The story of the Rudd and Gillard years saw Paul Kelly embark upon a major re-assessment of the prospects for reform and change in Australia’s national political system. In his 560 page dissection of the government Kelly described the tragic collapse of relations between its two principal figures – Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard – which doomed hopes for an effective government.
Beyond this, Kelly argued that Labor had regressed in policy formation and shrunk in political appeal. The book assessed Labor’s performance across the policy landscape - the economy, fiscal policy, climate change, the emissions trading scheme, border protection, industrial relations, the ill-fated mining tax, hostility towards business, appeasement of unions and mammoth social and education policy spends. He concluded Labor had departed decisively from the policy spirit of the Hawke-Keating era, that it looked to traditional and progressive voters but had abandoned aspirational middle class Australians and, in the process, was shrinking its primary vote.
Shifting his focus from Labor to the political system Kelly argued in his final chapter that Australia’s under-performance was driven by a decaying political culture, a system under institutional stress, public complacency and aligned with chronic complaint, a technological revolution that was empowering the negative and making necessary reform far too electorally dangerous while the short-term imperatives driving politics were in conflict with the long-run needs of policy. He concluded: “The trust between the political system and the public to sustain ambitious policy is close to being severed.”
Reviews
“In this fascinating, behind-the-scenes look at the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years, Kelly has produced the most authoritative and authentic account yet of one of the most astonishing periods in modern Australian history: the six years from 2007 to 2013….(he) has told a story that not only sheds new light on the failure of recent Labor governments, he also exposes, in unflinching and graphic detail, the larger problems of contemporary Australian politics’ -Tom Switzer, The Sydney Morning Herald.
“Few can write this kind of political history better…Triumph and Demise begins and ends with Kelly’s damning critique of Australia’s contemporary political culture which he claims has lost the capacity and political will to carry out significant economic and social reforms” – The Saturday Paper.
“Every page was riveting,” Jon Faine, ABC radio.
“Triumph and Demise reinforces his (Kelly) as our finest historian of contemporary politics….I should say, though, that there is one substantial issue with which I do take issue with Paul. Paul suggests that the relentless negativity of our contemporary conversation, the culture of entitlement that he thinks has sprung up over the last decade or so, means that good government has become difficult, perhaps impossible….(but) it’s not the system which is the problem; it is the people who, from time to time, inhabit it…The mission, if I may say so, of the current government, is to demonstrate, through its action, ultimately through its record, that the last six years – the six years between 2007 and 2013 – is not the new normal, that it was in fact just a passing phase” - Tony Abbott, launching the book 26 August 2014
“Paul Kelly writes political history as it happens – future historians will regard him as the gold standard” – Sarah Ferguson, ABC television.
“What animates Triumph and Demise is precisely the sense of the tragedy that Rudd and Gillard, the best and brightest of Labor, symbiotically linked by mutual need, came asunder.
Here is his description of Gillard on the day Rudd came back to destroy here: “Gillard’s demeanour, this fateful day, was extraordinary. As she discussed the options she was disciplined, sharp, not without irony and devoid of self-pity. If the public could have seen the prime minister they loathed performing with such grace under pressure they would have been ashamed of their views.” – Peter Craven, The Australian
“There’s a temptation to think his latest is also his best,” – Errol Simper, The Australian
