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Catch and Kill: The Politics of Power
Power is the only measure of a politician that how they win power, how they use power, how they lose power. Catch and Kill is an inside account of the beguiling and nomadic nature of the unholy trinity of politics—the winning, the using, the losing. Joel Deane’s gripping study of the politics of power takes us into the inner sanctum of state and national politics in Australia, investigating how four friends—Steve Bracks, John Brumby, John Thwaites, and Rob Hulls—beat the factions, won office in Victoria, then tried to hijack Canberra. It delivers a slice of political gothic, exploring the heart of the contemporary Labor Party in search of the nature of power.
368 pages, Paperback
First published July 29, 2015
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196 people want to read
About the author
Joel Deane
22 books23 followersJoel Deane is a poet, novelist, journalist and speechwriter. He lives in Melbourne and works as a freelance writer.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 2, 2015
In the last little while I’ve had to ring people around the country and listen to what they have to say about a project I’m managing. I’m struck by how useful the process it is and how much people like talking about a topic in which they have expertise and care about. Most/all of them are very busy people but it’s usually me who has to find a way of ending the conversation. It’s made a big difference to the running of the project too. Now I know this insight is not rocket science, and this is not the first time I’ve consulted with people but it’s something that I would definitely try to do well on subsequent projects.
I was reminded of the power of consultation in reading this book. It’s what Bracks and Brumby did prior to being elected in 1999 – they talked to everyone. Business, unions, small business employers, people in country areas, people in cities. They liked it. People like being consulted; the very involvement in a conversation is likely to bring them a little bit on board even if it’s not a total shift. In contrast, Kennett had stopped talking to people who argued with him (a bit like Rudd ten years later). The famous incident with Jon Faine remains with me – Faine asked him a question that he did not like and Kennett said “I’m just going to sit here and drink my tea” (you can read the conversation here: http://www.crikey.com.au/2000/12/17/w...)
This book is really a primer for managing politics. The Bracks government was very raw at the beginning; there were 4 ministers new to parliament itself in 1999. The learning curve was huge. Deane drives the narrative through the four politicians who were the pillars of that government; Bracks, Brumby, Hulls and Thwaites. All, interestingly, sort of outsiders to the factional Labor movement until politics made it hard to remain independent. Bracks for example had to join Labor Unity for successful preselection in Williamstown. There’s no doubt though that Deane thinks that the outsider status is an advantage in terms of freedom of thought and action (and after reading Faction Man, I’d have to agree). It also made me think about Turnbull – who also has a type of outsider status in his party – and the challenges and opportunities it provides him.
The book captures the energy that is required to win power and the restraint that is required in retaining power. Deane attributes a lot of the reasons for the success of the government to the fact that Bracks has a high level of emotional intelligence and facilitated Cabinet with great skill. Deane says: “Bracks’s gift was emotional intelligence. Deane marvels at “his duality, his ability to be political without being political, that he won power by behaving like anything but a politician”. It seems I wasn’t the only one to underestimate “the man inside the cuddly bear outfit”. Mark Latham approached him in 2004 to help boost federal Labor’s electoral chances in Victoria and, in his diary, cursed Bracks’s woodenness and “silly grin”. Deane writes: “I guarantee the premier wasn’t smiling inanely. On the contrary, I suspect he was thinking dark thoughts indeed.” There also seemed to be high levels of generosity contributed by people like Brumby who could otherwise have felt aggrieved that all his work has not culminated (initially) in the job of Premier.
I really liked this book. It is intensely readable (Deane is a poet and the prose/structure is good.)I learnt a lot about a period of political life that I personally lived through. I was surprised by some elements. I had no idea that Victoria had attempted to push through and lobby for reforms on a national scale, revising the way that COAG works and looking at more efficient ways of delivering core services. There was a focus on improving workplace participation and productivity using elements like education as a lever. On that topic, Bracks says: “I initiated the National Reform Agenda because there was a gap in the nation, we had taken Victoria so far but we couldn’t achieve change unless there was cooperation from the Commonwealth to lift early childhood learning, to lift retention in education to year 12, to look at productivity in the economy more broadly and reduce regulation, all those things which would have made a difference.” (https://theconversation.com/in-conver...).
They produced policy documents that could be read in the time that a plane takes to travel from Melbourne to Canberra (great idea – am stealing that) and employed bureaucrats like Terry Moran who had considerable strategic vision and political nous. (And interestingly according to Deane, once Moran became head of Prime Minister and Cabinet under Rudd, he was treated to a three-month period of the silent treatment from Rudd for some disagreement with Rudd - it shows how dysfunctional that government was).
I liked little asides like this: it quotes Robert Doyle, former liberal Opposition Leader and Lord Mayor of Melbourne who thinks that the urge to remake the world is a quintessential Victorian trait. He says”I think we have always been about policy, when we get into government, rather than politics, whereas NSW has always seemed to me to be about politics over policy.” Also: “Beyond the GST, the Howard government’s social and economic policies were like a donut – sweet, soft, fattening, without a centre – while the Beazley opposition’s were a photocopy of a picture of a donut – flat, tasteless, pointless.”
The book addresses lost opportunities. One strategy that the government (all governments?) had was to manage difficult issues by “putting them in the taxi”. They did this with abortion reform. They got started on trying to fix public transport too late. The desal plant is a controversial development even now. It was a careful government – and maybe that’s why it held onto government for such a long time.
The end made me cry. It finishes with Lynne Kosky's funeral. Lynne was about my age and I had met her first at uni and then again much later when she’d almost finished her life in politics. We did a pattern making course together; she talked about how much she liked sewing. I didn't know her at all well but I thought then about how much of her creative life might have been subsumed by the greedy maw of politics. And her life was brutally short. Deane ends with her funeral – which is appropriate given that the book focuses so closely on the impact of politics of individual (and the reverse). What he says is “What matters most, then, is not how much time we have, but what we do with the time we are given. Not a day can be wasted.” This personal directive combines nicely with something said by John Brumby, the man who asked Deane to write the book: “To be honest, in government, if you can’t get stuff done and don’t use the opportunity, you’re a mug.”
I was reminded of the power of consultation in reading this book. It’s what Bracks and Brumby did prior to being elected in 1999 – they talked to everyone. Business, unions, small business employers, people in country areas, people in cities. They liked it. People like being consulted; the very involvement in a conversation is likely to bring them a little bit on board even if it’s not a total shift. In contrast, Kennett had stopped talking to people who argued with him (a bit like Rudd ten years later). The famous incident with Jon Faine remains with me – Faine asked him a question that he did not like and Kennett said “I’m just going to sit here and drink my tea” (you can read the conversation here: http://www.crikey.com.au/2000/12/17/w...)
This book is really a primer for managing politics. The Bracks government was very raw at the beginning; there were 4 ministers new to parliament itself in 1999. The learning curve was huge. Deane drives the narrative through the four politicians who were the pillars of that government; Bracks, Brumby, Hulls and Thwaites. All, interestingly, sort of outsiders to the factional Labor movement until politics made it hard to remain independent. Bracks for example had to join Labor Unity for successful preselection in Williamstown. There’s no doubt though that Deane thinks that the outsider status is an advantage in terms of freedom of thought and action (and after reading Faction Man, I’d have to agree). It also made me think about Turnbull – who also has a type of outsider status in his party – and the challenges and opportunities it provides him.
The book captures the energy that is required to win power and the restraint that is required in retaining power. Deane attributes a lot of the reasons for the success of the government to the fact that Bracks has a high level of emotional intelligence and facilitated Cabinet with great skill. Deane says: “Bracks’s gift was emotional intelligence. Deane marvels at “his duality, his ability to be political without being political, that he won power by behaving like anything but a politician”. It seems I wasn’t the only one to underestimate “the man inside the cuddly bear outfit”. Mark Latham approached him in 2004 to help boost federal Labor’s electoral chances in Victoria and, in his diary, cursed Bracks’s woodenness and “silly grin”. Deane writes: “I guarantee the premier wasn’t smiling inanely. On the contrary, I suspect he was thinking dark thoughts indeed.” There also seemed to be high levels of generosity contributed by people like Brumby who could otherwise have felt aggrieved that all his work has not culminated (initially) in the job of Premier.
I really liked this book. It is intensely readable (Deane is a poet and the prose/structure is good.)I learnt a lot about a period of political life that I personally lived through. I was surprised by some elements. I had no idea that Victoria had attempted to push through and lobby for reforms on a national scale, revising the way that COAG works and looking at more efficient ways of delivering core services. There was a focus on improving workplace participation and productivity using elements like education as a lever. On that topic, Bracks says: “I initiated the National Reform Agenda because there was a gap in the nation, we had taken Victoria so far but we couldn’t achieve change unless there was cooperation from the Commonwealth to lift early childhood learning, to lift retention in education to year 12, to look at productivity in the economy more broadly and reduce regulation, all those things which would have made a difference.” (https://theconversation.com/in-conver...).
They produced policy documents that could be read in the time that a plane takes to travel from Melbourne to Canberra (great idea – am stealing that) and employed bureaucrats like Terry Moran who had considerable strategic vision and political nous. (And interestingly according to Deane, once Moran became head of Prime Minister and Cabinet under Rudd, he was treated to a three-month period of the silent treatment from Rudd for some disagreement with Rudd - it shows how dysfunctional that government was).
I liked little asides like this: it quotes Robert Doyle, former liberal Opposition Leader and Lord Mayor of Melbourne who thinks that the urge to remake the world is a quintessential Victorian trait. He says”I think we have always been about policy, when we get into government, rather than politics, whereas NSW has always seemed to me to be about politics over policy.” Also: “Beyond the GST, the Howard government’s social and economic policies were like a donut – sweet, soft, fattening, without a centre – while the Beazley opposition’s were a photocopy of a picture of a donut – flat, tasteless, pointless.”
The book addresses lost opportunities. One strategy that the government (all governments?) had was to manage difficult issues by “putting them in the taxi”. They did this with abortion reform. They got started on trying to fix public transport too late. The desal plant is a controversial development even now. It was a careful government – and maybe that’s why it held onto government for such a long time.
The end made me cry. It finishes with Lynne Kosky's funeral. Lynne was about my age and I had met her first at uni and then again much later when she’d almost finished her life in politics. We did a pattern making course together; she talked about how much she liked sewing. I didn't know her at all well but I thought then about how much of her creative life might have been subsumed by the greedy maw of politics. And her life was brutally short. Deane ends with her funeral – which is appropriate given that the book focuses so closely on the impact of politics of individual (and the reverse). What he says is “What matters most, then, is not how much time we have, but what we do with the time we are given. Not a day can be wasted.” This personal directive combines nicely with something said by John Brumby, the man who asked Deane to write the book: “To be honest, in government, if you can’t get stuff done and don’t use the opportunity, you’re a mug.”
November 29, 2015
Reading Catch and Kill, the Politics of Power serves as a good reminder of why – even though I’m interested in politics – I chose never to enter politics or even to join a political party. It’s just too feral for my taste…
Catch and Kill (a remarkably silly title except for a crime novel IMO) is an analysis of the Bracks-Brumby Labor government in Victoria (1999-2010), a government which like the current Andrews government won power when it was never expected to, and surprised us all by turning out to be competent, fair and innovative. Like all governments it eventually ran out of steam and was turfed out, but after the soul-destroying years of the abrasive Kennett government (1992-1999) it was nice to have civilised people running the state.
Catch and Kill reveals the ruthlessness that preceded that Bracks-Brumby electoral victory. He explains the internecine factional warfare that went on behind the scenes and had to be managed during the period in power. At both federal and state level much of it comes down to this: if your policies are not palatable to middle-Australia and its uber-sensitive hip-pockets, nobody will vote for you. Whether on the Left or the Right, maintaining ideological purity in feral public spats makes a party unelectable. Parties held captive by ideological purists need determined and pragmatic leaders capable of outsmarting them in order to sort this out.
To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2015/11/29/ca...
Catch and Kill (a remarkably silly title except for a crime novel IMO) is an analysis of the Bracks-Brumby Labor government in Victoria (1999-2010), a government which like the current Andrews government won power when it was never expected to, and surprised us all by turning out to be competent, fair and innovative. Like all governments it eventually ran out of steam and was turfed out, but after the soul-destroying years of the abrasive Kennett government (1992-1999) it was nice to have civilised people running the state.
Catch and Kill reveals the ruthlessness that preceded that Bracks-Brumby electoral victory. He explains the internecine factional warfare that went on behind the scenes and had to be managed during the period in power. At both federal and state level much of it comes down to this: if your policies are not palatable to middle-Australia and its uber-sensitive hip-pockets, nobody will vote for you. Whether on the Left or the Right, maintaining ideological purity in feral public spats makes a party unelectable. Parties held captive by ideological purists need determined and pragmatic leaders capable of outsmarting them in order to sort this out.
To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2015/11/29/ca...
May 4, 2020
An excellent read for Victorian progressive political tragics. Written by a thoughtful Labor insider, the book takes us inside the human aspects of Labor in power.
Joel Deane is kind in his first person observations of what helps governments tick, which is for me a pleasant change for the sometimes harsh certainty seen a third party media proclamations about why people do what.
Thank you Joel. I hope you are open to writing more.
Joel Deane is kind in his first person observations of what helps governments tick, which is for me a pleasant change for the sometimes harsh certainty seen a third party media proclamations about why people do what.
Thank you Joel. I hope you are open to writing more.
February 23, 2018
This book was quite an easy read. It blended the style of a biography and history. The book focuses on the Labor parties rise to power in Victorian parliament by taking back power from the Liberal Kennet government. The book provided great insight into the way the Labor party operates with the factions, leadership tensions and successes. I found it very insightful for learning more about the key leaders of the Labor Victorian government: Bracks, Brumby, Hwaites for starters.
September 21, 2025
“The measure of a person is how they respond to life in extremis. That’s why you never truly know a politician’s weaknesses until they have power, and you never truly know a person’s strengths until they are powerless.”
I think this book is phenomenal and remarkable. It is a terrific telling of a great period of Victorian politics and of four luminaries - Bracks, Thwaites, Brumby and Hulls. But it is so much more. It embodies the quote that:
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.” Without ever quoting it!
This period of history coincided with my own modest and lowly-levelled time in the state public service. I was on the extreme periphery of budgets and policies and projects referred to in this book. I remain proud of that time and grateful for the experience. I was always aware of the author in the treasury precinct as he cuts a distinctive appearance that sets him apart from economists, lawyers and accountants. We all knew he was a speech writer and a poet.
What I now realise is that he is a scribe of history. He was on the inside but can set himself a part and see the forest for the trees that so many people cannot. A lot of political memoirs are rose coloured and self serving. This book is not. This is raw and real.
For many the Bracks and Brumby governments may seem unremarkable. But the stable yet reforming government was long-standing and in contrast of those around it in other jurisdictions and points in time surrounding it.
Not enough is written about this Government. I’m so glad this book was written and think that the layout (and end notes) make this book the gold standard of political memoirs. It should be devoured by incoming ministers and private office staff.
Thanks to Joel Deane for writing this and to a kind colleague for loaning it to me. (I will definitely buy this for myself but struggled to find it.)
I think this book is phenomenal and remarkable. It is a terrific telling of a great period of Victorian politics and of four luminaries - Bracks, Thwaites, Brumby and Hulls. But it is so much more. It embodies the quote that:
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.” Without ever quoting it!
This period of history coincided with my own modest and lowly-levelled time in the state public service. I was on the extreme periphery of budgets and policies and projects referred to in this book. I remain proud of that time and grateful for the experience. I was always aware of the author in the treasury precinct as he cuts a distinctive appearance that sets him apart from economists, lawyers and accountants. We all knew he was a speech writer and a poet.
What I now realise is that he is a scribe of history. He was on the inside but can set himself a part and see the forest for the trees that so many people cannot. A lot of political memoirs are rose coloured and self serving. This book is not. This is raw and real.
For many the Bracks and Brumby governments may seem unremarkable. But the stable yet reforming government was long-standing and in contrast of those around it in other jurisdictions and points in time surrounding it.
Not enough is written about this Government. I’m so glad this book was written and think that the layout (and end notes) make this book the gold standard of political memoirs. It should be devoured by incoming ministers and private office staff.
Thanks to Joel Deane for writing this and to a kind colleague for loaning it to me. (I will definitely buy this for myself but struggled to find it.)
Read
February 27, 2019Started this but never got around to finishing it. I’ve already read Brumby’s book and own life in politics is stressful enough without reading more about it in my leisure time. Plus dare I say: all these blokes are just a bit too... blokey. I know the reason women weren’t starring is because they weren’t stars at the time, but that’s the problem - lack of gender parity in politics.
February 4, 2020
Really good!
May 24, 2025
One of the best books on Australian politics! This book has it all.
November 6, 2016
A great book if you're interested in Victorian politics (the Brumby and Bracks years specifically) and policy (there's lots in there about Terry Moran's efforts to overhaul Victorian DPC and make it into an ideas generator rather than just an implementation coordinator). The stuff about Victoria creating a national leadership role for itself in the vacuum left by Howard's reluctance to push reforms after the GST is really interesting. And it's really well written.
September 26, 2015
Outstanding
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews