C. J. Coventry

Coventry grew up in the village of Stirling, South Australia in the Adelaide Hills.{{Cite journal |last=Coventry |first=C. J. |date=2019-03-22 |title=Links in the Chain: British slavery, Victoria and South Australia |url=https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:23671/ |journal=Before/Now |language=en-US |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=27–46}} He attended Stirling East Primary School and Prince Alfred College in Adelaide where he was captain of debating, editor of the school yearbook, and won Head of the River.{{Cite web |title=PAC Chronicle |url=https://pac.edu.au/news-events/publications/pac-chronicle/ |access-date=2022-12-07 |website=Prince Alfred College |language=en}}{{cite thesis |last=Coventry |first=C. J. |date=January 2023 |title=Keynes From Below: A Social History of Second World War Keynesian Economics |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340939637 |degree=PhD |chapter= |publisher=Federation University Australia |docket= |oclc= |access-date=}} After school Coventry studied at Adelaide Law School. In 2014 Coventry moved to Canberra to work in Senator Nick Xenophon's parliamentary office in the Australian Senate.Jamie Walker, 'Secret notes claimed Hawke 'informed' for US, 28 June 2021, The Australian, pgs. 1–2, https://www.theaustralian.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?sourceCode=TAWEB_WRE170_a_GGL&dest=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theaustralian.com.au%2Fnation%2Fsecret-notes-claim-bob-hawke-informed-for-us%2Fnews-story%2F84cc958a7093f0764ad5b6d2a2c8c501&memtype=registered&mode=premium He spent two years at Parliament, during which time he completed a degree in arts at the Australian National University, where he was educated by historian Frank Bongiorno.{{Cite thesis |title=Origins of the Royal Commission on Intelligence and Security |url=http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/61207 |publisher=UNSW Sydney |date=2018 |degree=Thesis |language=English |first=Cameron |last=Coventry|hdl=1959.4/61207 }}{{better source needed|date=July 2021}}

File:CoventrymeetsJackson.png in 2013.]]

At the University of New South Wales and the Australian Defence Force Academy Coventry completed a Master of Arts under the direction of political scientist Clinton Fernandes, submitting a dissertation in 2018 called "The Origins of the Royal Commission on Intelligence and Security." The dissertation was later used by former Justice of the High Court of Australia Michael Kirby in his work.Kirby, Michael, "The Changing Legal Framework of the Australian Intelligence Community," Australian Law Journal, 95 (2021) In 2017 he moved to Ballarat and began a PhD in 2019 for which he was awarded the university's stipendiary scholarship.Federation University Australia, 'Cameron Coventry', 7 July 2021, https://federation.edu.au/schools/school-of-arts/staff-profiles/sessional-staff/cameron-coventry In 2019, "Links in the Chain: British slavery, South Australia and Victoria" was published. This work generated debate in Adelaide and his adopted city of Ballarat about place-names honoring beneficiaries of slavery.Miles Kemp, 'How SA would sound without our famous slavers' 26, April 2019, The Advertiser, https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?sourceCode=AAWEB_WRE170_a&dest=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.adelaidenow.com.au%2Fnews%2Fsouth-australia%2Fhow-south-australia-would-sound-without-our-famous-slavers%2Fnews-story%2F3daa090785081017119605416b160a6a&memtype=registered&mode=premium{{Cite web |title=Breakfast with Steve Martin |url=https://www.abc.net.au/ballarat/programs/breakfast |access-date=2022-12-07 |website=ABC Ballarat |language=en-AU}} In 2020 Coventry jointly presented the Annual Lecture of the History Council of South Australia in which he discussed the need to reconsider 'South Australian exceptionalism' in light of its dependence on slave money.{{Cite web |title=Annual Regional Lecture |url=https://historycouncilsa.org.au/regional-event/ |access-date=2022-12-07 |website=History Council SA |language=en-AU}}

Coventry wrote an open letter to Ballarat City Council in 2021 denouncing its enclosure of the Ballarat Common that explained its long history and heritage significance.Coventry et al., 'The Tragedy of the Ballarat Common', The Courier, 29 May 2021, pg. 26. The letter was signed by 13 other scholars including Ian D. Clark. It provoked debate in the local paper, The Courier, about the overdevelopment of Ballarat and the loss of working class heritage.{{Cite web |date=2021-05-29 |title=Concerns over Ballarat Town Common |url=https://www.thecourier.com.au/story/7273782/concerns-over-ballarat-town-common/ |access-date=2022-12-07 |website=The Courier |language=en-AU}}Caleb Cluff, 'A space for the public,' The Courier, 6 June 2021 In 2022 the council indicated the creation of a new "great park" would be made from a portion of the old common.{{Cite web |date=2022-09-15 |title=Ballarat Commons will be preserved as parkland, says council director |url=https://www.thecourier.com.au/story/7904710/ballarat-commons-will-be-preserved-as-parkland-says-council-director/ |access-date=2022-12-07 |website=The Courier |language=en-AU}}

Coventry's PhD thesis, completed in 2023 at Federation University, Ballarat, is the first social history specifically focused on Keynesian economics. He shows that the introduction of the macroeconomic agenda of John Maynard Keynes during the Second World War was unpopular among workers in Australia and the United Kingdom. Coventry's thesis supervisors where the cultural historian Keir Reeves, the economic historian Alex Millmow, the socialist sociologist Jeremy C. A. Smith and the social/military historian Erik Eklund. He writes a blog, "In Search of the Modern Paideia," that aims to cover all of human history from human evolution to the 21st century using a materialistic and natural philosophical approach."In Search of the Modern Paideia", http://cjcoventry.co.uk/themodernpaideia, accessed 13 April 2025.

File:Coventry and Xenophon.png

In June 2021 the Australian Journal of Politics and History published "The 'Eloquence' of Robert J. Hawke: United States informer, 1973–79," which propounded the long-held suspicion that the former Prime Minister, Labor Party leader and ACTU President had collaborated with the United States Government in the 1970s. Coventry's article demonstrated by using documentary evidence that Hawke had handed considerable amounts of inside-information to US officials, undermining the causes he was publicly committed to. Coventry's article also named numerous other informers, including John Ducker, Billy Sneddon, Bill Hayden, Rupert Murdoch, David Combe and Don Willesee.{{cite journal |last1=Coventry |first1=C. J. |title=The 'Eloquence' of Robert J. Hawke: United States informer, 1973–79 |journal=Australian Journal of Politics & History |year=2021 |volume=67 |issue=1 |pages=67–87 |doi=10.1111/ajph.12763 |s2cid=237825933 |url=https://hcommons.org/deposits/download/hc:44278/CONTENT/coventry_the_eloquence_of_robert_j_hawke-pre-edit1.pdf/ }} Coventry later said the motivation for undertaking the research of the cables at the National Archives and Records Administration had been his recollections of media reports about the revelations of WikiLeaks which were "pertinent to the present debate about foreign interference – in the United States but also Australia."{{Cite web |last=Litras |first=Peter |date=2021-07-09 |title=Diplomatic cables an 'unmined quartz lead' for historians |url=https://federation.edu.au/news/articles/diplomatic-cables-an-unmined-quartz-lead-for-historians |access-date=2022-12-07 |website=federation.edu.au |language=en}}

The article attracted domestic and international media attention, including the front page of The Australian newspaper and as the lede weekend article on the Guardian Australia.Walker, The Australian{{Cite web |date=2021-07-02 |title=Secret embassy cables cast the Bob Hawke legend in a different light {{!}} Jeff Sparrow |url=http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/03/secret-embassy-cables-cast-the-bob-hawke-legend-in-a-different-light |access-date=2022-12-07 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Australia's Hawke, American Informant |url=https://thediplomat.com/2021/07/australias-hawke-american-informant/ |access-date=2022-12-07 |website=thediplomat.com |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=Diplomatic cables show Australian Labor leader Bob Hawke was US informant |url=https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/07/03/hawk-j03.html |access-date=2022-12-07 |website=World Socialist Web Site |date=3 July 2021 |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=From American Spy to Australian Prime Minister |url=https://tribunemag.co.uk/2021/09/from-american-spy-to-australian-prime-minister |access-date=2022-12-07 |website=tribunemag.co.uk |language=en-GB}} Within a fortnight the article was the most read article in the Journal's near-seven decade history.{{Cite web |last=Litras |first=Peter |date=2021-07-09 |title=Diplomatic cables an 'unmined quartz lead' for historians |url=https://federation.edu.au/news/articles/diplomatic-cables-an-unmined-quartz-lead-for-historians |access-date=2022-12-07 |website=federation.edu.au |language=en}} Journalist Jeff Sparrow said of Coventry's work: "Not all of Coventry’s evidence is new. But, assembled as a package, it deals a blow to the Hawke legend. Everyone loves a larrikin. Nobody likes a snitch."Sparrow, The Guardian. It was subsequently reported that the publication of the article had prevented Labor Leader, Anthony Albanese, from rebranding himself as Australia's next Hawke-style consensus politician.{{Cite web |last= |date=2021-07-08 |title=The secret bodgie |url=https://www.themonthly.com.au/blog/russell-marks/2021/08/2021/1625711682/secret-bodgie |access-date=2022-12-07 |website=The Monthly}} The revelation of Hawke's relationship with the United States was discussed by Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland in their history podcast The Rest is History and was likened to the activities of Jim Callaghan in the United Kingdom at the same time.{{Citation |title=189. Australian Prime Ministers: Bob Hawke – Scott Morrison {{!}} The Rest Is History |url=https://shows.acast.com/the-rest-is-history-podcast/episodes/189-australian-prime-ministers-bob-hawke-scott-morrison |access-date=2022-12-07}} Coventry gave a long-form interview for the Floodcast podcast on Hawke and the United States infiltration of the unions and ALP.https://www.floodmedia.org/floodcast/floodcast-episode-51-hawke-the-informer Another podcast criticised Coventry for being overly cautious in his interview.{{cite web | url=https://auspolsnackpod.podbean.com/e/118-unlocked-bonus-definitely-true-facts-about-bob-hawke-and-aliens/ | title=118 - UNLOCKED BONUS: Definitely True Facts about Bob Hawke (And aliens) | Auspol Snackpod: Australian Politics and Memes }} The article was cited in David Day's 2024 biography of Hawke, Young Hawke: The Making of a Larrikin.

The article was immediately censured by Hawke-Keating-era politicians. Stephen Loosely, who had been the ALP's national president during the early 1990s, said that the article was "nonsense" and "For someone half a century later to label these people informants, when they can't defend themselves, simply doesn't hold water." An erstwhile Liberal politician, Paul Everingham (the Northern Territory's Chief Minister from 1978 to 1984), said that the informer argument was "balls."The Australian, 30 June 2021, letter to the editor Hawke's authorised biographer wrote that the label "informant" or "spy" was "misleading" because Hawke had a close relationship with British officials as well.Troy Bramston, Bob Hawke: Demons & Destiny, The Definitive Biography (2022, Viking) An academic reviewer of Troy Bramston's biography of Hawke noted that Coventry's article was "one of the few academic sources referenced by Bramston."Braham Dabscheck, "Troy Bramston, Bob Hawke: Demons And Destiny, The Definitive Biography, Viking/Penguin Random House, Melbourne, 2022", The Economic and Labour Relations Review, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/10353046221108786?journalCode=elra Coventry's article was reviewed for the Melbourne Labour History Society by former secretary of the Victorian Trades Hall, Brian Boyd, which added further information about what was known of Hawke's US connections at the time.Brian Boyd, "Bob Hawke and Foreign Interference", Recorder (Melbourne Labour History Society), November, 2021, 15–16

In 2023, Coventry wrote an article on Hawke's famous world record beer skol (scull) in which he showed it to be "apocryphal, possibly fabricated".C. J. Coventry, "Sedimentary Layers: Bob Hawke’s Beer World Record and Ocker Chic" Journal of Australian Studies (2023), 47:3, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14443058.2023.2215790, pp. 478–496 However, the record played a key part of Hawke's "ocker chic" (Australian machismo) image designed to appeal to Australian voters. Since the 1970s, ocker chic became the public relations model for Australian politicians. Since the 1980s middle-class masculinists have used ocker chic to reassert their power over Australian politics, economics, culture and society. Coventry received the John Barrett Award for this article in 2024. Commentary on the article in the press linked Hawke's dubious world record beer scull with other well-known but fabricated stories about him.Michael Piggott, "White lies, archival truths and R.J.L. Hawke", Inside Story 17 October 2024, https://insidestory.org.au/white-lies-archival-truths-and-r-j-l-hawke/ The article as of January 2025 is on the all-time top 30 most read articles published in the Journal of Australian Studies (JAS).Journal of Australian Studies, All time most read articles, January 2025, https://www.tandfonline.com/action/showMostReadArticles?journalCode=rjau20 Day's biography of Hawke has since affirmed the evidential problems with the Hawke world record.David Day, Young Hawke: The Making of a Larrikin, HarperCollins, 2024.

After living in Adelaide, Canberra, Melbourne, Ballarat and in New Zealand on the edge of Fiordland National Park, he now lives with his wife and three children in South London, United Kingdom. In 2015 Coventry married Rebecca Coventry, who is a fintech lawyer currently working for Visa Inc..Adelaide Hills Magazine, February 2016 https://web.archive.org/web/20160401222511/http://www.adelaidehillsmagazine.com.au/long-distance-love-adelaide-hills-wedding

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