ABSTRACT
When Makybe Diva, the only horse to win three successive Melbourne Cups, surged ahead on the final straight at Flemington on Cup Day in 2005, the callers couldn’t stop repeating that people were watching history being written before their eyes. As many Australians availed themselves of a day off to be relaxed and comfortable, the Howard government chose Melbourne Cup Day 2005 to rush before Parliament two of the most far-reaching pieces of legislation in Australian parliamentary history. John Howard’s Melbourne Cup week in November 2005 was characterised by a mix of emergency, fear and the rapid-fire passing of radical legislation rarely seen in Australia’s history. Australia’s modern legal system, with its protection of individuals from unchecked persecution by the state, is the result of ordinary people’s long historical struggles against the power of their rulers.
