Triumph and demise : the broken promise of a labor generation / Paul Kelly.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kelly, Paul, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Political leadership--Australia.

Political leadership.

Australian Labor Party.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxiii, 560 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Carlton, Victoria : Melbourne University Press, 2014.

Summary:

Featuring a new introduction in response to Julia Gillard's memoir, this revised edition brings Paul Kelly's masterpiece on the Rudd-Gillard years up to the present. Drawing on more than sixty on-the-record interviews with all the major players, Triumph and Demise is full of remarkable disclosures. It is the inside account of the hopes, achievements and bitter failures of the Labor Government from 2007 to 2013. Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard came together to defeat John Howard, formed a brilliant partnership and raised the hopes of the nation. Yet they fell into tension and then hostility under the pressures of politics and policy. Veteran journalist Paul Kelly probes the dynamics of the Rudd-Gillard partnership and dissects what tore them apart. He tells the full story of Julia Gillard's tragedy as our first female prime minister—her character, Rudd's destabilisation, the carbon tax saga and how Gillard was finally pulled down on the eve of the 2013 election. Kelly documents the most misunderstood event in these years—the rise of Tony Abbott and the reason for his success. It was Abbott's performance that denied Rudd and Gillard the chance to recover. Labor misjudged Abbott and paid the price. Kelly writes with a keen eye and fearless determination. His central theme is that Australian politics has entered a crisis of the system that, unless corrected, will diminish the lives of all Australians.

Contents:

Intro

Title

Copyright

Contents

Preface

I Turning Points

1 The Destruction of a Government

2 The Making of an Opposition

II The Labor Malaise

3 Fighting on Two Fronts

4 Shunning the Policy Challenge

III The Crisis of the System

5 The Death of Reform

6 The Curse of Prosperity

IV The Rudd Triumph

7 The Rudd-Gillard Pact

8 Rudd and the Unions: An Alliance of Convenience

9 Rudd's Triple Triumph

V The Rudd Project

10 The Rudd Experiment: A Crisis in Governing

11 Rudd Finds His Mission

12 Blunder at the Borders

13 Labor's New Cause

14 The Quest for Control: From the Media to Yarralumla

15 Australian Settlement Nostalgia

VI The Conservative Crisis

16 Turnbull: The Fatal Assault

17 Abbott: The Accidental Victory

VII The Demise of Rudd

18 How Rudd Gifted Abbott

19 Climate Change Retreat

20 The Mining Tax: The Fatal Blow

21 The Demise of Rudd

VIII Gillard in Office: Alive but Doomed

22 The Fatal Inheritance

23 The Tragedy of Minority Government

24 Signing the Death Warrant

25 Phoney Victory

26 The Collapse of Border Protection

27 Feminist Heroine

28 Chasing the Surplus

29 Far from Rooty Hill

30 Labor Traditionalists

31 The Gillard Demise

IX The Demise of Labor

32 Rudd Succumbs to Abbott

33 The Australian Crisis

Notes

Index.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780522867824

0522867820

OCLC:

1088332655