Morrison's Lies Meet Menzies' Shadows

Lies and Falsehoods: The Morrison Government and the New Culture of Deceit — Bernard Keane

A forensic takedown of Morrison's systematic dishonesty, published before the full ugliness of the secret ministries came to light.

Keane's essay is a prosecutor's brief: chapter and verse of Morrison's lies, from Robodebt denials to the "I don't hold a hose, mate" Hawaii defence. Published in 2021, it predates the Solicitor-General's opinion on Morrison's secret ministries — which only proves Keane's thesis. Morrison didn't just bend truth; he weaponised opacity. Keane writes with Crikey's house style: caustic, evidence-heavy, zero patience for spin. This is the preloved copy you lend to mates still claiming "both sides do it." The foxing on your copy's pages won't make the receipts any less damning. Explore our current copy of Lies and Falsehoods or browse more Politics & Current Affairs books at Patina.

Power Shift: Australia's Future Between Washington and Beijing — Hugh White

The 2010 essay that predicted Australia's entire China dilemma — and we still haven't answered White's question.

White's argument is stark: as China's economy overtakes America's, Australia must choose between a fading hegemon and a rising autocracy — or carve a middle path neither will forgive. Published as Quarterly Essay 39 in 2010, before AUKUS, before the Belt and Road blow-up, before Huawei bans, Power Shift reads like a prophecy we ignored. White is a former Deputy Secretary of Defence and professor of strategic studies at ANU; he knows where the bodies are buried. The essay's clinical tone makes its fatalism more chilling: we're trapped between a partner who won't defend Taiwan and an adversary who won't tolerate neutrality. Fourteen years on, we're still pretending there's a safe option. Explore our current copy of Power Shift or browse more Politics & Current Affairs books at Patina.

Firing Line: Australia's Path to War — James Brown

A former Army officer asks why Australia reflexively joins America's wars — and gets no satisfying answer.

Brown's 2016 essay dissects Australia's post-9/11 military commitments: Afghanistan, Iraq, the Middle East air campaign. His thesis is brutal in its simplicity: we deployed because the Americans asked, not because Cabinet rigorously assessed national interest. Brown served in Iraq; he's not a pacifist. He's a sceptic of reflexive ANZUS loyalty. Firing Line (Quarterly Essay 62) names the politicians who waved troops off without hard questions, the generals who confused alliance management with strategy, the media cycle that punished dissent as disloyalty. It's a short book — under 100 pages — that lands like a gut punch. Your preloved copy may have a creased spine from someone gripping it too hard. Explore our current copy of Firing Line or browse more Politics & Current Affairs books at Patina.

Trivial Pursuit: Leadership and the End of the Reform Era — George Megalogenis

Megalogenis mourns the Hawke-Keating-Howard reform consensus and asks why we're now too scared to fix anything hard.

Published as Quarterly Essay 40 in 2010 — the same year as White's Power Shift — Megalogenis traces how Australian politics shifted from big reform (tariff cuts, float the dollar, GST) to petty culture wars. He pins the decay to leadership churn: six prime ministers in a decade will do that. Megalogenis, then Fairfax's senior political writer, expanded this essay into The Australian Moment (2012), which won the Walkley Book Award. But the Quarterly Essay distills his argument to a sharp 25,000 words: we've abandoned reform because focus groups punish courage and Newspoll rules Cabinet. Your secondhand copy will smell faintly of disappointment — or maybe that's just Australian politics since 2010. Explore our current copy of Trivial Pursuit or browse more Politics & Current Affairs books at Patina.

In the Shadow of Gallipoli: The Hidden Story of Australia in WWI — Robert Bollard

A corrective to the ANZAC legend: Australia's WWI reached Egypt, Palestine, Mesopotamia, and the home front — Gallipoli was just the bloody prologue.

Bollard's 2013 book strips the gauze off the ANZAC myth. Yes, Gallipoli mattered — 8,000 Australians died there — but more Australians fought on the Western Front, in Sinai, at Beersheba. Bollard covers the Light Horse in Palestine, the conscription referendums that tore the home front apart, the 1916 Battle of Fromelles (5,533 Australian casualties in 24 hours — our worst day). He writes as a military historian, not a mythbuster, but the effect is the same: we've fetishised one campaign and forgotten a war. This is political history in the sense that wars reveal how nations see themselves — and in 1914, Australia saw itself as Britain's loyal son. White, Brown, and Keane would recognise the pattern. Explore our current copy of In the Shadow of Gallipoli or browse more Politics & Current Affairs books at Patina.

As of June 2026, these five titles anchor Patina's Australian political analysis collection — the preloved copies that explain how we got here. From Morrison's deceit to Menzies' Cold War reflex, the through-line is clear: Australia mistakes alliance loyalty for strategy, and we're still paying the tab. Shop all Politics & Current Affairs books at Patina Paperbacks →