ผู้สมัครชิงตำแหน่งประธานาธิบดีเรแกนเคยเขียนบทกวีเกี่ยวกับ “เมืองที่ส่องสว่างสดใสบนเนินเขา” การถกเถียงครั้งที่สองเป็นเรื่องยุ่งเหยิงในการฟังใน Simi Valley แห่งแคลิฟอร์เนีย
Even in Australia’s final match, when we lost against England, she gave the country what was dubbed the goal of the tournament, dribbling the ball from the halfway line and kicking it in a long curve that skipped the fingers of the goalie in full swan dive. It was the moment that makes football – do we still call it soccer? – the most beautiful of games.
AFR Magazine defines cultural power as the ability to shape Australia’s view of itself, crystallise an overarching issue in any given year, or reflect us back to ourselves. The Matildas’ World Cup campaign brought out the best in Australia. It also collided with another cultural moment that painted the town not green and gold, but pink. Barbie, starring and produced by Margot Robbie, opened in Australia the day before the Matildas’ first game against Ireland. As one 11-year-old watching the movie said at the time: “It’s a pretty good week to be a girl.”
Barbie is already one of the 20 highest-grossing films of all time, and the highest-grossing film ever made by a female director – Greta Gerwig. While there was debate on the panel about whether Barbie can ever truly be a feminist icon, with Louise Adler, director of the Adelaide Writers’ Week, remaining firmly in the sceptical camp, everyone agreed the film was a cultural phenomenon, handing Robbie second ranking on this year’s list.
“Margot Robbie bought the rights to Barbie, conceived the concept with Greta Gerwig and produced the movie. Not many Australians have the vision and ability to impact culture on the global stage,” said Rosen.
“The same way that Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin were able to create global cultural moments, and Chris Hemsworth could say ‘if you want me in your movie, you’re going to have to film in Australia’, Margot has now put herself at that level.”
Margot Robbie in a scene from Barbie.
While Barbie was smashing box office records, Bluey, the Australian-made children’s cartoon about a family of blue heelers, was the second-most-streamed series on American television in July, following the release of new episodes. Bluey’s runaway success since the show launched in 2018 has made creator Joe Brumm a perennial almost-ran on the cultural power list.
But with the show crossing one billion minutes watched for the first time, the panel decided that the Queenslander should take out the No. 9 spot. “It’s unbelievable how extraordinarily massive Bluey is globally,” said Amanda Laing, Foxtel’s chief content and commercial officer.
Dad Bandit, Mum Chilli, Bluey and Bingo in Bluey. Ludo Studio
“It’s not just something you know about if you have kids. It has hit the mainstream. The creators and actors voicing Bluey characters are appearing on late-night shows in the US. Bluey merchandise is flying off the shelves in the UK. What does that mean for the next person who is an Australian animator? Suddenly doors open.”
Bluey’s new episodes rated off the charts in Australia, with the ABC claiming the average total audience for the series was 11 million across ABC broadcast channels and ABC iview, making it the most watched series ever. Many people think of Bluey as an Australian series but panellist Adler pointed out that its marketing and ancillary rights are owned by BBC studios, while Disney owns some global broadcast rights. Still, it is Australian-made, with Australian accents – leading to regular news stories in the UK and US of children picking up an Aussie twang.
It has also become “a bible for modern parenting” as one recent headline put it, with the parents of Bluey, particularly dad Bandit, spending hours playing games with their children.
This new type of role model was a feature of the list; cricket captain Pat Cummins, pop artist and actor Troye Sivan and television presenter and former AFL player Tony Armstrong all made the cut because they have changed what it means to be a young male leader in Australia.
“It has been said that after the prime minister, the Australian cricket captain is the most powerful position in the country. If so, Pat represents what it means to be an Australian male leader in this new era, what it means to be an Aussie bloke,” said Rosen. “You can be emotionally open and values-driven, but still be a competitive beast.”
Sivan, whose recently released single Rush is a global hit and who appeared in the critically panned but high-profile series The Idol alongside Lily-Rose Depp, was credited with having a broader cultural influence outside music and television. He is a regular at fashion shows, a video tour of his Melbourne house went viral and in August he launched Tsu Lange Yor, a new line of fragrances and homewares.
“I love that his house is full of Australian art and design that has been commissioned by him,” said Powerhouse Museum chief executive Lisa Havilah. “I think he works seamlessly over multiple disciplines.”
The panel pointed out the lack of media proprietors up for contention on this year’s list. Instead, the media was represented by Armstrong, an ABC sports presenter and former AFL player – who “is going to be very popular for a long time because he’s very authentic”, according to Laing – and investigative journalist Nick McKenzie.
The 2017 reporting of McKenzie and Chris Masters on the alleged war crimes of Australia’s most decorated living soldier was back in the spotlight again this year, at the centre of what could be the defamation trial of the century.
Ben Roberts-Smith, a well-resourced plaintiff with a rich benefactor in Kerry Stokes, took McKenzie, Masters and fellow journalist David Wroe to court, along with The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age (both owned by Nine, which also owns The Australian Financial Review).
The 110-day trial was closely watched around the country as the towering figure of Roberts-Smith strode into court each day. He argued their stories portrayed him as a criminal who “disgraced” his country and its army. The newspapers defended their reporting as true. And they won. Roberts-Smith has appealed against the landmark defamation decision.
On the panel, Laing said the reporting and the case had “moved our culture forward. And it’s terrifying to some people because it makes us confront the question of who we are if we don’t have those heroes”. Adler said: “It shows how quality journalism can shape or influence our national identity.”
It was a big year for investigative journalism. The Financial Review broke the PwC tax leaks scandal and allegations were raised in The Australian of Indigenous art being interfered with by white staff in APY Arts Centre Collective studios.
Nick McKenzie addresses media after the judgment in June. James Brickwood
But the panel found that McKenzie, who has won 14 Walkley awards and published a book this year about the Roberts-Smith investigation, the five-year court battle and his struggle to persuade special forces soldiers to give evidence, was the person to be on this year’s list.
An Australian arts minister has also made it back onto the list for the first time in seven years. In 2016, Mitch Fifield and his predecessor, George Brandis, were ranked at No. 8 because of their impact on arts funding. A year earlier, Brandis had stripped $105 million out of the federal government’s main arts bureaucracy, the Australia Council, and put it into a separate fund to be administered by his department.
At the time, it was dubbed a “slush fund” by critics, allowing the minister to hand-pick projects, and it was eventually scrapped. This year, Tony Burke has taken out third spot on the list because, as Adler said, he introduced “the first cultural policy we have had in over a decade”.
“He’s committed to culture. You can see it in what he has done,” she said. “It really matters when you have federal and state politicians and arts ministers who are deeply engaged and care about and go to events.”
The new policy committed an extra $286 million in arts funding and super-sized the Australia Council, renaming it Creative Australia and promising a broader remit. The panel agreed this name change was a significant shift for arts policy.
“I think there is this feeling that high arts and culture and what’s termed creative industries are moving on to an equal platform from a policy approach and I think that’s very significant,” said Havilah.
“There is a shift from sandstone cultural infrastructure, like the major institutions, into those broader industries: fashion, music, film, gaming, TV and animation. If that can be adopted across all levels of government – federal and state – it will have a big impact.”
Havilah raised a concern that Burke’s other portfolio, industrial relations, could swallow up most of his time. “I just hope there’s enough space for him to actually drive forward the change he has identified.” But Rosen noted that Burke has been “waiting to get back into this position”, having held it briefly in 2013.
“He has had almost a decade to think and plan what he wanted to do as arts minister. He is a rare arts minister that is deeply passionate about the creative sectors, shares the passion with his prime minister, and has the power and determination to actually get the government to implement new policy.”
Government oversight will become increasingly important with the rise of AI. While ChatGPT was ruled out as a contender for the list because it is not a person, Rosen said it was likely to be a cultural phenomenon over the next decade.
“AI is likely to have the biggest impact on our culture, both the way we produce and consume. And for music, film and all our creative industries, we can’t let happen again what occurred during the last technological disruption, which almost wiped us out. We need to embrace the creative opportunities of AI and, at the same time, ensure the government implements the legislative framework that protects our intellectual property so we can build the cultural business models of the future.”
While the arts minister made a comeback on the list this year, Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney, who topped the 2022 cultural power rankings, was not seen as a contender. Through her advocacy and strong relationship with Anthony Albanese, Burney was able to put an Indigenous Voice to parliament at the top of the government’s first-term agenda.
Supporters of an Indigenous Voice to parliament march in Redfern, Sydney on September 17. Steven Siewert
But in the view of the panel, she had been unable to transform from politician into a cultural force capable of personifying the case for Yes. To be successful, a referendum requires at least four of the six states as well as a national majority in favour.
By the time the panel met in late July, polls showed that No had overtaken Yes. While Laing spoke for many on the panel when she said she hoped the momentum would swing back to the Yes side, it was decided the cultural impact this year had been made by leading No campaigners: senators Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Lidia Thorpe.
The outcome may have been different had Noel Pearson, in many ways the father of the Voice, not already been selected for the overt power list – and hence ineligible for the cultural list. “There is no person that has galvanised the Yes campaign in the way that Jacinta Price and Lidia Thorpe have done for the No side,” said Rosen.
Price has grown in prominence since convincing the Nationals to oppose the plan last year. As leader of the Advance conservative lobby group’s campaign and shadow minister for Indigenous Australians, she has rallied people in remote communities and cut through with her argument that the Voice will create a new cashed-up bureaucracy trying to tell people what to do.
Price has become the face of the No campaign on the right, and Thorpe has taken up the fight from the left, arguing that a treaty should be the priority, including reparations. Rossi said Thorpe’s effective use of social media had given her cut-through.
“Lidia’s presence, on social and in the media, has been consistent in driving conversation over the last year,” Rossi said. “Her rejection of the expectations of the system has certainly resonated with many young people. There is undeniable power in her platform.”
If there was an element of regret in how the panel felt about the referendum, there was equally a tone of discomfort when the discussion turned to Brittany Higgins. The former staffer was on the overt list in 2021, the most powerful ranking to date of the women who have wielded power in the #MeToo era – Saxon Mullins topped the cultural power list in 2018, followed by Susan Kiefel in 2020 and Grace Tame in 2021.
But last December, the Bruce Lehrmann trial was abandoned due to juror misconduct and then, mid this year, text messages sent by Higgins and her fiance to senior figures in Labor were raked over in the press. And the story keeps going; Lehrmann is suing parts of the media for defamation; former ACT director of public prosecutions Shane Drumgold is suing over the findings against him by the Sofronoff inquiry.
In the view of the panel, the Higgins case started a conversation that needed to be had within politics, the arts and the broader community.
And then, after the panel met, came a reminder that gender politics can erupt on any field. Back at the World Cup in Sydney – which had, along the way, dropped the descriptor of “women’s” – Spain’s head of football, Luis Rubiales, forcibly kissed Spanish player Jennifer Hermoso. FIFA – not known for its morals – suspended Rubiales, and the players immediately went on strike over his refusal to stand down. Thus Spain went from world champions to no longer having a national team.
It was unexpected coda, but also a very 2020s turn of events. And certainly a spectacular own goal.
The AFR Magazine annual Power issue is out Friday, September 29, inside The Australian Financial Review. Follow AFR Mag on Twitter and Instagram.
ในช่วงเย็นครึ่งแรก ณ การแสดงละครของบริษัท Pioneer Theatre Company ฆาตกรรมบนรถด่วนสายตะวันออก, รู้สึกเหมือนว่าอกาธา คริสตี้คือคนที่ถูกฆาตกรรมมากกว่าเหยื่อ
การผลิตเปิดฤดูกาลของบริษัทจากการดัดแปลงของ Ken Ludwig การฆาตกรรมของอกาธา คริสตี้บนรถไฟสายตะวันออก, นำเสนอการแสดงสุดหล่อที่มีพลังสูงในคืนวันศุกร์ ซึ่งน่าจะเป็นการแสดงที่มีพลังสูงเกินไปสำหรับบางรสนิยมและคนรักคริสตี้
