This week brought the news that Georgina Downer has been preselected as the Liberal candidate for the seat of Mayo (recently vacated by the Centre Alliance MP Rebekha Sharkie, who was taken in the great Section 44 purges of 2017/18). Should she be successful in the upcoming byelection, Downer -- a research fellow with the right wing think tank the Institute of Public Affairs -- will be the fourth consecutive generation of the Downer family to serve prominently in Australian politics. 

Australia is, it turns out, more seduced by dynastic authority than we like to think.