Passionate, vivid and immediate, and full of insights, this is Rob Oakeshott's honest and real story of life in Australian politics. From his apprenticeship in the NSW parliament to the last days of the Gillard government, he tells it as it was.When the results of the 2010 federal election became known, no party had a majority in the House of Representatives it was the first hung parliament for forty years. So, both the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and the Leader of the Oppositio...

A fascinating insight into one of Australia's most powerful and effective political figures.Tony Windsor's understanding of the issues facing his rural and regional constituency motivated him to become a representative for those who love the land, from farmers to environmentalists, from rich to poor.Though the former National Party member's decision to support a minority Labor government created a firestorm of abuse, he managed to maintain his focus on the big picture, gain...

'Non-freedom to the Western mind is inevitably linked with images of backwardness - Soviet tractors, East German Trabants, Kim Jong Il's haircut. But non-freedom these days is also iPads, iPhones and a dazzling array of less iconic but ubiquitous consumer goods that flood our stores, our homes and which increasingly are used to define our ideas of worth and happiness. It is a full-lipped smile achieved with the aid of collagen made from skin flensed from dead Chinese convicts.'

For forty years Ross Gittins has had a ringside seat as the Australian economy has gone through radical change. He's covered forty budgets and sixteen elections, he's watched thirteen treasurers and eight prime ministers wrestle with boom and recession, debts and deficits. Few economic journalists have earned such respect for their views from participants and readers alike. His even-handedness and his clarity of vision have left countless readers better informed about how the complexities ...

A forceful argument against America's vicious circle of growing inequality by the Nobel Prize–winning economist.The top 1 percent of Americans control 40 percent of the nation’s wealth. And, as Joseph E. Stiglitz explains, while those at the top enjoy the best health care, education, and benefits of wealth, they fail to realize that “their fate is bound up with how the other 99 percent live.”Stiglitz draws on his deep understanding of economics to show that growing inequali...

In Optimism, Bob Brown shares with us his stories and insights from throughout his public and private life, that reveal the events that have made an impression, the ideas that have caught his imagination, and the people that have stayed in his thoughts. This book reflects on the simple things, the moments that are meaningful, and the big questions that have concerned Bob Brown and inspired him to achieve. It is a powerful book as well as a meditation on the great and the small. Inspiration...

Latika Bourke was adopted from India, aged eight months. Growing up in Bathurst, New South Wales she felt a deep connection to her Australian home and her Australian family.It wasn't until she heard her name uttered in the hit movie Slumdog Millionaire that Latika recognised she knew nothing of her Indian roots, the world she was born into and what she could have become had she not been brought to Australia as a baby.As Latika carved out a successful career for her...

'Don't write crap. Can't be that hard. And when you have written complete crap, then I think you should correct it.' Julia GillardWhen 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, ...

A true insider's story of the Backpacker Murders from the detective who led the team that arrested Ivan Milat.Milat - the serial killer who preyed on young hitchhikers. The backpackers - the innocent victims of a brutal murderer. Belanglo - a place that became synonymous with pure evil.It was the biggest and most complex manhunt in Australian history, an investigation that gripped a nation. Behind the many false leads and dead ends, precious clues emerged t...

'I was prime minister for three years and three days. Three years and three days of resilience. Three years and three days of changing the nation. Three years and three days for you to judge.'On Wednesday 23 June 2010, with the government in turmoil, Julia Gillard asked Prime Minister Kevin Rudd for a leadership ballot.The next day, Julia Gillard became Australia's 27th prime minister, and our first female leader. Australia was alive to the histo...

An unthinkably shocking event sends shockwaves through a tight-knit mother's group, testing their bonds and revealing closely-held secrets that threaten to shatter their lives in an explosive, enthralling debut novel about motherhood, friendship and love.'All those things no one ever tells you about motherhood. It's like secret mothers' business. Lots of my friends had babies before me, but not one of them ever told me it would be this hard. It's like a code of...

WINNER OF THE 2017 AUSTRALIAN BOOK INDUSTRY AWARDS, GENERAL NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEARWINNER OF THE 2016 MELBOURNE PRESS CLUB LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD‘There will be no wrecking, no undermining, and no sniping.’–Tony Abbott, 15 September 2015Abbott’s performances in the party-room debates on education and climate change had ranged between woeful and pathetic. He sounded desperate, he was inconsistent, and — his colleag...