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Patrick Mullins Patrick Mullins i(A144891 works by)
Gender: Male
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Works By

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1 y separately published work icon Who Needs the ABC? Matthew Ricketson , Patrick Mullins , Melbourne : Scribe , 2022 23436920 2022 single work criticism

'The Australian Broadcasting Corporation is under an existential threat, especially from the conservative federal government, even though it is the best-trusted news organisation in Australia, and plays a vital role in Australian life.

'For years, the ABC’s funding has been slashed, forcing it to let go journalists with decades of experience in asking hard questions about anyone and everyone, including government. It has been besieged by written complaints from ministers, hectoring by prime ministers, and intense pressure on its most senior executives. Its board has been stacked with a succession of political appointees. It has been relentlessly, often baselessly, attacked by the Murdoch media.

'Apart from the external attacks, the ABC has also inflicted damage on itself. It has not only shed staff but has cut important programs; contentious enterprises have been dropped and replaced by benign, inoffensive ones. It is not surprising that staff morale at the ABC has sunk in recent years.

'This book details how the travails of the ABC in this period fit into a global debate about the role of public broadcasting in the modern era. Who Needs the ABC? also takes seriously the arguments made for the ABC’s break-up and privatisation, and offers a rejoinder to those calls. It doesn't shy away from the failings that have led to the ABC’s current parlous position, but it identifies the vital role that it plays in Australian cultural and democratic life, and argues for a continuation of that role — and shows how it can be done.'

Source : publisher's blurb

1 [Review] The Trials of Portnoy : How Penguin Brought Down Australia’s Censorship System Patrick Mullins , 2021 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Historical Studies , vol. 52 no. 1 2021; (p. 137-138)

— Review of The Trials of Portnoy : How Penguin Brought down Australia's Censorship System Patrick Mullins , 2020 single work criticism
'The Trials of Portnoy is a detailed account of the decision by the Penguin publishing company in 1970 to publish Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint in Australia, even though this novel had been prohibited here. In this, his second book, Patrick Mullins relates who the key players behind this decision to publish were, why they set out to do what they did, the clever steps they took to realise their goals, who helped them along the way, who opposed them, on what basis, what eventually resulted, legally and socially, from this episode, and the enduring significance of these results. The Portnoy case was more significant in Australia’s reform of its censorship program than has been realised previously.' (Introduction)
1 Trials of Portnoy : When Penguin Fought for Literature and Liberty Patrick Mullins , 2020 single work column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 26 June 2020;

'One grey morning in October 1970, in a crowded, tizzy-pink courtroom on the corner of Melbourne’s Russell and La Trobe Streets, crown prosecutor Leonard Flanagan began denouncing a novel in terms that were strident and ringing.' (Introduction)

1 7 y separately published work icon The Trials of Portnoy : How Penguin Brought down Australia's Censorship System Patrick Mullins , Melbourne : Scribe , 2020 18465224 2020 single work criticism

'For more than seventy years, a succession of politicians, judges, and government officials in Australia worked in the shadows to enforce one of the most pervasive and conservative regimes of censorship in the world. The goal was simple: to keep Australia free of the moral contamination of impure literature. Under the censorship regime, books that might damage the morals of the Australian public were banned, seized, and burned; bookstores were raided; publishers were fined; and writers were charged and even jailed. But in the 1970s, that all changed.

'In 1970, in great secrecy and at considerable risk, Penguin Books Australia resolved to publish Portnoy’s ComplaintPhilip Roth’s frank, funny, and profane bestseller about a man hung up about his mother and his penis. In doing so, Penguin spurred a direct confrontation with the censorship authorities, which culminated in criminal charges, police raids, and an unprecedented series of court trials across the country.

'Sweeping from the cabinet room to the courtroom, The Trials of Portnoy draws on archival records and new interviews to show how Penguin and a band of writers, booksellers, academics, and lawyers determinedly sought for Australians the freedom to read what they wished — and how, in defeating the forces arrayed before them, they reshaped Australian literature and culture forever.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

1 y separately published work icon Federation's Man of Letters : Patrick McMahon Glynn Anne Henderson , Patrick Mullins , Anne Twomey , Suzanne D. Rutland , Peter Boyce , J. M. Fahey , Redland Bay : Connor Court Publishing , 2019 18545471 2019 selected work essay Includes Anne Henderson's Gerald Glynn O’Collins Oration on the subject of Patrick Flynn, and five essays assessing Flynn and his legacy in response to the oration.
1 Mortuary Station Patrick Mullins , 2018 single work essay
— Appears in: Bukker Tillibul , no. 12 2018;
1 5 y separately published work icon Tiberius with a Telephone : The Life and Stories of William McMahon Patrick Mullins , Melbourne : Scribe , 2018 13911959 2018 single work biography

'The oddly compelling story of a man regarded as Australia’s worst prime minister.

'William McMahon was a significant, if widely derided and disliked, figure in Australian politics in the second half of the twentieth century. This biography tells the story of his life, his career, and his doomed attempts to recast views of his much-maligned time as Australia’s prime minister.

'In office, McMahon worked furiously to enact an agenda that grappled with the profound changes reshaping Australia. He withdrew combat forces from Vietnam, legislated for Commonwealth government involvement in childcare, established the first Department of the Environment, and accelerated the timetable for the independence of Papua New Guinea. But his failures would overshadow his successes, and by the time of the 1972 election McMahon would lead a divided, tired, and rancorous party to defeat.

'A man whose life was coloured by tragedy, comedy, persistence, courage, farce, and failure, McMahon’s story has never been told at length. Tiberius with a Telephone fills that gap, using deep archival research and extensive interviews with McMahon’s contemporaries and colleagues. It is a tour de force — an authoritative, compelling, and colourful account of a unique politician and a vital period in Australia’s history.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

1 y separately published work icon Burley Patrick Mullins (editor), Cara Foster (editor), 2012 Canberra : 2012- Z1837836 2012 periodical 'Burley is a brand new literary journal for Canberra writers and readers. We looked around Canberra and realised there are an awful lot of people writing poetry, stories and all sorts of interesting non-fiction but rather fewer places to be published in print. So, with the help of ArtsACT, we thought we'd do something about it.' (Burley website)
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