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Tracey Arklay

Dr Tracey Arklay is the Program Director of the Graduate Certificate in Policy Analysis (GCPA) and a Senior Lecturer in the School of Government and International Relations at Griffith University. Tracey's research on parliamentary practice and disaster management has seen her work extensively with key Queensland government agencies. Dr Arklay’s research incorporates her interest in translating practice into research. She has written on state and federal politics, electoral analysis, parliamentary practice, policy capacity, disaster management and political leadership. She has published two books and one internationally cited monograph. One of her recent publications examined policy making in Australian states: Arklay, T (with John Phillimore), (2015) ‘Policy and policy analysis in Australian states’ (eds. Head, B and Crowley, K), Policy Analysis in Australia, Bristol: Policy Press.

The Ayes Have It »

The history of the Queensland Parliament, 1957–1989

Authored by: John Wanna, Tracey Arklay

Publication date: July 2010

‘The Ayes Have It’ is a fascinating account of the Queensland Parliament during three decades of high-drama politics. It examines in detail the Queensland Parliament from the days of the ‘Labor split’ in the 1950s, through the conservative governments of Frank Nicklin, John Bjelke- Petersen and Mike Ahern, to the fall of the Nationals government led briefly by Russell Cooper in December 1989. The volume traces the rough and tumble of parliamentary politics in the frontier state. The authors focus on parliament as a political forum, on the representatives and personalities that made up the institution over this period, on the priorities and political agendas that were pursued, and the increasingly contentious practices used to control parliamentary proceedings. Throughout the entire history are woven other controversies that repeatedly recur – controversies over state economic development, the provision of government services, industrial disputation and government reactions, electoral zoning and disputes over malapportionment, the impost of taxation in the ‘low tax state’, encroachments on civil liberties and political protests, the perennial topic of censorship, as well as the emerging issues of integrity, concerns about conflicts of interest and the slide towards corruption. There are fights with the federal government – especially with the Whitlam government – and internal fights within the governing coalition which eventually leads to its collapse in 1983, after which the Nationals manage to govern alone for two very tumultuous terms. On the non-government side, the bitterness of the 1950s split was reflected in the early parliaments of this period, and while the Australian Labor Party eventually saw off its rivalrous off-shoot (the QLP-DLP) it then began to implode through waves of internal factional discord.

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Australian Political Lives »

Chronicling political careers and administrative histories

Edited by: Tracey Arklay, John Nethercote, John Wanna

Publication date: October 2006

This monograph brings together some of the best practitioners of the art and craft of political biography in Australia. They are simultaneously some of our best scholars who, at least in part, have turned their attention to writing Australian political lives. They are not merely chroniclers of our times but multidisciplinary analysts constructing layers of explanation and theoretical insight. They include academic, professional and amateur biographers; scholars from a range of disciplines (politics, history, sociology, public administration, gender studies); and politicians who for a time strutted the political stage. The assembled papers explore the strengths and weaknesses of the biographical approach; the enjoyment it can deliver; the problems and frustrations of writing biographies; and the various ways the ‘project’ can be approached by those constructing these lives. They probe the art and craft of the political biographer.

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