liberal opposition. Presenting his evidence with flair and passion, Flanagan argues that government and business have become too close and that vital information about their connections and about the impact of the forestry industry has been concealed from citizens, undermining public debate about vital, and nationally significant, environmental issues. This essay demonstrates how courageous forensic exposure is essential for the workings of a plausible democracy, based on a fully informed electorate.
	Trapped in the Aboriginal Reality Show - WINNER Marcia Langton (Griffith Review) Writing with passion and verve, Marcia Langton drags the debate over Indigenous communities back from two extremes - those who refuse to face up to the problems within Indigenous families and communities and those who try to turn this ‘everyday lived crisis’ into a one-dimensional spectacle. Writing on the basis of her own deep experience as a researcher impatient at equivocation and neglect, she responds positively to the aims and much of the detail of the Howard government’s intervention in the Northern Territory and warns governments against backing away from the enormous challenges facing Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. This is an uncompromising but not pessimistic view of how good intentions and over-simplifications have dogged Indigenous policy for decades despite the great body of evidence which shows where funds and efforts can most fruitfully be directed. By advancing a persuasive and deeply felt point of view Marcia Langton’s essay forces readers to reassess their attitudes and preconceptions.
	Love and Money Anne Manne (Quarterly Essay) Anne Manne re-injects the word ‘love’ into the debate about childcare in this essay on the competing strains of feminism and economic forces on mothers and workforce participation. She speaks directly to issues that affect women’s decisions about work and child rearing, including access to childcare, maternity leave and economic pressures. It is an unsentimental analysis of what women want for themselves and their families and what children need. She shows that women’s preferences for returning to full-time work, staying home or working part time after giving birth are as diverse as modern families, but that the feminist and market-driven forces behind the ‘get to work’ model of mother’s workforce participation takes choice out of the equation for many families. At a time of declining fertility, when mothers have a bargaining chip to influence policy on childcare and maternity leave, Anne Manne provides clear policy ideas that put pluralism and choice and the real demands of motherhood back in the frame.