The name Quadrant was suggested by the publisher Alec Bolton, husband of the poet Rosemary Dobson (she had declined to join the editorial board of Quadrant, not wanting to be seen as "part of the right").[7]
After the publication of the 1997 Bringing Them Home report about the Stolen Generations, Quadrant published a number of articles critical of the report's methodology and conclusions. Professor Robert Manne, who edited the magazine from 1990 to 1997, claimed that the Howard government's response to Bringing Them Home was influenced by and "collusive with" Quadrant's position.[9]
In the week following the Manchester Arena bombing, Quadrant's online editor Roger Franklin wrote an article titled "The Manchester Bomber's ABC Pals",[12] referring to the ABC's Q&A TV program. In it he wrote: "Had there been a shred of justice, that blast would have detonated in an Ultimo TV studio"[13] and "... none of the panel’s likely casualties would have represented the slightest reduction in humanity’s intelligence, decency, empathy or honesty".[14][15]ABC Managing director Michelle Guthrie called for the article to "be removed and apologised for".[16]Quadrant editor-in-chief Keith Windschuttle acknowledged that the article was "intemperate" and "a serious error of judgment" and apologised for the offence it had caused. [11] The article was removed from the website.[17]
Stance and values
In October 1992, Dame Leonie Kramer, then the chairman of the magazine's board of directors, discussed the "deep values" of Quadrant:
"the intrinsic value of cultural and intellectual freedom and of inquiry ..."
"cultural and intellectual freedoms, indeed negative liberties generally, depend upon an abundance of autonomous institutions and an open society ..."
"political democracy ... support of particular democratic institutions, and a culture that accepts peaceful and democratic modes of government and change of government ..."
"liberal democracy, that is democracy that respects individual liberty ... insists that government be limited: by other holders of political and economic resources, by legally protected private property, by free media, and most of all by the rule of law, that is the restraint and channelling of power by law ..."
"the virtues, and commonly the wisdom, borne by traditions in social and moral life ... It has not pretended that traditions have all the answers or should be treated with uncritical reverence ... It has, however, recommended that ... long established moral and social practices be treated with respect and caution."
"an economic order in which markets are allowed to work - within the rule of law (and the framework of property rights) - as sources of information, as ingredients and supporters of liberty and as facilitators of competitive private enterprise and individual choice ..."[18]
In 2007, Quadrant's mission was described by its editor as:
To defend the great tradition of free and open debate, to make possible dissent, while at the same time insisting on both civilised discourse and rational argument. This mission is not the same as at Quadrant's founding, but it is not dissimilar. For while the communist dictatorship is no more, the love of anti-democratic dictators still survives among many intellectuals, as does their determination to impose their own strange beliefs on the population as a whole.[19]
In March 2008, the magazine was describing itself as sceptical of "unthinking leftism, or political correctness, and its 'smelly little orthodoxies'".[6] Regular contributors often support conspiracy theories such as that Covid-19 has a mild impact and that global warming is a hoax, and the 2020 US election was fraudulent.[11][20][21]
As of November 2019[update], the magazine describes itself as "Australia's most open minded publication",[22] while its home page includes articles critical of climate scientists, the ABC and "the Left's triumphal anti-clericalism."[23]
Hoax
In January 2009, Quadrant unknowingly published a hoax article. Its author, writer, editor and activist Katherine Wilson, stated that she aimed to show that the magazine and editor Keith Windschuttle had right-wing politics bias. Wilson claimed Windschuttle and Quadrant would publish an inaccurate article and not check its footnotes or authenticity if it met his preconceptions. Using the pseudonym "biotechnologist Dr Sharon Gould", Wilson submitted an article claiming that CSIRO had planned to produce food crops engineered with human genes.[24][25][26]
^John Chiddick (2017): Quadrant: The Evolution of an Australian Conservative Journal, in: G. Scott-Smith, C. Lerg (eds): Campaigning Culture and the Global Cold War. Palgrave Macmillan, London 2017.
CIA as Culture Vultures, an essay by Cassandra Pybus, Jacket Magazine, No. 12, July 2000, as an extract from her non-fictional account of the life of James McAuley
Quadrant's 50th anniversary (transcript) - interviews with Martin Krygier (former Quadrant Director and son of founder), Dame Leonie Kramer AC DBE (former Quadrant Chair), and Paddy McGuinness, at ABC Radio National Counterpoint, 2006
