What do you think?
Rate this book
Loner: Inside a Labor Tragedy
When Mark Latham walked out of the caucus room as Labor leader in December 2003, he took the Labor Party into one of the most tumultuous periods in its history. Bernard Lagan was there in the beginning and he was there at the end. This is his story of the rollercoaster ride that was the Latham year and of what went wrong for the man who was going to be the Labor Party's saviour.
The day Mark Latham became leader of the Labor Party, the dynamics of federal parliamentary politics shifted up more than a few notches. A year later this loner would resign from the parliament a broken figure. What happed in those twelve months to turn the most dynamic performer in Australian politics into the sick and embattled man we all saw on our TV screens?
Bernard Lagan burrows deep inside that dramatic year to uncover the gut wrenching personal dramas, the plots and the intrigues, and the loyalties betrayed. Written with all the energy and drama of a political thriller, Inside a Labor tragedy uncovers the bitter struggle and brutal realities of Labor's inner crisis.
The day Mark Latham became leader of the Labor Party, the dynamics of federal parliamentary politics shifted up more than a few notches. A year later this loner would resign from the parliament a broken figure. What happed in those twelve months to turn the most dynamic performer in Australian politics into the sick and embattled man we all saw on our TV screens?
Bernard Lagan burrows deep inside that dramatic year to uncover the gut wrenching personal dramas, the plots and the intrigues, and the loyalties betrayed. Written with all the energy and drama of a political thriller, Inside a Labor tragedy uncovers the bitter struggle and brutal realities of Labor's inner crisis.
- GenresAustralia
320 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2005
9 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 8, 2016
This is seen as the definitive account of Mark Latham's time leading the Labor party, and to read this soon after reading Latham's own diaries was an illuminating experience. Latham's diaries omit much of the campaign trail itself (Latham's reason was that he simply didn't have the time to jot down his thoughts while doing everything needed in an election campaign, and I can understand that) so this book filled in a number of blanks.
The issues prevalent in the election that led to Latham's downfall and the electoral loss were glossed over for the most part in Latham's diaries. He blamed the doomed campaign on the lack of TV advertising, specifically in response to Howard's attack ads, for Labor. Lagan suggested that it was more the compound effect of an interest rates scare from Howard, a loss of the economic argument, and the terrible policy announcement in Tasmania to save the forests (losing timber industry jobs) that sealed Latham's fate. But even here Loner: Inside a Labor Tragedy concedes that a major point of contention was the fact that Latham simply couldn't admit responsibility for his own actions, whether they be positive or negative in the campaign. Arrogance was a serious flaw that divided and ultimately undermined his own leadership of the Labor party.
Mark Latham today is a very different Mark Latham to the one in the 2004 election. Lagan writes favourably, and other politicians comment so, on Latham's vigour and positivity throughout the campaign. He genuinely appeared to be a fresh start for Labor after the wilderness years of Beazley leadership, whose political prospects were always going to amount to glorified bench warming. Mark Latham replaced Simon Crean, a man Latham admired who simply wasn't cut out to be leader. Under Crean it's posited that the electoral loss would've been far worse. Latham's arrogance and overreach in thinking his party could rise above the factional to and fro of loyalties among colleagues that led to his downfall. And what a sad end, Latham, who was said to be the next Whitlam (even getting the nod from both Whitlam and Keating) going out without any fanfare after a month's worth of silence in the wake of the 2004 tsunami and repeated attacks of pancreatitis. In some ways he couldn't have continued in his role owing purely to health reasons. I can understand why he chose his family over the trying atmosphere of politics.
The Latham we see now, the one who goes on Channel 9 and radio to rail against perceived wrongs of political correctness and the apparent injustice of white people not being able to use the N-word, the one who went on 60 Minutes and told us all to donkey vote before the 2010 election, is in my view a psychological carry-over from his electoral loss, and how he refuses to admit any responsibility for failures that were, ultimately, his. He still regards himself as the chosen one that was meant to lead Labor to a new era of progressivism, above factional warring, above dirty politics, above the sad realities of a two-party system in a 24/7 media landscape. His bitterness and bile will always be because of a betrayal in his mind from the party machine, that while I will be the first to admit that there is a problem of factional unrest in the Labor party, and constant fighting between MPs vying for power, they were willing to give Latham a chance right up until the end. He was expected to lead the Labor party for at least another year after the election defeat.
The tragedy of Mark Latham was as much a self-infliction as it was down to poor political decisions during his campaign, John Howard's political skills, and general incompetence from the Labor party.
The issues prevalent in the election that led to Latham's downfall and the electoral loss were glossed over for the most part in Latham's diaries. He blamed the doomed campaign on the lack of TV advertising, specifically in response to Howard's attack ads, for Labor. Lagan suggested that it was more the compound effect of an interest rates scare from Howard, a loss of the economic argument, and the terrible policy announcement in Tasmania to save the forests (losing timber industry jobs) that sealed Latham's fate. But even here Loner: Inside a Labor Tragedy concedes that a major point of contention was the fact that Latham simply couldn't admit responsibility for his own actions, whether they be positive or negative in the campaign. Arrogance was a serious flaw that divided and ultimately undermined his own leadership of the Labor party.
Mark Latham today is a very different Mark Latham to the one in the 2004 election. Lagan writes favourably, and other politicians comment so, on Latham's vigour and positivity throughout the campaign. He genuinely appeared to be a fresh start for Labor after the wilderness years of Beazley leadership, whose political prospects were always going to amount to glorified bench warming. Mark Latham replaced Simon Crean, a man Latham admired who simply wasn't cut out to be leader. Under Crean it's posited that the electoral loss would've been far worse. Latham's arrogance and overreach in thinking his party could rise above the factional to and fro of loyalties among colleagues that led to his downfall. And what a sad end, Latham, who was said to be the next Whitlam (even getting the nod from both Whitlam and Keating) going out without any fanfare after a month's worth of silence in the wake of the 2004 tsunami and repeated attacks of pancreatitis. In some ways he couldn't have continued in his role owing purely to health reasons. I can understand why he chose his family over the trying atmosphere of politics.
The Latham we see now, the one who goes on Channel 9 and radio to rail against perceived wrongs of political correctness and the apparent injustice of white people not being able to use the N-word, the one who went on 60 Minutes and told us all to donkey vote before the 2010 election, is in my view a psychological carry-over from his electoral loss, and how he refuses to admit any responsibility for failures that were, ultimately, his. He still regards himself as the chosen one that was meant to lead Labor to a new era of progressivism, above factional warring, above dirty politics, above the sad realities of a two-party system in a 24/7 media landscape. His bitterness and bile will always be because of a betrayal in his mind from the party machine, that while I will be the first to admit that there is a problem of factional unrest in the Labor party, and constant fighting between MPs vying for power, they were willing to give Latham a chance right up until the end. He was expected to lead the Labor party for at least another year after the election defeat.
The tragedy of Mark Latham was as much a self-infliction as it was down to poor political decisions during his campaign, John Howard's political skills, and general incompetence from the Labor party.
Displaying 1 of 1 review