E1839 - The Howard Effect: Who Belongs

When the High Court handed down its Mabo decision, it cracked open the legal fiction at the heart of the nation. Terra Nullius was gone.

For John Howard, then in opposition, it provided  an opportunity. He framed the moment not as correction, but as a threat. A story was spun to suburban and regional Australia: your backyard, your lease, your livelihood were suddenly, all under threat.

For John Howard, the real battle was over the nation’s conscience. He dismissed what he called the “black armband” view of history and described the violence and dispossession of the...