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.

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NOTES FOR CONTRIBUTORS

AQ: Australian Quarterly

Why the Era of Big Tech Self-Regulation Must End • Few people watching the insurrectionin Capitol Hill were left feeling like American society was in a healthy place. As the stories of the rioters unfolded, and we came to understand how the peaceful transition of power was undermined for the first time in modern US history, few people were left feeling like Big Tech did not play a part. We viscerally experienced what we have long known: the business model pursued by these tech platforms poses risks to democratic societies around the world.

Unlocking the Academic Library: Open Access • Science mythology is replete with Eureka moments, but the reality, as any researcher will know, is that breakthroughs are built on deep foundations of work that has come before – and no single research paper holds all the evidence to solve any scientific challenge. This is why the research community collaborates, attends conferences and shares results in academic journals. But the system has reached a tipping point.

“Move Carefully and Discuss Things”: Taking back our Public Square • Gossip helped us rule the world. So claimed Yuval Noah Harari in his bestselling book Sapiens. According to Harari, our ability to exchange information about which group did not like which other group, who is honest and who is a cheat, what our neighbours are up to, what is going on across the way, and who is marrying who, gave way to broader social cohesion and cooperation that helped humans evolve from isolated tribal groups into larger communities.

The Senate, The Executive and Henry VIII • On March 16, 2021 Liberal Senator and former Minister, Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells introduced a report to the Senate with the clarion-call: ‘It is time for the Parliament to reassert its constitutionally established role…If we, as Parliamentarians, do not recognise our responsibility is to our constituents, then we undermine the compact upon which representative democracy rests for its legitimacy’.

Peer to Peer: Covid-19 and Transforming Jury Trials in Australia • Along with concerts and cruise ship holidays, jury trials were an early casualty of Covid-19. When the pandemic reached Australia, governments realised that squeezing panels of 12 strangers shoulder-to-shoulder inside a jury box was no longer viable. One announcement followed another: on 16 March 2020, courts in NSW, Queensland, Victoria, and Western Australia suspended all jury trials; Tasmania did the same two days later.

REFERENCES

State of the Nation - Unlocking the Academic Library: Open Access