Liberalism and the end of development

Development Disappearing - In early 1996, soon after the John Howard-led Liberal-National Party coalition came to power and ministerial portfolios were allocated, a controversy erupted over the arguments contained in Geoffrey Partington's recently published Hasluck versus Coombs: White Politics and Australia's Aborigines.] The book was launched by the newly appointed Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Senator John Herron, and Prime Minister Howard spoke favourably about its central contentions. Both men subsequently attempted to distance themselves and the government from key parts of the argument advanced by Partington.