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It was inevitable that the phenomenon of Don Chipp’s Democrats would spawn an industry of quickie books; so far we have had two. The Third Man (which was written by Chipp himself in collaboration with the Melbourne journalist John Larkin) and now this one: Don Chipp, written by two journalists from the Melbourne office of The Australian, Tim Hewat and David Wilson. Both books are more or less bad, revolving as they do around a sort of log-cabin-to-White-House theme which is manifestly unsuited to any discussion of Australian politics. But at least Chipp and Larkin have both met the man about whom they are writing. There is no evidence that Hewat or Wilson has; and in fact their brief and boring 113 pages, padded out with an already out-of-date policy statement and a totally unnecessary index adds nothing to the sum of human knowledge, either by way of new facts or sensible analysis.
- Book 1 Title: Don Chipp
- Book 1 Biblio: VisA 154 pp, $4.95 pb
Most of the book consists of what appears to be a random collection of quotations from other, better, books and newspaper articles. Occasionally the authors separate these with observations which can only charitably be described as superficial such as, ‘This surge of enthusiasm for the Australian Democrats says a good deal about the climate of Australian politics and the failure of the old major parties to appeal to the people every party needs most.’ The book, of course, was written after the Liberals had retained a majority in their own right in the House of Representatives, and the Democrats had failed to achieve a balance of power position in the Senate.
There may or may not be a place for a third party in Australia, but it is highly doubtful whether such a party can have more than a flash-in-the-pan existence unless it has a strong socio-economic base; the Democrats haven’t, and if the Earlwood by-election of July 15 is any guide, they are likely to wither quietly away to a small group of enthusiasts centred around Chipp himself, and based almost entirely in Victoria. Hence the need for quickie books; by the time anyone could produce a more reasoned and scholarly work, the Democrats will probably be history.
For this reason there is a splendid irony in the title Chipp, a keen cricketer, chose for his own book: the third man is the position where you put a bloke who can’t field very well and needs a bit of a rest, and from which he can chat to the crowd and sign autographs. The work from Hewat and Wilson doesn’t even have the saving grace of an unintentional joke in the title.
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