The European inhabitants of terra Australis have grappled with an enduring sense of geographic and cultural isolation since the earliest of days of their settlement. In its earliest manifestation, this was driven by a perception of themselves as white- British pioneers inhabiting a far- distant outpost of Empire surrounded by unfamiliar (and potentially aggressive) nations. These anxieties about culture and belonging, geography and isolation have endured. They resonate deeply, playing out in art and culture; in media and public debate; and in the language of foreign policy and economic development in the private and public sectors. Throughout Australian history, political leaders have worked in this context to provide answers to the question ‘where do we belong?’ and employed various mechanisms to invite Australians to locate themselves securely in the world.

This chapter engages with the campaign language of three leaders who provided complex, multilayered answers to the fundamental question ‘what is Australia's place in the world?’ at key periods in the nation's history: the decade following Federation; the time of upheaval between World War II and the end of the Cold War; and the strategic repositioning that followed the economic restructuring of the mid- to late- 1980s. George Houstoun Reid, Robert Menzies and Paul Keating all provided voters with a vision of Australian belonging that was both a comfort and a challenge, familiar and unsettling. The shifting and dynamic nature of Australian belonging comes into focus here, as these leaders grappled with uncertainty in ways that were often surprising: calling on Australians to think in new ways about their place in the world. All three, despite their vastly different levels of success at the ballot box and length of time in office, had a deep and enduring impact on the discourse of national belonging in Australian politics. The legacy of their language both echoed in the campaign battles to come and also fundamentally influenced the shape of Australian identity stories.

Rather than proposing radical shifts, these leaders claimed to be the guardians of Australia's traditional place in the world, using this as the basis to extend voters’ understandings of where they belonged.