A substantial proportion of the book discusses the Howard government’s reactions to the highly charged political atmosphere that developed during the latter half of 2001. Faced with the terrorist attacks on 9/11, the collapse of Australia’s second major airline, Ansett, as well as the beginning of a new wave of refugees seeking entry to Australia by sea, a majority of voters chose to re-elect Howard and his government in November 2001. While terrorist threats and Ansett’s misfortune captured much public attention at the time, it was the Howard administration’s approach to asylum seekers that became the most politically controversial aspect of the electoral campaign.

To what extent did the Coalition attempt to use the divisive issue of ‘boat people’ to achieve their 2001 victory? If they did so, to what extent did such efforts have the desired effect? The answers to these questions are by no means clear. Certainly, when the government in October 2001 was given information suggesting that asylum seekers on the SIEV-4 vessel had thrown children overboard, Howard used this report to shore up his government’s image of being tough on the control of national borders: ‘I don’t want in this country people who are prepared, if those reports are true, to throw their children overboard.’ (The italicised clause appears thus in the book.) As the general public later discovered, the reports turned out to be false. Frame’s chapter on the scandal attempts to separate fact from folklore, and comes to the unsatisfying but justifiable conclusion that

We should not expect to find a document proving Howard [and other senior ministers] … were informed that the initial advice was incorrect before 10 November 2001 [i.e. the election date] and we should not imagine we will find another document showing they conspired to perpetuate the children overboard ‘lie’.

John Howard responds to a reporter's question during a joint press conference with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in the Pentagon on 4 February 2003 (photograph via Wikimedia Commons)

Elsewhere, Murray Goot suggests in his analysis of the 2001 election that Howard’s strident championship of sovereignty and an orderly immigration program was a crucial factor in redirecting One Nation voters back to the Coalition in marginal seats. However, while Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party had become notorious for its racist stance on non-European immigration, the party’s poor organisation and bitter internal divisions may also have encouraged former One Nation supporters to switch their votes.

As Frame points out, a clear understanding of the history of the Howard years is made more difficult by the strongly partisan journalism and books of the era, which were relentlessly critical of the regime and made little effort to present a balanced view of the administration. Howard’s preference for the ‘three cheers’ version of Australian history clashed sharply with the frequently more critical (and depressing) version of the past favoured by prominent left-wing commentators such as Robert Manne and Henry Reynolds. This may be why the relatively non-partisan ‘Discovering Democracy’ educational initiative, set up by the Howard government with the laudable aim of encouraging awareness of Australia’s political system among school children, is now largely forgotten. An excellent chapter on the topic, by Zareh Ghazarian and Jacqueline Laughland-Booÿ, may encourage historians to re-examine civics and citizenship in the Howard era.

Kim Murray’s piece on national identity during the Howard years is another standout. The author reminds us that Howard built on, rather than created, the public fascination with Gallipoli as a symbol of Australian nationhood. Howard’s contention, however, that the World War I campaign was ‘the most defining event in our history’ relied on privileging the old-fashioned historical assumption that the ultimate test of ‘national character’ is war rather than the way we have achieved goals such as Federation without war.

There are a couple of ways in which this book could have been strengthened and enhanced. First, the decision not to encourage a contributor to tackle the 2004 election and its immediate aftermath deprives the book of a sense of forward momentum and direction. Without a detailed understanding of the results of the 2004 election, the outcome of the political decisions and actions of the Coalition, Labor, and the minor parties between 2001 and 2004 is unnecessarily left up in the air. Second, a selection of relevant photographs would have increased readerly interest in the political events described in the text. Nevertheless, Trials and Transformations does what it aims to do. It provides an overview of the Howard government between 2001 and 2004 that will undoubtedly provide guidance for students and scholars seeking to explore this somewhat enigmatic period in Australian history.