Downfall: How the Labor Party Ripped Itself Apart by Aaron Patrick

$29.99 AUD

Category: Politics

It's the biggest and most puzzling story in Australian politics: how did the Australian Labor Party go from a thumping win in 2007 to facing annihilation in the forthcoming election? Other books have pointed to a lack of coherent policies and an over-reliance on polls--all true--but as this book makes c lear, Labor's biggest problem is one nobody wants to talk about; ethics. Dogged by scandal, tainted by self-serving heavies and political opportunists, Brand Labor is a shabby shadow of its former self. Can the much touted next leader, Bill Shorten act to save it, or will he proceed with business as usual? AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW journalist Aaron Patrick takes us behind the scenes of the dying ALP and charts the mistakes, scandals and PR disasters which characterize modern Labor and the simultaneous corrosion of a once great party from within. It will show what led to the shocking political downfall at federal and state levels and asks if--and how--a party so discredited can survive. ...Show more

Plots and Prayers: Malcolm Turnbull’s Demise and Scott Morrison’s Ascension by Niki Savva

$35.00 AUD

Category: Politics

'How good is this book! So much intrigue. So many revelations. Such a brilliant read.’Laurie OakesIn an enthralling sequel to her bestselling The Road to Ruin, Niki Savva reveals the inside story of a bungled coup that overthrew the Liberal prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, and installed a surpris e successor, Scott Morrison, who went on to take the party to a miraculous electoral victory.On 21 August 2018, 35 Liberal MPs cast their vote against Malcolm Turnbull, effectively signalling the end of his leadership. Three days later, the deed was done, and Scott Morrison was anointed prime minister.Tony Abbott’s relentless campaign of destabilisation, helped along by his acolytes in the parliament and by his powerful media mates, the betrayals of colleagues, and the rise of the religious right — climaxing in Peter Dutton's challenge — all played a part in Turnbull’s downfall.But so did Turnbull’s own poor political judgement. He was a good prime minister and a terrible politician. The good bits of Malcolm were not enough to make up for the bad Malcolm.Nevertheless, the sheer brutality of his removal left many Liberals aghast. MPs were traumatised or humiliated by eight days of madness. Men and women cried from sheer anguish. They went through hell, and feared when it was over that they would not make it back — and nor would the Liberal Party. As it turned out, redemption came with Morrison’s unexpected single-handed 2019 election victory.Turnbull’s road ended in ruins, as it was always bound to and as he always knew it would, as he predicted to Niki Savva less than three years before it happened.But when his end was imminent, he could not bear to let go. And when it was over, he was defiant, fragile — and, yes — vengeful.This is the inside story of what happened — and what happened next. ...Show more

Best Australian Political Cartoons 2018 by Russ Radcliffe

$29.99 AUD

Category: Politics

With Dean Alston, Peter Broelman, Pat Campbell, Andrew Dyson, John Farmer, First Dog on the Moon, Matt Golding, Fiona Katauskas, Mark Knight, Jon Kudelka, Alan Moir, David Pope, David Rowe, Andrew Weldon, Cathy Wilcox, Paul Zanetti, and many more . . .

Quarterly Essay 74: Prosperity Gospel: How Scott Morrison Won and Bill Shorten Lost (The 2019 Election) by Erik Jensen

$22.99 AUD

Category: Politics

What went wrong for Labor and how did Scott Morrison achieve his remarkable victory? In this dazzling report from the campaign trail, Erik Jensen homes in on the insecurities that drive Bill Shorten and the certainties that helped Scott Morrison win. He considers how each man reflects, challenges and co mforts the national character. Who are Morrison’s “quiet Australians”? What did Shorten Labor fail to see? And will fear always trump hope in politics? The Prosperity Gospel sheds new light on the politics of a divided nation. “Arthur Sinodinos says the election is a crapshoot. He’s in a car park in Nowra, waiting for Morrison. ‘The momentum has been with us at different times, especially in Queensland,’ he says. ‘Central Queensland, even the outer suburbs of Brisbane. It’s a narrow pathway to victory, with the odds going the other way. But it ain’t over until it’s over.’ Despite everything, Arthur Sinodinos has an honest face. He does not look confident.” ...Show more

George Seddon: Selected Writings by Andrea Gaynor

$32.99 AUD

Category: Politics

George Seddon, one of Australia's most revered environmental scholars, was renowned for championing 'a sense of place'. He was a connoisseur of landscapes - from the rugged Snowy River Mountains to the humble domestic backyard - who explored the contested relationship between metropolitan suburbs, agric ultural hinterlands and wilderness areas, and the dynamics of everything from resource extraction to tending our own gardens. He sought to radically rethink our relationship with nature. Seddon's work anticipated the new fields of urban planning, landscape architecture, environmental conservation, but he was also an irrepressible polymath. A professor in four distinct disciplines - English, geology, the history and philosophy of science, and environmental sciences - he also carved out a career in community, regional and government consultation, wrote practical guides to gardening, heritage walks and house restoration, and the first Australian suburban history. Collected here are highlights of Seddon's groundbreaking writing, selected and edited by Andrea Gaynor, a leading scholar of environmental history, and with a lively introduction from leading historian Tom Griffiths. 'Seddon . . . contributed to creatively embracing - and sometimes overturning - the predicament of the antipodean. He has been one of the people who has generated the new environmental narratives that indigenise Australia, and which undermine the dominant imperialist, diffusionist, one-way accounts of origins.' - Tom Griffiths ...Show more

Penny Wong: The Biography by Margaret Simons

$34.99 AUD

Category: Politics | Reading Level: 3 Biography

Senator Penny Wong is an extraordinary Australian politician. Resolute, self-possessed and a penetrating thinker on subjects from workplace relations to foreign affairs, she is admired by members of parliament and the public from across the political divide. In this first-ever biography of Penny Wong, a cclaimed journalist Margaret Simons traces her story- from her early life in Malaysia, to her student activism in Adelaide, to her time in the turbulent Rudd-Gillard-Rudd governments, to her leading role as a voice of reason and respect in the polarising campaign to legalise same-sex marriage. What emerges is a picture of a leader for modern Australia, a cool-headed, cautious yet charismatic figure of piercing intelligence and a personal history linking back to Australia's colonial settlers through to its multicultural present. Drawing on exclusive interviews with Penny Wong and her Labor colleagues, parliamentary opponents, close friends and family, this scintillating portrait of an Australian politician without precedence promises to be one of the most talked-about political biographies of the year. ...Show more

Inside the Greens: The True Story of the Party, the Politics and the People by Paddy Manning

$34.99 AUD

Category: Politics

A revelatory examination of the history and the future of the Australian Greens. After a decade of unprecedented political volatility, Australians appear increasingly disillusioned with the two major parties. Yet the Greens, the third force in Australian politics since the turn of the century, get comp aratively little scrutiny. Inside the Greens is a warts-and-all look at the party's roots, key personalities, policies, turning points, and highs and lows, with all the colour and cloak-and-dagger factional intrigue thrown in. The key question was framed by former prime minister Julia Gillard- are the Greens just a party of protest or can they become a party of government? Put another way, are the Greens up to it? Journalist Paddy Manning interviews those on all sides of the story - friends and foes both inside and outside the party, and Greens past and present, including Bob Brown, Christine Milne, Lee Rhiannon, Adam Bandt, Scott Ludlam and Richard Di Natale. Drawing on the history and current challenges for the party to examine its future, Manning weaves a compelling and controversial account of where the Greens - and Australia - are heading. ...Show more

The Good, the Bad and the Unlikely: Australia's Prime Ministers by Mungo MacCallum

$32.99 AUD

Category: Politics | Reading Level: 4 Non Fiction

Since 1901, thirty different leaders have run the national show. Whether their term was eight days or eighteen years, each prime minister has a story worth sharing. Edmund Barton united the bickering states in a federation. The unlucky Jimmy Scullin took office days before Wall Street crashed into the G reat Depression. John Curtin faced the ultimate challenge of wartime leadership. John Gorton, Gough Whitlam and Paul Keating each shook up their parties' policies so vigorously that none lasted much longer than a single term. Harold Holt spent three decades in parliament, only to disappear while swimming off the coast of Victoria two years into his first term. John Howard's 'triple bypass' is the stuff of legend. Julia Gillard overthrew Kevin Rudd and Kevin Rudd overthrew Julia Gillard, thus paving the way for Tony Abbott, who was ousted by Malcolm Turnbull - until he too was toppled, this time by Scott Morrison. But is Australia's thirty-first prime minister just around the corner? With characteristic wit and expert knowledge, Mungo MacCallum brings the nation's leaders to life in this fully up-to-date new edition of a classic book. ...Show more

Talking up a Legacy: Australian Prime Ministers and the Speeches We Remember Them By by Tom Clark

$26.99 AUD

Category: Politics

The Golden Country: Australia's Changing Identity by Tim Watts

$32.99 AUD

Category: Politics | Reading Level: 4 Non Fiction

John Howard was the unlikely reformer of Australian society. He loosened migration laws, massively boosting the population and making it less white. Simultaneously, his divisive rhetoric about national identity--a legacy of White Australia--hamstrung discussion of these huge changes. As the MP for a div erse electorate, the partner of a Hong-Kong-Chinese-Australian and father of Eurasian-Australians, and the descendant of a proponent of laws stopping Chinese people from coming here, Tim Watts asks: Why don't we remember Billy Sing, the Chinese-Australian sharpshooter at Gallipoli, or that Ararat was founded by Chinese miners? Why is Australia's imagined community so far behind our lived community? The Golden Countrychallenges us to reckon with the dark heart of Federation, the racial core of the Australian Legend, and to confront outdated notions of Australianness. It crunches the numbers on the economic and social effects of migration, and looks to a more inclusive future. ...Show more

Advancing Australia by John Watson; Amanda Dunn

$19.99 AUD

Category: Politics

Politics in Australia is in a dire state. The Coalition government is led by its third prime minister in four years, two of whom were toppled by their own party. Before that, the Labor government ousted two prime ministers. Voters' trust in politicians is at an all-time low, there is policy inertia on k ey issues, and ideology and internal politics too often trump good government. We have the diagnosis, but what's the cure? In this collection of essays, the country's best academic minds look at the key issues and chart a way forward. They examine how Australia's taxation system could be fairer; the priorities in progressing Indigenous Australians' rights; the absurdity of the constant 'left versus right' debate; how to fix private health insurance; and how to settle the conflict between population and migration policies. Here are innovative and bold ideas to advance Australia. ...Show more

Robert Menzies: The Art of Politics by Troy Bramston

$49.99 AUD

Category: Politics

Robert Menzies claimed the prime ministership in 1939 and led the nation during the early years of the war, but resigned two years later when he lost the confidence of his party. His political career seemed over, and yet he staged one of the great comebacks to forge a new political party, devise a new g overning philosophy, and craft a winning electoral approach that as to make him Australia's longest-serving prime minister. The lessons Menzies learned - and the way he applied them - made him a model that every Liberal leader since has looked to for inspiration. But debate over Menzies' life and legacy has never settled. Who was Robert Menzies, what did he stand for, what did he achieve? Troy Bramston has not only researched the official record and published accounts, but has also interviewed members of Menzies'  family, and his former advisers and ministers. He has also been given exclusive access to family letters, as well as to a series of interviews that Menzies gave that have never been revealed before. They are a major historical find, in which Menzies talks about his life, reflects on political events and personalities, offers political lessons, and candidly assesses his successors. Robert Menzies is the first biography in 20 years of the Liberal icon - and it contains important contemporary lessons for those who want to understand, and master, the art and science of politics. ...Show more