Allied and Addicted.

• Author: Steadman, Hugh
• Position: Book review

ALLIED AND ADDICTED Author: Alison Broinowski Published by: Scribe Short Books, Melbourne, 2007, 137pp, $22.

This very Short Book is more in the tradition of the political pamphleteer than of the scholar. The main premise of the book is that Australia has abandoned its subservience to Britain in favour of a new subservience to the United States--and that this is a bad thing.

The chapter headings are indicative of their sentiment 'Kidding ourselves': 'Cringe culture: policies of mass deception': 'Fouling our nest: denial, deferment, unsustainability': 'Following our leaders: axis of the feeble; and the conclusion 'Allied, addicted, aggressive: accountable'. There is neither index nor footnotes, but ten of the book's 137 pages consist of a 'Reading List', which one must assume, from the general run of the works listed, is as much a source of opinion as of facts.

It is not difficult to agree with many of the author's positions, such as that the Australian press is a disseminator of misinformation, that Australians have a lamentable environmental record and, most importantly, that their present alliance with, and subservience to, the United States is not in their national interest. Broinowski saves her best sentence to make this last point 'Australia invests billions in the American defence industry, which also manufactures the threats'.

However, this reader's agreement with the basic arguments presented did not make the reading of this book a satisfying experience. The fact is that the vast majority of Australians, and particularly of their political leaders, disagree with Broinowski's interpretation of reality. Were they to read this very confrontational book, they would almost certainly continue to disagree with her interpretation.

It is a...