In the 20th century, Labor partisans languishing in opposition were the ones most likely to emulate the Americans. A growing local publishing industry urged them on. But the men who published in the 1960s, such as opposition leader Arthur Calwell and senior left figure Jim Cairns, quickly found that they were, to borrow Lloyd Bentsen\u2019s immortal words, \u201cno Jack Kennedy\u201d.<\/p>\n
Labor parliamentarians such as Lindsay Tanner and Wayne Swan published more political musings during the Howard years. Sales were rarely stellar and just one, an up-and-coming western Sydney MP named Mark Latham, found that his densely cerebral book, Civilising Global Capital (1998), marked him out as a possible leader. In any case, observers such as Michelle Grattan knew that \u201cLabor books\u201d tended to become \u201cLiberal weapons\u201d before long.<\/p>\n
Liberal literature<\/p>\n
Liberals have more recently turned to this version of performance politics, curating personas and sculpting personal backstories in service of a larger ambition.<\/p>\n
The crisis of authority within the Liberal party<\/a> post Howard has seen bitter conflict between factions, leaders and ideological traditions. Owning one\u2019s own history, and that of the party generally, has in that context become a more important feature of conservative politicking.<\/p>\n Tony Abbott\u2019s mid-career memoir, Battlelines<\/a>, helped make him leader. That book began as a project to help Abbott recover from what colleagues called a \u201cpolitical funk\u201d. It gave him a larger public platform and a series of controversial policy ideas (ranging from carbon charges and a referendum for greater commonwealth constitutional power, through to age pension reforms and a special \u201ccovenant\u201d form of marriage) to debate with his interviewers. It culminated in a promotional tour that showed he still had communicative skills \u2013 and a little charisma.<\/p>\n Tony Abbott signs copies of Battlelines in 2009. \u2018It helped make him leader \u2026 but it was the exception, not the norm.\u2019 Photograph: Dean Lewins\/AAP<\/p>\n Abbott\u2019s book events conveniently became dialogues with increasingly disillusioned Liberal members who loathed the then Rudd government\u2019s emissions reduction policy. Earlier inclined to concede the issue, Abbott was emboldened to pick a fight with Labor and, in the first instance, with climate-conscious opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull, whose job he secured by a single vote in a party room on 1 December 2009.<\/p>\n But Battlelines was the exception, not the norm.<\/p>\n In 2011, Liberal frontbencher Andrew Robb published a very decent book<\/a>, Black Dog Daze, describing his suffering and treatment for diurnal variation (serious morning depressions). It was an honest and brave account of a sensitive personal topic. But it too was shaped by leadership aspirations that would go unfulfilled.<\/p>\n In government, Christopher Pyne published a book called A Letter to My Children, explaining his approach to public service and the inspiration of his father, the late ophthalmologist Remington Pyne<\/a>. The book and its marketing softened his reputation as a parliamentary antagonist and would-be deregulator of higher education fees. But that hardly placed him in the \u201cwinner\u2019s circle\u201d, as it were.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Five Great Reads<\/p>\n Each week our editors select five of the most interesting, entertaining and thoughtful reads published by Guardian Australia and our international colleagues. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Saturday morning<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n The cautionary tale of Costello<\/p>\n But perhaps the best cautionary fable for Frydenberg is the story of former treasurer Peter Costello. John Howard\u2019s longsuffering deputy shocked Liberals by declining the leadership after the 2007 election. Returning to the backbench, he knuckled down to work with his father-in-law \u2013 conservative intellectual Peter Coleman \u2013 on the book that became The Costello Memoirs: The Age of Prosperity<\/a>.<\/p>\n From go to whoa, that book was synonymous with leadership speculation. Costello joked with his publishers that the book could be called \u201cThe story so far\u201d. He told reporters he would not be a leadership candidate in the future, but Coleman told the same reporters there was still \u201ca crack in the door\u201d.<\/p>\n Journalists initially mused that a successful memoir might make Costello leader. But by the time the book was published in October 2008, life (and the media) had moved on<\/a>. There was leadership churn already, and a global financial meltdown under way.<\/p>\n Performance Politics by Joshua Black. Photograph: UNSW Press<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1788136096_530_500.jpg\")
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