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White-anting is an Australian term for the process of internal erosion of a foundation. It is often used in reference to groups such as political parties or organisations where information from group insiders is 'leaked' or used to undermine the goals of the group. The Macquarie Dictionary says the verb "to white-ant" means "to subvert or undermine from within".[ citation needed ]
The term is derived from the action of termites (white ants) eating the inside of wooden building foundations, often leaving no outward evidence, until the structure crumbles.
It has been used on the soap opera Neighbours several times including in 2006. [1]
In 2012, the Illawarra Mercury newspaper also used the term, when it reported that then-government minister Greg Combet wanted his colleagues to stop white-anting the Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard. [2]
In 1938, Gordon Childe used the term in a letter to Rajani Palme Dutt, explaining how in his books he used the method of 'white-anting' to get his Marxist message to the masses rather than labeling himself as a Marxist and using Marxist terms, thus eroding the institution of bourgeois scholarship. [3]
In 2019, Steve Smith, the returned former captain of the Australian cricket team, was accused of white-anting the new captain Tim Paine. [4]
In July 2019, Season 3 Episode 10 of the Australian TV show 'Sea Patrol', Buffer opines that Charge's ex-wife white-anted him by turning his kids against him.
Vere Gordon Childe was an Australian archaeologist who specialised in the study of European prehistory. He spent most of his life in the United Kingdom, working as an academic for the University of Edinburgh and then the Institute of Archaeology, London. He wrote twenty-six books during his career. Initially an early proponent of culture-historical archaeology, he later became the first exponent of Marxist archaeology in the Western world.
Simon Findlay Crean was an Australian politician and trade unionist. He was the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and leader of the opposition from 2001 to 2003. He represented the seat of Hotham in the House of Representatives from 1990 to 2013 and was a cabinet minister in the Hawke, Keating, Rudd and Gillard governments.
Rajani Palme Dutt, generally known as R. Palme Dutt, was a leading journalist and theoretician in the Communist Party of Great Britain, and briefly served as its fourth general secretary during World War II from October 1939 to June 1941. His classic book India Today heralded the Marxist approach in Indian historiography.
Champagne socialist is a political term commonly used in the United Kingdom. It is a popular epithet that implies a degree of hypocrisy, and it is closely related to the concept of the liberal elite. The phrase is used to describe self-identified anarchists, communists, and socialists whose luxurious lifestyles, metonymically including consumption of champagne, are ostensibly in conflict with their political beliefs.
Julia Eileen Gillard is an Australian former politician who served as the 27th prime minister of Australia and the leader of the Labor Party (ALP) from 2010 to 2013. She was the member of parliament (MP) for the Victorian division of Lalor from 1998 to 2013. She previously served as the 13th deputy prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010, under Kevin Rudd. She is the first and only woman to hold either office in Australian history.
Craig Anthony Emerson is an Australian economist and former politician. A member of the Australian Labor Party, he served as the Australian House of Representatives Member for the Division of Rankin in Queensland from 1998 until 2013. Emerson also served as Minister for Trade and Competitiveness, Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and Research and Minister for Competition Policy, Small Business and Consumer Affairs in the Rudd and Gillard Governments.
The Illawarra Steelers are an Australian rugby league football club based in the city of Wollongong, New South Wales. The club competed in Australia's top-level rugby league competition from 1982 until 1998. On 13 December 1980, they were the first non-Sydney based team to be admitted into the New South Wales Rugby League premiership, with the Canberra Raiders being admitted later ensuring an even number of teams in the competition for the start of their first season, 1982. Over their seventeen years in the top grade, the club received three wooden spoons, made the play-offs twice and had a total of three of its players selected to play for the Australia national rugby league team.
Rowan Cahill is an Australian historian and journalist, with a background as a teacher and farmhand, who variously worked for the trade union movement as a rank and file activist, delegate and publicist.
Gareth James Ward is an Australian politician who was the New South Wales Minister for Families, Communities and Disability Services in the second Berejiklian ministry from 2019 to 2021. Ward is a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly and has represented the seat of Kiama since 2011. He was suspended from NSW parliament in March 2022 until the end of that term in March 2023, after being charged with sexual intercourse without consent, and indecent assault.
Stephen John Gumley, AO was the first Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Defence Materiel Organisation, serving in the role from February 2004 to July 2011.
Trent Merrin is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played as a lock, prop and second-row forward for most of his playing career in the NRL.
The Gillard government was the Government of Australia led by the 27th prime minister of Australia, Julia Gillard, of the Australian Labor Party. The Gillard government succeeded the first Rudd government by way of the Labor Party leadership spill, and began on 24 June 2010, with Gillard sworn in as prime minister by the governor-general of Australia, Quentin Bryce. The Gillard government ended when Kevin Rudd won back the leadership of the Australian Labor Party on 26 June 2013 and commenced the second Rudd government.
The 2013 Australian federal election to elect the members of the 44th Parliament of Australia took place on Saturday 7 September 2013. The centre-right Liberal/National Coalition opposition led by Opposition leader Tony Abbott of the Liberal Party of Australia and Coalition partner the National Party of Australia, led by Warren Truss, defeated the incumbent centre-left Labor Party government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in a landslide. It was also the third time in history that a party won 90 or more seats at an Australian election. Labor had been in government for six years since being elected in the 2007 election. This election marked the end of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd Labor government and the start of the 9 year long Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Liberal-National Coalition government. Abbott was sworn in by the Governor-General, Quentin Bryce, as Australia's new prime minister on 18 September 2013, along with the Abbott Ministry. The 44th Parliament of Australia opened on 12 November 2013, with the members of the House of Representatives and territory senators sworn in. The state senators were sworn in by the next Governor-General Peter Cosgrove on 7 July 2014, with their six-year terms commencing on 1 July.
A leadership spill of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) was held on 4 December 2006. Opposition Leader Kim Beazley was challenged by Shadow Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, while Deputy Opposition Leader Jenny Macklin was challenged by Shadow Health Minister Julia Gillard in a joint-ticket. Rudd defeated Beazley, after which Macklin resigned, leaving Gillard to become Deputy Leader unopposed.
The Reverend Gordon Alfred Bradbery is the lord mayor of Wollongong and a minister of the Uniting Church, though not active in ministry since 2011. Bradbery was re-elected for another three-year term as Lord Mayor on 4 December 2021.
The Keneally ministry is the 92nd ministry of the Government of New South Wales, and was led by the 42nd Premier Kristina Keneally.
A leadership spill in the Australian Labor Party, the party of government in the Parliament of Australia, was held on 27 February 2012 at 10 am AEDT, followed by a ballot. The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, announced the spill at a press conference on 23 February 2012, following the resignation of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kevin Rudd, from his cabinet position after months of speculation that he intended to challenge Gillard for the leadership. Rudd announced his intention to seek the leadership at a press conference on 24 February.
The second Rudd government was the federal executive Government of Australia led by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of the Australian Labor Party. It commenced on 27 June 2013 and ceased on 18 September 2013. Rudd had previously served a term as Prime Minister from 2007 to 2010 and been replaced by his deputy Julia Gillard, following an internal party spill. Rudd regained the Labor Party leadership by successfully re-challenging Gillard in a June 2013 party spill. On 5 August, Rudd called an election for 7 September 2013, which resulted in the defeat of his government by the Liberal/National Coalition led by Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.
Julia Gillard's misogyny speech was a parliamentary speech delivered by Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard in parliament during Question Time on 9 October 2012 in reaction to the opposition leader Tony Abbott accusing her of sexism.
The Dalfram dispute of 1938 was a political industrial dispute at Port Kembla, New South Wales, Australia protesting the export of pig iron from Australia to Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War. It became famous for providing the nickname of Pig Iron Bob to Attorney General Robert Menzies, later Prime Minister.