AQ: Australian Quarterly

For over 85 years AQ: Australian Quarterly has been packing its pages with the country’s most distinguished and passionate thinkers, tackling the big issues in science, politics and society. With longer-style articles written by those at the forefront of the debates, AQ is unique in bridging the gap between journal and magazine, combining the compelling writing of a glossy with the intellectual rigour of a journal. If it matters to Australia then it matters to AQ.

A WORD

NOTES FOR CONTRIBUTORS

AQ: Australian Quarterly

Welfare to warfare: Police militarisation and Fortress Australia • On May 25, 2020, 46-year-old African American man, George Floyd, was strangled to death by a white Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin. Chauvin killed Floyd by compressing his neck with his knee. He did this for seven minutes and 46 seconds while Floyd was handcuffed and lying face down. Three other police officers aided and abetted Chauvin, by assisting to ‘restrain’ Floyd and ensuring bystanders didn’t intervene. As Floyd was strangled, he told police he couldn’t breathe more than twenty times, that he feared he would die, called for his mother, became silent, and finally lay motionless for two minutes.

The changing nature of protest in Australia: Historical reflections • On Tuesday 2nd November 2020 – Melbourne Cup Day – several hundred protesters assembled at Victoria’s Parliament House to protest against Melbourne’s COVID-19 restrictions. The most severe of those restrictions had been eased several days beforehand, but protesters remained unhappy, carrying placards that proclaimed: ‘Tell the Truth’, ‘Not Happy Dan’, ‘Masks Don’t Work’ and ‘Corona Hoax 1984’. There were more than 400 arrests, and a policewoman had her arm broken.

COVID, capital, and the future of work in Australia

Science in the spotlight Tall Poppy Awards 2020 • In 2020 science found itself thrust into the spotlight. Around the world there was a collective call for scientists to save lives and to save our way of life. Politicians ceded podiums to their scientific advisors, scientists sat at the decision-making tables of nations, they were invoked as heroes and reviled as economic saboteurs.

Tall Poppy Awards 2020 Winners

Some rights, some of the time The state of human rights across Australia • There is a fundamental tension at the heart of all societies – the balance between individual rights and liberties against the interests of the collective, such as public safety. This tension is managed through laws and policy, including human rights laws that ensure that our governments act in appropriate and proportionate ways.

REFERENCES