John Howard used nostalgia successfully as a political weapon. Angus Taylor will find it tougher

February 23, 2026 — 5:00am

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In a speech 10 years ago, novelist Zadie Smith pointed out the way nostalgia divided people. “Time travel is a discretionary art,” she said, “a pleasure trip for some and a horror story for others.” A US study had found Republican voters preferred the 1950s, a nostalgia “unavailable to a person like me”, Smith said, “for in that period I could not vote, marry my husband, have my children, work in the university I work in, or live in my neighbourhood”.

If anything, since then, nostalgia has become more powerful. That year, 2016, seems to have been an inflection point. Smith was writing in the immediate aftermath of Donald Trump’s first election as president. His slogan, “Make America Great Again”, was a perfect meld of pitches. It felt new because “America” always stands for renewal. But the idea that the country could be great again called back to an older version of America. Desire for the past and hope for the future both played their part.

The blend is not novel. It was there in earlier incarnations of conservatism. The years in which John Howard was prime minister were marked by an intense focus on preserving what had been. His government legislated to protect marriage in its traditional, homophobic form. Traditions devoted to celebrating certain aspects of Australia’s past – Australia Day and Anzac Day – were given new importance.

But at........

© The Sydney Morning Herald