Aussie Power Brokers Behind Closed Doors
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- David Gonski's Selected Speeches was published by Viking and collects decades of addresses from one of Australia's most influential business leaders and philanthropists.
- Gatekeepers: Lessons from Prime Ministers' Chiefs of Staff, published by Melbourne University Press, examines the unelected advisers who shaped Australian policy from both Labor and Liberal governments.
- John Howard served as Australia's Prime Minister from 1996 to 2007, making him the second-longest serving PM in the nation's history.
- Bob Hawke held the Prime Ministership from 1983 to 1991 and was a former ACTU president and Rhodes Scholar before entering Parliament.
- When We Were Young and Foolish, published by Allen & Unwin, offers behind-the-scenes glimpses of Tony Abbott, Bob Carr, and Malcolm Turnbull before they reached the top.
Gatekeepers: Lessons from Prime Ministers' Chiefs of Staff — Melbourne University Press
The power behind the throne, finally documented.
This is the book that asks the real question: who actually runs Australia when the PM's in Question Time? Chiefs of staff are the ultimate insiders—they control access, kill bad ideas before they reach the boss, and occasionally engineer the leadership spills that rewrite history. Melbourne University Press gathered firsthand accounts from the advisers who served Hawke, Keating, Howard, Rudd, Gillard, and Abbott. It's part oral history, part masterclass in how power actually works when the cameras aren't rolling. If you've ever wondered why certain policies never saw daylight or how a leadership challenge goes from whisper to fait accompli in 72 hours, this is your text.
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When We Were Young and Foolish — Allen & Unwin
Before they were prime ministers and premiers, they were just ambitious kids making spectacularly bad decisions.
Allen & Unwin's memoir catches Tony Abbott, Bob Carr, Malcolm Turnbull, and others in their formative years—university politics, early media gigs, the friendships and rivalries that hardened into the battle lines we recognise today. It's indiscreet in the best way, the kind of book that makes you realise how much of Australian politics is still driven by grudges formed in 1970s student union bars. The author was there for it all, and the lack of polish is the point. This isn't hagiography; it's the messy, often embarrassing prequel to the leadership we got stuck with.
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I Gave A Gonski: Selected Speeches — Viking
The man who gave his name to education reform, in his own words.
David Gonski's influence on Australian public life is hard to overstate—business leader, philanthropist, the architect of school funding reforms that still dominate policy debates a decade later. Viking's collection of his speeches spans corporate boardrooms, university lectures, and policy forums, revealing the principles behind the public figure. Gonski writes with a clarity that's rare in political discourse; these aren't platitudes, they're arguments built on evidence and a genuine belief that Australia could be better. As of September 2026, it remains one of the few political speech collections that actually rewards a cover-to-cover read.
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Robert Hawke — Lansdowne
The larrikin PM who rebuilt the economy and still holds a beer-sculling world record.
Bob Hawke is the contradiction at the heart of modern Labor—a Rhodes Scholar who spoke union, a policy wonk who could work a crowd like a rock star, the man who floated the dollar and cried on national television. Lansdowne's biography captures that duality without trying to sand down the rough edges. Hawke led Australia through the 1980s economic restructuring that defined the next three decades, and he did it with a charisma that made people forgive the ego. This isn't the authorised autobiography; it's the clear-eyed portrait that acknowledges both the brilliance and the messy personal life.
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John Howard: Prime Minister — Viking
Eleven years in power, and the policies still shape the fights we're having today.
John Howard's 1996–2007 tenure as Prime Minister was the longest run for a Liberal PM since Menzies, and Viking's biography doesn't shy away from the contradictions—economic liberaliser and social conservative, the man who introduced WorkChoices and apologised to absolutely no one. Howard remade Australia in ways that Labor governments since haven't fully unwound: the GST, the gun buyback, the Pacific Solution, the decision to follow the US into Iraq. This biography gives you the full picture—the policy wins, the culture wars, the 2007 defeat that saw him lose his own seat. If you want to understand why Australian politics looks the way it does in 2025, you start here.
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Coming to the Party: What Next for Labour? — Miegunyah Press
Progressive thinkers wrestling with Labor's existential crisis, published mid-chaos.
Miegunyah Press released this collection during one of Labor's rougher patches—the kind of moment when the party's purpose felt genuinely uncertain. The essays inside are sharp, argumentative, and unafraid to suggest that maybe the old certainties (unions, redistribution, the working-class base) don't map onto 21st-century Australia the way they used to. Some contributors argue for doubling down on core values; others push for a wholesale rethink. It's the political essay collection as diagnosis, and the fact that many of these debates still haven't been resolved makes it oddly current. If you care about where progressive politics goes next, this is required reading.
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The Politics of Human Rights in Australia — Cambridge University Press
The legal and political battles over rights, refugees, and what "Australian values" actually mean.
Published by Cambridge University Press in May 2009, this collection brings together leading scholars to dissect Australia's fraught relationship with human rights—from Indigenous rights and mandatory detention to the politicisation of refugees and the limits of constitutional protections. It's rigorous, occasionally dense, and absolutely essential if you want to understand why Australia still doesn't have a federal bill of rights or why asylum seeker policy became the third rail of Australian politics. The essays trace the legal arguments, the High Court decisions, and the political manoeuvring that turned human rights into a wedge issue. Not light reading, but the kind of book that clarifies decades of policy fights.
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Australian political memoirs and insider accounts offer something rare: the unvarnished version of how decisions actually get made, who holds the real power, and why leadership spills happen at 2am after weeks of careful orchestration. These books are the antidote to sanitised press releases and talking points.
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Where can I buy secondhand Australian political memoirs online?
Patina Paperbacks stocks a rotating selection of preloved Australian political non-fiction, from insider accounts of Labor and Liberal leadership to policy analyses and memoir collections. We're Sydney-based and ship Australia-wide, with free shipping on orders over $29. As of September 2026, our collection includes titles on prime ministers from Hawke through to the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison years.
What's the best book about Australian chiefs of staff and political advisers?
Gatekeepers: Lessons from Prime Ministers' Chiefs of Staff, published by Melbourne University Press, is the definitive text. It features firsthand accounts from the unelected advisers who shaped policy and controlled access to prime ministers across both major parties. If you want to understand how Australian politics actually works behind the scenes, that's your starting point.
Are there any good memoirs about Bob Hawke and the 1980s Labor government?
Absolutely. Patina stocks biographies and analyses of Bob Hawke's prime ministership (1983–1991), including Lansdowne's portrait of the larrikin Rhodes Scholar who floated the dollar and restructured the economy. For a broader view of 1980s Labor, pair it with titles on Paul Keating or collections examining the economic reforms that defined the era.
What Australian political books cover both Labor and Liberal perspectives?
Gatekeepers is bipartisan by design, featuring chiefs of staff from both sides. When We Were Young and Foolish covers the formative years of figures like Tony Abbott (Liberal) and Bob Carr (Labor) before they reached the top. And The Politics of Human Rights in Australia examines policy debates that cut across party lines, from mandatory detention to Indigenous rights.
Do you stock books about John Howard's time as Prime Minister?
Yes. Viking's John Howard: Prime Minister covers his eleven years in office (1996–2007), including WorkChoices, the GST, the gun buyback, and the 2007 electoral defeat. It's one of the most thorough accounts of a Liberal PM whose policies still shape Australian politics today. Check our current stock here.