The Party Thieves

When veteran journalist and former Hawke media adviser Barrie Cassidy first started thinking about this book in December 2009, Malcolm Turnbull and Kevin Rudd were leaders of their parties. Within six months, both men had been deposed. Cassidy contends that both men stole their parties away: Turnbull by insisting on a climate change policy that the majority hated; Rudd by his authoritarian rule and disregard for MPs and party members. In the end, both parties came and took back their parties.

Cassidy contends that the removal of Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister, in the lead-up to the 2010 election ranks with the Dismissal, the disappearance of Holt and the day Fraser called an election as one of the four big stories in Australian politics in the last 50 years. The Party Thieves is more than just a campaign diary of the 2010 election; it is an analysis of a tumultuous eight months in politics, and the impact on the party and the population.

About the Author

Barrie Cassidy has been covering federal politics since he was first posted to Canberra in 1979. He has worked as political correspondent for ABC TV and radio and political analyst for The 7.30 Report. He is a former president of the parliamentary press gallery. He was for four years senior press secretary to Prime Minister Bob Hawke and eventually his senior political adviser. Barrie has worked overseas as a correspondent, again in major political capitals. First, as US correspondent for The Australian in Washington during the rise of Bill Clinton and then as European correspondent for the ABC based in Brussels.