Troy Bramston

This unprecedented biography of Hawke includes an exclusive series of interviews with him – the last that he gave – as well as unfiltered access to his extensive trove of personal papers. It features new interviews with more than 100 people who knew and worked with Hawke, including his family and friends; political and union colleagues, and rivals; advisers and public servants; and journalists; along with international contemporaries of Hawke such as George H.W. Bush, John Major, Brian Mulroney, James Baker and George Shultz. It also brings together an extraordinary array of never-before-seen archival documents: family diaries, notes, letters and scrapbooks; school and university reports; cabinet, departmental and vice-regal papers; party strategy documents, polling and caucus minutes; and secret correspondence and meeting records between Hawke and other Cold War leaders. Troy Bramston, an award-winning and best-selling author, tells the remarkable story of Hawke’s upbringing and education, the people and events that shaped him, his rise through the union movement, his complex personality and personal life marked by womanising and the demon drink, his nine-year government from 1983 to 1991, plus his post-prime ministerial life and legacy. This book is about the real Hawke, chronicling the stunning triumphs and shocking failures, a life riddled with huge flaws and great virtues marked by redemption and reinvention, which changed Australia and shaped the world. Revelatory and compelling, it will shock and surprise those who think they know the story of Australia’s most popular prime minister.

Demons and Destiny

Bob Hawke

Paul Keating: the big-picture leader is the definitive biography of Australia's 24th prime minister, and the first that Keating has cooperated with in more than two decades. Drawing on around 15 hours of new interviews with Keating, coupled with access to his extensive personal files, this book tells the story of a political warrior's rise to power, from the outer suburbs of Sydney through Young Labor and into parliament at just 25 years of age; serving as a minister in the last days of the Whitlam government; his path-breaking term as treasurer in the 1980s; his four-year prime ministership from 1991 to 1996; and his passions and interests since. Bramston has interviewed more than 100 people who know and worked with Keating, including his family, parliamentary colleagues, advisers, party officials, union leaders, public servants, journalists and former prime ministers. Bramston secured access to Labor Party archives, documents debates in oncesecret cabinet papers, reveals caucus minutes for the first time, draws on unpublished diaries, discloses meeting records with US presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, talks to former British prime minister Tony Blair, and shares his discoveries from the personal files of Gough Whitlam, Bill Hayden, Bob Hawke, and John Howard. Paul Keating saw political leadership as the combination of courage and imagination, a belief that powered his public career and helps explain his extraordinary triumphs and crushing lows. Keating blazed a trail of reform with a vision for Australia's future that still attracts ardent admirers and the staunchest critics. This book chronicles, analyses, and interprets Keating's life, and draws lessons for a Labor Party and a country still reluctant to fully embrace his legacy.

The Big-Picture Leader

Paul Keating

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2017 AUSTRALIAN BOOK INDUSTRY AWARDS, BIOGRAPHY BOOK OF THE YEAR Paul Keating: the big-picture leader is the definitive biography of Australia’s 24th prime minister, and the first that Keating has cooperated with in more than two decades. Drawing on around 15 hours of new interviews with Keating, coupled with access to his extensive personal files, this book tells the story of a political warrior’s rise to power, from the outer suburbs of Sydney through Young Labor and into parliament at just 25 years of age; serving as a minister in the last days of the Whitlam government; his path-breaking term as treasurer in the 1980s; his four-year prime ministership from 1991 to 1996; and his passions and interests since. Bramston has interviewed more than 100 people who know and worked with Keating, including his family, parliamentary colleagues, advisers, party officials, union leaders, public servants, and journalists. This book includes interviews with Gough Whitlam, Malcolm Fraser, Bob Hawke, John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott, Doug Anthony, Bill Hayden, Andrew Peacock, Ian Sinclair, John Hewson, Alexander Downer, Peter Costello, Kim Beazley, Simon Crean, Cheryl Kernot, and Bob Carr. Bramston has secured access to Labor archives, and he also documents key debates in once-secret cabinet papers, reveals caucus minutes for the first time, draws on the unpublished diaries of Neal Blewett and Bob Carr, discloses meeting records from the archives of US presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, talks to former British prime minister Tony Blair, and shares his new discoveries from the personal files of Gough Whitlam, Bill Hayden, Bob Hawke, and John Howard. Paul Keating saw political leadership as the combination of courage and imagination, a belief that powered his public career and helps explain his extraordinary triumphs and crushing lows. Keating blazed a trail of reform with a vision for Australia’s future that still attracts ardent admirers and the staunchest critics. This book chronicles, analyses, and interprets Keating’s life, and draws lessons for a Labor Party and a country still reluctant to fully embrace his legacy. PRAISE FOR TROY BRAMSTON ‘Warm [and] massively researched … This consistently compelling biography demonstrates Paul Keating was a leader like no one else.’ The Age ‘[Bramston's] achievement is to provide a fresh account of Keating’s career … The result is a work that renders homage to Keating and to his ideas about leadership, power, and the nation.’ The Weekend Australian

the big-picture leader

For over a decade, from 1976 to 1986, Neville Wran led the most successful Labor Government in New South Wales history.Now, for the first time, key ministers, advisers, public servants, party and union officials, and Wran himself, provide a critical retrospective on the era and its legacy today.It was an era of unrivalled electoral success - four electoral victories were won, including two 'Wranslides' in 1978 and 1981. Wran was a hugely popular leader who galvanised Labor supporters around the nation, and provided the model for modern Labor leadership and government.It was also an era of sound economic management and moderate progressive reform which transformed New South Wales in ways taken for granted today.Significant policy achievements, and some mistakes, are noted in health, education, transport, conservation, consumer affairs, Aboriginal affairs, the status and rights of women, industrial relations, anti-discrimination and equal opportunity law reform, the arts and heritage protection, the public service, and electoral and institutional reform.The contributions cover key policy areas, politics and elections. The candid views of the main players are balanced with those of academics, journalists and commentators. New interviews, original research and fresh analysis combine to provide a unique perspective on The Wran Era.The Wran Era in the Paper..."The Balmain boy who became a Labor Party hero: Neville Wran dead at 87", The Australian April 21, 2014 Read full article...

The Wran Era

The Whitlam Legacy

Paul Kelly

In July 2020 the National Archives of Australia released the long-suppressed correspondence between Sir John Kerr and Queen Elizabeth II, written during Kerr's tumultuous tenure as Governor-General of Australia. The letters cover the constitutional crisis that culminated in Kerr's infamous dismissal of Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in 1975. In The Truth of the Palace Letters Paul Kelly and Troy Bramston reveal their meaning and significance for understanding the dismissal. The analysis of these documents and their authors throws a revealing light on the connection between the Queen in Buckingham Palace and the Governor-General in Canberra. Coupled with newly discovered archival documents and interviews, Kelly and Bramston explain the implications of the letters for our Constitution, our democracy and the republic debate.

Deceit, Ambush and Dismissal In 1975

The Truth of the Palace Letters

There is no more dramatic event in our political history than the dismissal. This book is the definitive story, filled with fresh documents, revelations and new interviews that change our understanding of this event. It is also a brilliant forensic analysis of the ruthless, proud and stubborn main players - Malcolm Fraser, Gough Whitlam and Sir John Kerr. As keys to our understanding, Kelly and Bramston examine four central aspects of the dismissal: the real attitude of Buckingham Palace towards Kerr; whether Kerr tipped Fraser off about his plan; Kerr's deception of Whitlam; and Kerr's dealings with former High Court judges Sir Garfield Barwick and Sir Anthony Mason. In the gripping story that follows, the ambitions and flaws of Whitlam, Fraser and Kerr are laid bare as never before. Drawing on a range of new sources, some of which have never before been made public - including hundreds of pages from Kerr's archives - this remarkable account is dispassionate in its analysis, vivid in its narrative and brutal in its conclusions. It exposes the true motivations, the extent of the deceit and the scale of the collusion. 'It was a premeditated and an elaborate deception.' Paul Keating

In the Queen's Name

The Dismissal

A revelatory biography of Australia’s longest-serving prime minister. 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 governing 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. Now with a new preface, 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.

the art of politics

Robert Menzies

Today, the Australian Labor Party is in crisis. Reduced to minority government after just one term, and at rock bottom in the opinion polls, the party seems to be at a defining moment in its history. The perception of the federal government is that it can’t deliver, can’t be trusted, can’t communicate what it stands for, and that it is beholden to independents and the Greens. How did it come to this so soon after Labor’s thumping election win in 2007? Looking for the Light on the Hill argues that Labor is bedevilled by twin problems: the loss of its intrinsic culture of strong, bold, and innovative leadership; and an identity crisis that has emerged because Labor has failed to refresh its values, philosophy, and purpose for the modern era. Written by a party insider and former Rudd government adviser, the book draws on Labor’s history with fresh perspectives, and includes the secret components of the party’s recent internal review. It also includes new interviews with former party leaders, current and former ministers, and union leaders and party figures — and reveals astonishing opinion-poll results, commissioned exclusively for this book, that demonstrate the depth of the crisis. Challenged by the Greens on the left and the Coalition on the right, Australia’s oldest political party is in real trouble. Looking for the Light on the Hill shows how Labor can get its mojo back with new policy ideas, a new political strategy, organisational reform, and a refreshing of the party’s values. This book couldn’t be more relevant, more timely — or more necessary.

modern Labor's challenges

Looking for the Light on the Hill

The election of the Whitlam government in 1972 marked a turning point in 20th century Australia. Shaking off the vestiges of two decades of conservative rule, Gough Whitlam brought new ideas, new policies and new people to the task of governing.Bursting with energy and expectation, the Labor government led a reform revolution in many areas, from education and health to the environment and foreign policy. But alongside the great achievements were great failures and, ultimately, tragedy when the government was dismissed.For the first time, Gough Whitlam, ministers, advisers, public servants, party and union insiders provide a unique account of this turbulent period in Australian politics. The candid views of insiders are balanced with analysis from journalists and academics. They reveal what worked and what didn't, and shed light on the personalities driving the engines of change.It includes Whitlam's "valedictory" message to the nation - his last public statement before his death in 2014. This revised edition includes a new preface by the editor, Troy Bramston, reflecting on Whitlam's death, his final years and two decades of conversations with him.The book also includes new research and previously unpublished photos and archival documents. The Whitlam Legacy provides the definitive account of the government that changed Australia forever. * Click here for information about The Whitlam Legacy 2013 with DUST JACKET __________________________________________________The Whitlam Legacy in the Paper...Gough's first day: let the fight begin Read full article...A PM with his gaze firmly on the future Read full article...What the mandarins made of Gough Whitlam's government Read full article...

"The definitive full-life biography of Australia's 23rd prime minister; the only one that Hawke cooperated with after exiting the prime ministership. This unprecedented biography of Hawke includes an exclusive series of interviews with him, the last that he gave, as well as unfiltered access to his extensive trove of personal papers. It features new interviews with more than 100 people who knew and worked with Hawke, including his family and friends; political and union colleagues, and rivals; advisers and public servants; and journalists; along with international contemporaries of Hawke such as George H.W. Bush, John Major, Brian Mulroney, James Baker and George Shultz. It also brings together an extraordinary array of never-before-seen archival documents - family diaries, notes, letters and scrapbooks; school and university reports; cabinet, departmental and vice-regal papers; party strategy documents, polling and caucus minutes; and secret correspondence and meeting records between Hawke and other Cold War leaders. Troy Bramston tells the remarkable story of Hawke's upbringing and education, the people and events that shaped him, his rise through the union movement, his complex personality and personal life marked by womanising and the demon drink, his nine-year government from 1983 to 1991, plus his post-prime ministerial life and legacy. This book is about the real Hawke, chronicling the stunning triumphs and shocking failures, a life riddled with huge flaws and great virtues marked by redemption and reinvention, which changed Australia and shaped the world. Revelatory and compelling, it will shock and surprise those who think they know the story of Australia's most popular prime minister"--Publisher's description.

Troy Bramston

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