Abstract
Just in case you’re not already aware: Australia holds the world championship in ousting political leaders: 73 on State or Federal level since 1970 – and counting. As in all types of sports these days, the frequency of disposals accelerates. And lately, the challengers eventually get challenged themselves – even by the ones they kicked out previously. See Rudd–Gillard–Rudd. Or Turnbull–Abbott–Turnbull on the other side of the political spectrum. It’s a dog-eat-dog world. Tiffen takes a close look at under roughly two perspectives. The first explores the politics of these challenges, particularly the ruthless electoral pragmatism, which often isn’t quite rewarded by electoral success. The second part deals with the crucial role of the media in the development of the drama.
Blurb (and flyer) stress to ‘shine a light on the central role the media plays in the revolving-door leadership’. Despite News Corp, the eternal bad guys, this still is probably a bit far-fetched. It is less the media as a whole, but in most cases prominent journalists/columnists with direct access to the party room or at least one of the key players in the unfolding drama. Journalists with a stake in the game. Who sometimes like to play a rail shot as a cover-up. Tiffen points at a diametrical difference in a challenge: ‘Politicians’ interest is in the outcome, the bottom line, while journalists are more oriented towards disclosure’, breaking stories. He quotes Niki Savva, a former Costello staffer, who in her memoirs wrote, ‘When it comes to scheming and lying, plain old hypocrisy, and dishonesty, journalists – apart from a few honourable exceptions – win hands down’ in comparison to politicians.
Leadership challenges have often been based on the character traits of leaders, at odds with the majority of the party room or prominent individual members. They were (and are) rather based on clashing ambitions than conflicting policy prescriptions. No matter what, for the public they surely have been ‘marked by a lack of transparency and frankness’ indeed. But sometimes – for example, Keating versus Hawke – they openly were a full-frontal challenge paralysing government for a longer time. Often, such coups raise issues of legitimacy with the new leader often not being the one the public voted for at the last election. On the other side of the house, we learn that opposition leaders are three times more likely to be deposed as they lack the authority that electoral victory provides. Important ingredients in leadership challenges are ‘spin doctors’–a term invented in 1984 in the New York Times for image engineering. Spin doctors rather work for the leader than the party, inevitably creating resentment also with staffers, ‘over-promising and under-delivering’.
Beside the usual suspects (index, citations, bibliography), the appendix features a table about successful leadership challenges and lists longest serving party leaders and leadership coups and government survival.
In the Australian political system, the party leadership is decided by the parliamentary party. Maybe it would have been interesting to learn how leadership is enacted in the United Kingdom or United States or under more different political systems like New Zealand (or Germany for that matter). But that in all likelihood would have made for quite a different publication. This book is written in a flowing, sometimes even anecdotical sense, but still always highly insightful style. None of the dry-as-dust academic texts. Definitely accessible reading – without being light-weight at all. Favourite quote (while talking about TV series The West Wing): ‘Now when I want political drama I think I will go for something more realistic, such as King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table’. Touché!