JOE ASTON The Chairman’s Lounge. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck
There’s more to Joe Aston’s book about Australia’s national carrier Qantas than access to a luxury airport lounge. From 2011 to 2023, Joe Aston wrote the highly entertaining ‘Rear Window’ column for The Australian Financial Review, and delighted in exposing the...
PETER VAN ONSELEN and WAYNE ERRINGTON Victory: The inside story of Labor’s return to power. Reviewed by Bernard Whimpress
This expert analysis of the 2022 federal election examines Labor’s rebuilding process, the six-week campaign, and the challenges ahead. Victory was released for sale just over four months after election day, but it would be foolish to categorise it as a ‘quickie’. It...
CAMERON K. MURRAY and PAUL FRIJTERS Rigged. Reviewed by Susan Francis
Cameron K. Murray and Paul Frijters reveal how Australia is run by the ‘Game of Mates’, the cosy relationships at the centre of power. Given current discussions about a federal ICAC, and a continuing avalanche of corruption allegations against former members of the...
MATTHEW RICKETSON and PATRICK MULLINS Who Needs the ABC? Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck
Matthew Ricketson and Patrick Mullins make the case for Australia’s public broadcaster. If the title of Matthew Ricketson and Patrick Mullins’s book is a question, the subtitle – ‘Why taking it for granted is no longer an option’ – implies the answer: everyone....
GIDEON HAIGH The Brilliant Boy: Doc Evatt and the Great Australian Dissent. Reviewed by Bernard Whimpress
Gideon Haigh has written a captivating account of the legal career of one of Australia’s most enthralling public figures, Herbert Vere Evatt, and a defining court case. Better known as ‘Doc’ or ‘Bert’, Evatt was Minister for External Affairs and Attorney General...
SAMANTHA MAIDEN Party Animals: The secret history of a Labor fiasco. Reviewed by Bernard Whimpress
Samantha Maiden’s Party Animals is a multi-faceted analysis of the 2019 federal election, the election the Labor party was expected to win – but didn’t. In her introduction, political journalist Maiden offers a depressing thesis: that from recent evidence the...
TERRY IRVING The Fatal Lure of Politics: The life and thought of Vere Gordon Childe. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck
Terry Irving charts the politics of early twentieth century Australia through the life of writer and polymath Vere Gordon Childe. Vere Gordon Childe (1892–1957) was one of Australia’s most distinguished scholars and public intellectuals in the first half of the...
MALCOLM TURNBULL A Bigger Picture. Reviewed by James McKenzie Watson
Malcom Turnbull’s expansive autobiography, A Bigger Picture, is as much a rebuttal of critics of his prime ministership as it is a personal memoir. In it, the 29th Prime Minister of Australia defends his legacy, savages his opponents and describes a modern Australia...
JUDITH BRETT From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage: How Australia got Compulsory Voting. Reviewed by Bernard Whimpress
Australian politicians might rank low in public esteem but as this incisive book from Judith Brett reveals, our system of voting is admirable compared to the rest of the world’s democracies and certainly superior to those of the United Kingdom and the United States....
PHILIP CHUBB Power Failure: The inside story of climate politics under Rudd and Gillard. Reviewed by Kurt Johnson
How did the politics of climate change become so intractable? Power Failure gives an account of the Rudd–Gillard years – a pertinent reminder as Australia goes to the polls in 2019. Again, something is in the air. It is the acrid tang of a looming election. With it...
ROBERT MANNE On Borrowed Time. Reviewed by Suzanne Marks
From asylum seekers to politics, climate change and the personal challenges of dealing with cancer, Robert Manne’s essays are a rich canvas and urge us to interrogate prejudice and injustice wherever they threaten to take root. When Robert Manne, Emeritus...
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