Sir Henry Parkes became Premier of New South Wales on four occasions and was instrumental in preventing the
Squattocracy, who occupied large tracts of Crown land in order to graze livestock, from turning the upper House of Parliament (New South Wales) into a replica of Britain's unelected Lords chamber.
In fact, the term '
squattocracy' is often used to describe them" (Elliott 2011: 23).
Where once upon a time the centralised industrial relations system, the power of unions, and the Labor Party were the instruments of rent transfer to lower and middle classes through high wages and full employment in the post-war decades, in recent times the erosion of unions, destruction of the IR system, and the rise of the new
squattocracy (mining corporations) has exacerbated inequality of power and income.
thedynastically-minded
squattocracy), and city shopkeepers of a much
As Kinsella writes, "The displacement and relocation of class conflict led by the
squattocracy and selectors of the early to mid-nineteenth century meant a disruption of the pastoral 'high' and 'low' dramatizations" (136).
By 1869, however, land was more freely available and the power and influence of the
squattocracy was diminished.
Unfortunately, this lack of personal insight dooms Armytage to being simply carried along by the brief history of what Burke calls the Australian '
squattocracy' and the simple retelling of the tale of the BAE, rather than being an independent, central figure who can legitimately be focused upon.
In countries where land had come into private ownership without purchase payments being made to government--for example, by conquest, by government grants, or by the application of the alleged right of first arrival, or by simply settling on land without permission and without any government reaction, such as in the case of some of the early European settlers in Australia who became known as 'squatters' and later as the '
squattocracy'--the compensation question does not arise.
The
squattocracy is gone--what we have are blue collar workers.
In Melbourne the appreciation of the country houses of England signalled how after Federation the Victorian
squattocracy and the Melbourne middle class, to assume 'an upper class ease', embraced English models and precedents.
in order that we can function as a group, as a
squattocracy, as a community" (Episode 8).