A profoundly personal, passionate, frequently sarcastic look at the wrecking ball behaviour of Rudd and cronies in the fight for the leadership of the Australian Federal Labor Party.
This is a scathing account of the machinations, which makes no bones about the side on which the author firmly sits. Having said that there is an obvious position being taken here, the lengths and depths to which the fight for power stretched, regardless of the outcome is breathtaking. The blatant use of sarcasm means you can almost hear the collective "you can't say that" mutterings going on. Personally I'm all for the application of a turbo flame-thrower and I'm just sorry that this book wasn't mandatory reading for much of the Labor inner-circle.
And that's the problem with books like this: the people that should read it in the main won't, and the people who are of a like mind regarding sides might not like the style, but they won't argue with the substance.
The Stalking of Julia Gillard
This is the story of one of the most extraordinary episodes in recent Australian political history, of how a powerful media pack, a vicious commentariat and some of those within her own party contrived to bring down Australia's first woman prime minister.
'Don't write crap. Can't be that hard. And when you have written complete crap, then I think you should correct it.' Julia Gillard
When Julia Gillard took the reins of the Australian Labor Party on 24 June 2010 she did so with the goodwill of the majority of her party and a fawning Canberra press gallery. The man she had supplanted, Kevin Rudd, led an isolated band of angry Labor voices at this surprising turn of events. The collective political and media verdict was that his time, short though it had been, was up. But when Gillard announced in February 2011 that her government would introduce a carbon pricing scheme, Rudd and his small team of malcontents were already in lock-step with key Canberra and interstate journalists in a drive to push her out of the prime ministerial chair.
Never has a prime minister been so assiduously stalked. Cast as a political liar and policy charlatan, Julia Gillard was also mercilessly and relentlessly lampooned for her hair, clothes, accent, her arse, even the way she walks and talks. Rudd, on the other hand, could barely do any wrong. His antics were afforded benign, unquestioning prime-time media coverage.
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