Power Plays : The Real Stories of Australian Politics

Sydney, Hachette Australia, 2008 [1st edition]; 155 x 235 mm, viii, 392 pp; Soft Cover, very light age toning to the page edges otherwise Like New. From the cover: Laurie Oakes has spent forty years in the Canberra press gallery reporting on politicians and politics: the ruthless drive for power, the emotion and cold calculation, the wheeling and dealing and plotting, the backstabbing and the brawling, the triumphs and the failures and betrayals. His stories have sometimes rocked the government of the day, or changed the course of events. From 1987 to 2007, his weekly 'Power Plays' column for the Bulletin was required reading for anyone fascinated by national politics - and who wanted to know what was really going on. Always illuminating and considered, the columns were written with a perspective that comes from long experience. This collection ranges from the (broken) Kirribilli House agreement between Bob Hawke and Paul Keating to the memo from the president of the Liberal Party describing the Liberal government (and especially Peter Costello) as mean and tricky'; and from John Howard being rolled by Andrew Peacock to eventually becoming only the second prime minister since Federation to lose his seat. Power Plays is for anyone interested in politics and history - and for those who want to go beyond the daily headlines.