What do you think?
Rate this book
The Fixer: The Untold Story of Graham Richardson
Kingmaker… Powerbroker… Senator for Kneecaps…
For almost twenty years, Graham Richardson was one of the most powerful figures in the Australian Labor Party. His legacy still shakes the party to this day. From back rooms to boardrooms, Richardson held levers that drove the cogs of the ALP machine: if there was a deal to be made, Graham Richardson was The Fixer.
Richardson's rise to power in the right wing of the NSW Labor Party was marked by explosions of violence and bitterness, won him rare political influence and at times brought his career to the brink of disaster. Here is the truth behind the bashing of Labor MP Peter Baldwin, the making and breaking of Bob Hawke PM, the Love Boat incident, the Gold Coast prostitution scandals, and the Marshall Islands affair.
Walkley Award-winning journalist Marian Wilkinson delivers a profound and stunning exposé of the life and times of one man and a party bent on power.
For almost twenty years, Graham Richardson was one of the most powerful figures in the Australian Labor Party. His legacy still shakes the party to this day. From back rooms to boardrooms, Richardson held levers that drove the cogs of the ALP machine: if there was a deal to be made, Graham Richardson was The Fixer.
Richardson's rise to power in the right wing of the NSW Labor Party was marked by explosions of violence and bitterness, won him rare political influence and at times brought his career to the brink of disaster. Here is the truth behind the bashing of Labor MP Peter Baldwin, the making and breaking of Bob Hawke PM, the Love Boat incident, the Gold Coast prostitution scandals, and the Marshall Islands affair.
Walkley Award-winning journalist Marian Wilkinson delivers a profound and stunning exposé of the life and times of one man and a party bent on power.
420 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1996
32 people want to read
About the author
Marian Wilkinson
6 books11 followersMarian Wilkinson is a multi-award-winning Australian journalist with a career that has spanned radio, television and print.
She has covered politics, national security, refugee issues, and climate change as well as serving as a foreign correspondent in Washington, DC for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. She was a deputy editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, executive producer of the ABC's Four Corners program, and a senior reporter with Four Corners.
As environment editor for The Sydney Morning Herald, she reported on the rapid melt of Arctic sea ice for a joint Four Corners-Sydney Morning Herald production that won a Walkley Award for journalism and the Australian Museum's Eureka prize for environmental journalism. She also covered the UN climate conferences in Bali and Copenhagen.
As a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, she reported on the Panama Papers and the Paradise Papers for Four Corners.
In 2018, she was inducted into the Australian Media Hall of Fame.
She has covered politics, national security, refugee issues, and climate change as well as serving as a foreign correspondent in Washington, DC for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. She was a deputy editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, executive producer of the ABC's Four Corners program, and a senior reporter with Four Corners.
As environment editor for The Sydney Morning Herald, she reported on the rapid melt of Arctic sea ice for a joint Four Corners-Sydney Morning Herald production that won a Walkley Award for journalism and the Australian Museum's Eureka prize for environmental journalism. She also covered the UN climate conferences in Bali and Copenhagen.
As a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, she reported on the Panama Papers and the Paradise Papers for Four Corners.
In 2018, she was inducted into the Australian Media Hall of Fame.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 10, 2025
This sensational biography was released during 1996, at the end of Labor's thirteen years in power. The forensic and granular details are incredible, with clear timelines and specifics from conversations/decisions across two decades. She reveals the raw power and internal politics of the Labor Party and the union movement...
The Fixer is a meticulously researched exposé of the power, influence, and moral compromises of Graham Richardson, a key figure in the Australian Labor Party during its heyday in the 1980s and 1990s. Wilkinson delivers a critical portrait of Richardson as the archetypal political operative: a shrewd, pragmatic, and often ruthless powerbroker who was instrumental in securing Labor's dominance while embodying its ethical failings.
"This was the new Labor Party of the 1980s. Rich men could open the doors of power with their money in the Labor Party just as they could in the Liberal Party. As Australia's entrepreneurs embraced the era of 'Greed is Good' in the 1980s boom that followed financial deregulation, Richardson held out his arms and welcomed the brash new money men into Labor's circle of friends. He was, of course, not alone. Both the Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, and the Treasurer, Paul Keating, had their mates among these 'four-on-the-floor' entrepreneurs."
Wilkinson does not shy away from detailing Richardson's role in some of the ALP's more controversial episodes, from factional infighting to the questionable deals that blurred the lines between public service and personal gain. She paints a picture of a man who prioritised winning at all costs, often at the expense of transparency and integrity. In doing so, the book casts a harsh light on the Labor Party itself, exposing how the institution allowed and even encouraged such behaviour in the pursuit of electoral success.
"These were the men who had transformed the Labor Party in the 1980s, stripping it of its ideological shackles, but also a lot of its ideals. It was a telling symbol that throughout that night, Richardson sat next to his multi-millionaire friend and former stockbroker, Rene Rivkin. Like a growing number of Labor's new ruling class, Richardson's interest in his personal wealth and enrichment had outstripped his interest in Labor's vision of equity and fairness."
Richardson, Keating, Brereton, and others from the NSW Right were interested in numbers and ascending to power, there were not primarily motivated by ideology or by service or by altruism. Marian Wilkinson describes slush funds (money that was raised and spent, completely off the books), millions of dollars in corporate donations raised by Labor, directing the outcome of union elections, branch stacking within the ALP, as well as connections with people who were in drug dealing and organised crime. This is a dark world of party, union, and political operatives.
"Throughout Graham Richardson's twenty-three years in political life, from his first days as a young party organiser at Sussex Street, right through to his last days in the cabinet room, he never learnt the finer points of ethical behaviour. He had always traded in favours, mateship and deals. There was very little in his world that was black and white but there was a lot of grey... His behaviour had helped him accumulate his enormous power. His friends and enemies alike, from prime ministers to the lowest Labor Party organisers, had admired or feared this power for many years."
While Wilkinson’s prose is engaging, her analysis is sharp and unrelenting, making The Fixer a compelling read for those interested in Australian political history. The book raises important questions about the cost of political pragmatism and the long-term damage inflicted on public trust when ethical boundaries are repeatedly crossed. Ultimately, The Fixer serves as both a character study of Graham Richardson and a cautionary tale for modern politics, offering a sobering reflection on how power can corrupt not only individuals but entire institutions.
The Fixer is a meticulously researched exposé of the power, influence, and moral compromises of Graham Richardson, a key figure in the Australian Labor Party during its heyday in the 1980s and 1990s. Wilkinson delivers a critical portrait of Richardson as the archetypal political operative: a shrewd, pragmatic, and often ruthless powerbroker who was instrumental in securing Labor's dominance while embodying its ethical failings.
"This was the new Labor Party of the 1980s. Rich men could open the doors of power with their money in the Labor Party just as they could in the Liberal Party. As Australia's entrepreneurs embraced the era of 'Greed is Good' in the 1980s boom that followed financial deregulation, Richardson held out his arms and welcomed the brash new money men into Labor's circle of friends. He was, of course, not alone. Both the Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, and the Treasurer, Paul Keating, had their mates among these 'four-on-the-floor' entrepreneurs."
Wilkinson does not shy away from detailing Richardson's role in some of the ALP's more controversial episodes, from factional infighting to the questionable deals that blurred the lines between public service and personal gain. She paints a picture of a man who prioritised winning at all costs, often at the expense of transparency and integrity. In doing so, the book casts a harsh light on the Labor Party itself, exposing how the institution allowed and even encouraged such behaviour in the pursuit of electoral success.
"These were the men who had transformed the Labor Party in the 1980s, stripping it of its ideological shackles, but also a lot of its ideals. It was a telling symbol that throughout that night, Richardson sat next to his multi-millionaire friend and former stockbroker, Rene Rivkin. Like a growing number of Labor's new ruling class, Richardson's interest in his personal wealth and enrichment had outstripped his interest in Labor's vision of equity and fairness."
Richardson, Keating, Brereton, and others from the NSW Right were interested in numbers and ascending to power, there were not primarily motivated by ideology or by service or by altruism. Marian Wilkinson describes slush funds (money that was raised and spent, completely off the books), millions of dollars in corporate donations raised by Labor, directing the outcome of union elections, branch stacking within the ALP, as well as connections with people who were in drug dealing and organised crime. This is a dark world of party, union, and political operatives.
"Throughout Graham Richardson's twenty-three years in political life, from his first days as a young party organiser at Sussex Street, right through to his last days in the cabinet room, he never learnt the finer points of ethical behaviour. He had always traded in favours, mateship and deals. There was very little in his world that was black and white but there was a lot of grey... His behaviour had helped him accumulate his enormous power. His friends and enemies alike, from prime ministers to the lowest Labor Party organisers, had admired or feared this power for many years."
While Wilkinson’s prose is engaging, her analysis is sharp and unrelenting, making The Fixer a compelling read for those interested in Australian political history. The book raises important questions about the cost of political pragmatism and the long-term damage inflicted on public trust when ethical boundaries are repeatedly crossed. Ultimately, The Fixer serves as both a character study of Graham Richardson and a cautionary tale for modern politics, offering a sobering reflection on how power can corrupt not only individuals but entire institutions.
January 16, 2008
Terrifying and inspiring
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews