ABSTRACT
There was a time when a suspicion of capitalism and a lack of respect for business seemed to be a permanent feature of representations of Australian life. The business media developed just such a complicit relationship with the highest flying sections of Australian business during the eighties. As John McManamy has said, there could be no better symbol for the arrival of the larrikin capitalists than the America's Cup. When Bond's boat won the cup, the connection between the national character and the Aussie entrepreneurs was completed. The chapter aims to examine one aspect of this complex phenomenon in order to suggest how the alignment between representations of the interests of business and those of the nation was established. It outlines a more detailed example of this 'discursive nationalisation' of business and the complicity of the media in this process, by reviewing the media construction of the figure of Alan Bond.
