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Triumph and Demise: The Broken Promise of a Labor Generation
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 upon more than 60 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 Australia’s first female prime minister; her character, Rudd's destabilization, 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.
584 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
15 people are currently reading
132 people want to read
About the author
Paul Kelly
15 books15 followersAustralian political journalist who is currently editor-at-large at The Australian and was previously its editor-in-chief. He has written numerous books on Australian politics and political history.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
June 2, 2016
Could have done without the author's personal opinions being shown through the running commentary. Overall, a very comprehensive retelling of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government and the political landscape both before and after this reign.
October 5, 2014
Kelly's book is not a patch on his classic The End of Certainty, but he does recognise an unresolved and worsening crisis of Australian politics as underlying the problems of the political class. His insights into the internal political logic of the Coalition, and how that led to the improbable elevation of Tony Abbott as leader, are very revealing and put the issue of climate change in a more understandable context (a political one, rather than something to do with policy).
The ALP's problems are less well delineated although he doesn't fall into the pro-Gillard narrative that the 2010 leadership coup was unavoidable. He doesn't grasp how Rudd's ability to position himself as above the union-ALP nexus was such a plus, and he cannot really explain why the machine took back its party. He probably misses just how effective an internal operator Gillard was, and just how much this was a negative for the party in public political terms.
Finally, the ordering of the narrative betrays Kelly's inability to get his head around the insider-outsider dynamic that gave Rudd three years of historically high popularity despite his alleged internal dysfunction, and which killed Gillard. So he gives way too much store to asylum seekers, stimulus spending, the mining tax and "pink batts" being issues that independently shifted opinion against Rudd, and thereby downplays the centrality of climate change as an agenda that Rudd used against the "old politics", and therefore how when he was pushed to drop it he had few other cards left to play.
You need to tolerate Kelly's own ideological preferences to get the most out of the book, but he (as usual) has gained rare access to the main players and so for anyone trying to understand the rolling crises of the last few years this is a better place to start than many of the self-serving memoirs doing the rounds.
The ALP's problems are less well delineated although he doesn't fall into the pro-Gillard narrative that the 2010 leadership coup was unavoidable. He doesn't grasp how Rudd's ability to position himself as above the union-ALP nexus was such a plus, and he cannot really explain why the machine took back its party. He probably misses just how effective an internal operator Gillard was, and just how much this was a negative for the party in public political terms.
Finally, the ordering of the narrative betrays Kelly's inability to get his head around the insider-outsider dynamic that gave Rudd three years of historically high popularity despite his alleged internal dysfunction, and which killed Gillard. So he gives way too much store to asylum seekers, stimulus spending, the mining tax and "pink batts" being issues that independently shifted opinion against Rudd, and thereby downplays the centrality of climate change as an agenda that Rudd used against the "old politics", and therefore how when he was pushed to drop it he had few other cards left to play.
You need to tolerate Kelly's own ideological preferences to get the most out of the book, but he (as usual) has gained rare access to the main players and so for anyone trying to understand the rolling crises of the last few years this is a better place to start than many of the self-serving memoirs doing the rounds.
September 24, 2014
chronicle of australia's federal government(s) during the rudd-gillard-rudd years, 2007-13. a competent but incomplete political history of the period (omits gillard's office trying to stage a race riot on australia day). kelly interviews many of the important figures involved in government, civil service, & advocacy groups. those in government during the period are candid but obtuse, determined to learn nothing from the experience. author's judgments are sound but too charitable. this was the worst australian government in a generation: wantonly wasteful, sleazy, captive to interest groups, officious & hectoring, shabby, incompetent, preening, totalizing, shallow, & pre-occupied with 'spin' & 'media management' to a degree unseen before. it bore no relation to the previous hawke-keating labour governments. the parliament of 2010-2013 was the most sordid, venal, & biddable legislative body in living memory. it was a dreadful business.
this book may have received 4 stars but for kelly's limited facility with language which, though serviceable, never rises to elegance. those familiar with australian journalism would expect as much. punctuation is occasionally crazy, employing periods for semi-colons to distinguish clauses.
"triumph & demise" never aspires to be anything more than 'long journalism'. owing to the confidences kelly has purchased this book will probably become the standard account of the period.
kelly's grand remonstrance (the final & finest chapter of the book) indicts australia as a land of lotos-eaters, carelessly living beyond its means; its governing class polarised, pre-occupied with polls, & perfectly indifferent to the national interest.
abandon all hope ye who enter canberra.
this book may have received 4 stars but for kelly's limited facility with language which, though serviceable, never rises to elegance. those familiar with australian journalism would expect as much. punctuation is occasionally crazy, employing periods for semi-colons to distinguish clauses.
"triumph & demise" never aspires to be anything more than 'long journalism'. owing to the confidences kelly has purchased this book will probably become the standard account of the period.
kelly's grand remonstrance (the final & finest chapter of the book) indicts australia as a land of lotos-eaters, carelessly living beyond its means; its governing class polarised, pre-occupied with polls, & perfectly indifferent to the national interest.
abandon all hope ye who enter canberra.
February 2, 2015
I'm deeply torn by this book. It's actually somewhat even-handed as journalism (excepting the author's rather disturbing delusion that The Australian is an objective newspaper), although mostly tossed off as afterthoughts - presumably because more than a token effort at fairness would get in the way of criticising the ALP.
Because make no mistake, that's what this book is about. It's about everything that the Rudd and Gillard governments did wrong, albeit from a fairly right wing perspective. (There's no mention, for example, of the Gillard government's plan to censor the internet, which was a major negative for them on the leftist side of politics.) And poor old Brendan Nelson barely rates a cameo in the book, despite having been one of the Leaders of the Opposition in that era. (Admittedly, he was pretty irrelevant even when he was in the role, but still.) It does give them some credit where credit is due, but the relentless application of 20/20 hindsight gets wearing pretty early on.
Unless you're a serious political history junkie, I would advise skipping to the last chapter, which contains Kelly's thoughts about what's wrong with the political and media culture in this country, and is actually well-thought out and reasonably non-partisan (albeit blissfully unencumbered by an awareness of the irony of a member of the media excoriating the media, or a political insider complaining about insider culture).
Because make no mistake, that's what this book is about. It's about everything that the Rudd and Gillard governments did wrong, albeit from a fairly right wing perspective. (There's no mention, for example, of the Gillard government's plan to censor the internet, which was a major negative for them on the leftist side of politics.) And poor old Brendan Nelson barely rates a cameo in the book, despite having been one of the Leaders of the Opposition in that era. (Admittedly, he was pretty irrelevant even when he was in the role, but still.) It does give them some credit where credit is due, but the relentless application of 20/20 hindsight gets wearing pretty early on.
Unless you're a serious political history junkie, I would advise skipping to the last chapter, which contains Kelly's thoughts about what's wrong with the political and media culture in this country, and is actually well-thought out and reasonably non-partisan (albeit blissfully unencumbered by an awareness of the irony of a member of the media excoriating the media, or a political insider complaining about insider culture).
July 9, 2022
This quite large book took me ages to read because I did so alongside my wife, and we've had a crazy last few months, with the perfect culmination being that we should now finish it during isolation after finally succumbing to Covid-19. It seems to have hit me much harder than it hit her, but maybe I'm just more of a baby when it comes to getting sick. But I digress ...
This is an excellent book, researched, structured and written impeccably by Paul Kelly, who is evidently one of Australia's better political writers (up there with Greg Sheridan, another favourite of mine). My wife and I have read many books about the Australian political scene, and while there have been some other great ones (the Quarterly Essays are usually excellent), this was hands-down the best that I have read so far. Even when it seemed I would usually tune out - I am not, to put it mildly, a sucker for fiscal policy, economics or polling data - Kelly somehow managed to make his book absolutely readable almost the whole way through. The occasional, well-placed spot of wry humour didn't go amiss either.
On the whole, he seems to be something of a right-leaning centrist in my view. Ninety-percent of this book - as suggested by the subtitle, The Broken Promise of a Labor Generation - is holding the fairly disastrous Rudd-Gillard-Rudd party to account, and so its easy to come away feeling like he is way too harsh on those two leaders, all while glossing over the blundering onion-muncher that was Tony Abbott when he finally took the mantle and had to actually do something rather than just engage in negative oppositional politics (which is what the conservatives are usually best at).
But on the whole I think Kelly is quite balanced, and he certainly gives more credit where credit is due than I believe a leftist writer would ever concede towards the Right. And I also think his more opinionated approach to covering this era of Australia's governance helped keep the content from becoming too dry.
I will say that while I still respect Kevin Rudd quiet a lot, this book did lessen my opinion of him somewhat. He's a very smart and clever man, but one hell of a conniving, deceitful little shit as well. Julia was treated despicably by a large portion of the country, and as much as I am on the fence with movements like #MeToo, I am certain the populist backlash against her would not have gained the ground it did back then were it to have happened now. Fortunately, her famous misogyny speech has aged very well, and her legacy is finally being reappraised.
Because I'm not a generally a hateful person and try not to be swayed by partisan politics or whatever the mainstream media tells me at the time, I am one of the few who actually confesses to have liked Scott Morrison as I think he and the Coalition did exceptionally well in comparison to most other countries in seeing us through the Pandemic. I also like John Howard. But if we were talking personalities and political integrity (the whole carbon tax issue was never the broken promise the media made it out to be but just a blunder in words), I'd have to say that Julia Gillard is the one I liked the most thus far in my lifetime.
This is an excellent book, researched, structured and written impeccably by Paul Kelly, who is evidently one of Australia's better political writers (up there with Greg Sheridan, another favourite of mine). My wife and I have read many books about the Australian political scene, and while there have been some other great ones (the Quarterly Essays are usually excellent), this was hands-down the best that I have read so far. Even when it seemed I would usually tune out - I am not, to put it mildly, a sucker for fiscal policy, economics or polling data - Kelly somehow managed to make his book absolutely readable almost the whole way through. The occasional, well-placed spot of wry humour didn't go amiss either.
On the whole, he seems to be something of a right-leaning centrist in my view. Ninety-percent of this book - as suggested by the subtitle, The Broken Promise of a Labor Generation - is holding the fairly disastrous Rudd-Gillard-Rudd party to account, and so its easy to come away feeling like he is way too harsh on those two leaders, all while glossing over the blundering onion-muncher that was Tony Abbott when he finally took the mantle and had to actually do something rather than just engage in negative oppositional politics (which is what the conservatives are usually best at).
But on the whole I think Kelly is quite balanced, and he certainly gives more credit where credit is due than I believe a leftist writer would ever concede towards the Right. And I also think his more opinionated approach to covering this era of Australia's governance helped keep the content from becoming too dry.
I will say that while I still respect Kevin Rudd quiet a lot, this book did lessen my opinion of him somewhat. He's a very smart and clever man, but one hell of a conniving, deceitful little shit as well. Julia was treated despicably by a large portion of the country, and as much as I am on the fence with movements like #MeToo, I am certain the populist backlash against her would not have gained the ground it did back then were it to have happened now. Fortunately, her famous misogyny speech has aged very well, and her legacy is finally being reappraised.
Because I'm not a generally a hateful person and try not to be swayed by partisan politics or whatever the mainstream media tells me at the time, I am one of the few who actually confesses to have liked Scott Morrison as I think he and the Coalition did exceptionally well in comparison to most other countries in seeing us through the Pandemic. I also like John Howard. But if we were talking personalities and political integrity (the whole carbon tax issue was never the broken promise the media made it out to be but just a blunder in words), I'd have to say that Julia Gillard is the one I liked the most thus far in my lifetime.
February 24, 2025
Paul Kelly’s account of the 2007-2013 Labour government is fascinating, especially 10+ years after it left office and Australia has ran through a 9 year coalition government and is currently being administered by another Labor government. I say fascinating because frankly the more time passes, the better the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government looks by comparison to what succeeded it, both with regards to the 2013-2022 coalition government and the Albanese Labor government.
Speaking personally my politics would be to the left of the Australian Labor party(and I can’t know for certain but I’d suspect Paul Kelly’s politics would be slightly to the right of the Labor party though for the most part to his credit, Kelly manages to keep this historical account free from bias aside from the occasional slip or discrepancy, notably that Kelly seems to think Labor delivering for unions is bad in and of itself what with his repeated references to Labor being too effective for unions being regularly raised as a negative, plus he largely describes any collaboration between Labor and the greens as bad, yet he doesn’t seem to assign the same critique to Tony Abbotts denialism of the realities of climate change, something even more shocking given the quasi permanent array of natural disasters which have ravaged Australia both during and since the 2007-2013 Labor government) but reading this account and knowing what comes after, whilst it wasn’t whatsoever a perfect government, the 2007-2013 had a range of achievements which it can take pride in.
The establishment of the NDIS, shepherding the country effectively through the GFC, advancing the the cause of equality through having Australias first female prime minister and making a small but important step towards reconciliation with the Aboriginal Australians through Rudds famous apology.
The main 3 protagonists Rudd, Gillaird and Abbot all have their own qualities and I would argue their successors both liberal and Labor have been inferior. Having said that they are all also obviously deeply, fatally flawed people who’s flaws precipitate the collapse of the Labor government in record time and (though Kelly didn’t realise at the time of writing) the incredibly rapid disintegration of the Abbott government administration.
However these are the ingredients that make for a compelling, Shakespearean account of political history and in the end, with the achievements they realised during their 6 years, the 2007-2013 Labor government can take a degree of pride in having not simply occupied the space but to have made some significant reforms and steps forward for the country they represented even though they simultaneously destroyed themselves and thwarted their own potential. A compelling read.
Speaking personally my politics would be to the left of the Australian Labor party(and I can’t know for certain but I’d suspect Paul Kelly’s politics would be slightly to the right of the Labor party though for the most part to his credit, Kelly manages to keep this historical account free from bias aside from the occasional slip or discrepancy, notably that Kelly seems to think Labor delivering for unions is bad in and of itself what with his repeated references to Labor being too effective for unions being regularly raised as a negative, plus he largely describes any collaboration between Labor and the greens as bad, yet he doesn’t seem to assign the same critique to Tony Abbotts denialism of the realities of climate change, something even more shocking given the quasi permanent array of natural disasters which have ravaged Australia both during and since the 2007-2013 Labor government) but reading this account and knowing what comes after, whilst it wasn’t whatsoever a perfect government, the 2007-2013 had a range of achievements which it can take pride in.
The establishment of the NDIS, shepherding the country effectively through the GFC, advancing the the cause of equality through having Australias first female prime minister and making a small but important step towards reconciliation with the Aboriginal Australians through Rudds famous apology.
The main 3 protagonists Rudd, Gillaird and Abbot all have their own qualities and I would argue their successors both liberal and Labor have been inferior. Having said that they are all also obviously deeply, fatally flawed people who’s flaws precipitate the collapse of the Labor government in record time and (though Kelly didn’t realise at the time of writing) the incredibly rapid disintegration of the Abbott government administration.
However these are the ingredients that make for a compelling, Shakespearean account of political history and in the end, with the achievements they realised during their 6 years, the 2007-2013 Labor government can take a degree of pride in having not simply occupied the space but to have made some significant reforms and steps forward for the country they represented even though they simultaneously destroyed themselves and thwarted their own potential. A compelling read.
January 21, 2024
DNF
Gave way a quarter if the way into it. Felt like writer will repeat and repeat and repeat himself. The bits I read were interesting but the constant repetition (plus the writer really seems like a centre-right dude and it bleeds into his work). If I hadn't had so much books I'd like to read and this being a 55% interesting book at best, I'd read all of it.
Gave way a quarter if the way into it. Felt like writer will repeat and repeat and repeat himself. The bits I read were interesting but the constant repetition (plus the writer really seems like a centre-right dude and it bleeds into his work). If I hadn't had so much books I'd like to read and this being a 55% interesting book at best, I'd read all of it.
January 28, 2021
Very informative & such an interesting account of quite an embarrassing time in labor leadership.
Details and account were fascinating
Details and account were fascinating
October 1, 2023
A forensically searing analysis of the Rudd / Gillard years and what brought it undone. Masterful
September 18, 2022
Once again a gem of political writing, I hope he didn’t stop writing about the fascinating, thrilling world of Australian politics because there are still a lot of gems to excavate.
Come on Paul back to your desk !!
Come on Paul back to your desk !!
April 21, 2015
(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)
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.
This book is an interesting history of the Rudd/Gillard government in Australia between 2007-2013. The author goes to some great lengths to get access to some of the major players of the time and their insights are extremely valuable in decoding this story. The motivations of the caucus to try and topple Rudd - which were chaotic, to say the least - to the ensuing chaos that was the Gillard government. It is hard to believe that all this went down only a few years ago.
However, there seems to be missing a balanced view of the period - and that is sad as I would have favoured this book more if that had been the case. I can turn on the TV and see biased reporting every day of the week - I don't want it in my books (naive, I know!!)
This book does leave us with some understanding of what has happened over the last decade or so - and what challenges lies ahead of our country in the near future.
Overall, a decent history of a very troubling time in our political history.
Paul
ARH
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.
This book is an interesting history of the Rudd/Gillard government in Australia between 2007-2013. The author goes to some great lengths to get access to some of the major players of the time and their insights are extremely valuable in decoding this story. The motivations of the caucus to try and topple Rudd - which were chaotic, to say the least - to the ensuing chaos that was the Gillard government. It is hard to believe that all this went down only a few years ago.
However, there seems to be missing a balanced view of the period - and that is sad as I would have favoured this book more if that had been the case. I can turn on the TV and see biased reporting every day of the week - I don't want it in my books (naive, I know!!)
This book does leave us with some understanding of what has happened over the last decade or so - and what challenges lies ahead of our country in the near future.
Overall, a decent history of a very troubling time in our political history.
Paul
ARH
November 10, 2014
Paul Kelly manages a reasonably even handed account of the chaos and the commitment at the heart of the previous government. I thought the narrative was repetitive and there was sometimes a jump back and forth in the sequence of events. But in the end these faults somehow seemed to emphasise the craziness of the times being described.
I had forgotten how very bizarre things were less than two years ago,the non challenge, Bob Carr's resurrection, Gillard's revival of the abortion debate, Rudd's pledges, the second removal of a PM, Rudd's late career conversion to off shore processing and the ban on boat arrivals ever gaining access to Australia. This last innovation had somehow migrated in my thinking to being one of Tony Abbott's ideas, ah memory!
For all the outrage over the unfairness of the recent budget and the spluttering bile directed at Tony Abbott by Guardian readers, things are calmer now, a bit boring even...oh wait! Jacqui Lambie!
I had forgotten how very bizarre things were less than two years ago,the non challenge, Bob Carr's resurrection, Gillard's revival of the abortion debate, Rudd's pledges, the second removal of a PM, Rudd's late career conversion to off shore processing and the ban on boat arrivals ever gaining access to Australia. This last innovation had somehow migrated in my thinking to being one of Tony Abbott's ideas, ah memory!
For all the outrage over the unfairness of the recent budget and the spluttering bile directed at Tony Abbott by Guardian readers, things are calmer now, a bit boring even...oh wait! Jacqui Lambie!
January 8, 2016
Kelly's book succeeds in putting the complex events of 2007 to 2013 into a chronology, while his access to key figures of the period is a major strength. His account is let down by occasional resort to reductive binary representations of issues and some argumentative overreach.
January 19, 2015
An insightful analysis of politics over the past 7 years and the challenges currently facing Australia.
September 16, 2015
Insightful and thorough, but not much here that will surprise if you followed this saga through the media. More of a reference text.
December 22, 2014
Informative and interesting. Well written and very readable.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews