‘The white males no longer rule’: Australia’s changed, and not in a way that helps One Nation

September 20, 2026 — 5:00am

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George Megalogenis is one of Australia’s most respected political journalists and commentators. His latest book, Three Shocks, maintains that Australia has undergone seismic changes in recent years which are only just being recognised.

Fitz: George, congratulations on the book. I can’t say that I’ve read it cover-to-cover, but in the words of Gough Whitlam when I once asked him had he read John Edwards’ book on Paul Keating, “Comrade, I have glanced at it extensively”. And I’ve read extracts and got the guts of it. Can we go through what the three shocks are for Australia, in the title?

GM: [Laughing at Whitlam line.] Yeah, No.1 shock is Australia has become a majority migrant nation again – a majority of people who are either a migrant themselves or are the children of migrants, like myself. That line was crossed around 2018.

GM: The largest group of workers by occupation are professional females, tertiary-educated women. Their numbers have now surpassed those of blue-collar workers, the revered figure so vaunted, politicians John Howard referred to as “a battler”. Then he was an “aspirational voter”. Tony Abbott had him as “a tradie”. Scott Morrison subsequently had him as “the quiet Australian”. I wouldn’t say his time is ever up, but he is now substantially outnumbered by women working in professions. And that line was crossed in 2015, just as Tony Abbott was about to lose his job. Also, women working as carers now outnumber male labourers. So these first two were identity shocks for us. The story we have been telling ourselves since European settlement, that we are a white nation centred on the labour of men working with their hands, no longer adds up. That’s just not who we are today. The white males no longer rule.

Fitz: Well, allow me to say, on the behalf of my fellow stale, pale, males, I resemble that remark! But that had political ramifications ...

GM: [Laughing lightly.] There are obviously political implications, which manifests itself in quite a dramatic way in the 2022 election, and again in the 2025 election. Obviously, the teal vote in ’22, but also the eviction of the Liberals from the capital cities is essentially a story of these two identity shocks coming to pass. And despite my Greek heritage, I identify, I might say, as one of the white males. On stage with Magda Szubanski at the Byron Writers Festival, I noted Greeks obviously weren’t considered white Australians growing up. She said I was a white Australian. I said, “When do you think I became white, Magda?” And she said, “Well, that’s easy George. When the Vietnamese came.” Imagine 500 people in the auditorium at Byron Bay. I’ve never heard an identity joke land better than Magda’s.

Fitz: Love it! But this was a phenomenal historical and political change?

GM: Absolutely. Our second prime minister, Alfred Deakin, once penned an infamous anonymous article for the British audience after the passage of the White Australia policy, where he noted that when it came to immigrants, Australians would have no traffic with the “unclean thing”. If your skin was tainted by any degree – yellow, copper, brown – Australia would have nothing to do with that that type of migrant. Politics was predicated on it and male dominance. And now here we are – in those last elections, politics caught up with reality. The........

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