Upturn: A better normal after COVID-19 [Paperback] Plibersek, Tanya

Tanya Plibersek assembled some of Australia's sharpest minds to answer a simple question: what should we keep from the COVID years, and what should we leave behind? This collection of essays tackles everything from remote work and digital health to housing inequality and climate action — all through the lens of a country that briefly glimpsed a different way of living. Contributors include politicians, economists, health experts, and community leaders who saw the pandemic not just as a crisis but as a rare chance to reset. Some ideas here are pragmatic, others ambitious, but all push back against the urge to simply "return to normal." Written during that strange, uncertain moment when Australia was still figuring out what came next, this feels both urgent and oddly hopeful. For anyone who spent 2020-2021 wondering if we'd learned anything, or just anyone interested in Australian political thought during a defining moment.