The Victory — (The Inside Story of the Takeover of Australia)
By Pamela Williams
Allen & Unwin, 1997, 370 pp., $24.95 (pb)
Review by Melanie Sjoberg
The Victory is a gripping tale of intrigue, dubious financial deals and dynamic interpersonal conflicts that puts Melrose Place to shame. It definitely fits into the "can't put down" category.
Pamela Williams took time off from her job as a journalist with the Financial Review to write this political thriller and has justified her title of investigative journalist by exposing all the schemes and traumas behind the scenes.
In melodramatic style, worthy of Richard III and King Lear, the book reveals the inner workings of the Liberal and Labor parties' campaign camps during the 1996 federal election. The "victory" refers to the end of 13 years of Labor government and of PM Paul Keating. The "takeover" refers to the Liberal government's claim to a mandate.
The saga is introduced with a tale of personal animosity. Following an attack by WA politician Wilson Tuckey, Keating, filled with vengeance, swears that it is all Howard's fault and declares that he will eventually destroy him. The story then unfolds with an array of colourful characters who become familiar as the gritty tale develops.
On the Labor side are the dwindling PM "you've never had it so good" Paul Keating; former party leader Bob Hawke; adviser to Kerry Packer and old friend of Keating, Peter Barron; John Della Bosca, secretary of the NSW Labor right; ALP national secretary Gary Gray; "the two Dons", speech writer Don Watson and his long-time friend and adviser Don Russell; and political soul mate Laurie Brereton.
On the Liberal team, the central players are the party's federal director, Andrew Robb; pollster Mark Textor; party president Tony Staley; PM-to-be John Howard and his now ex-adviser, Grahame Morris; "never to be PM" Alexander Downer; the second to the throne, Peter Costello; and party treasurer and Melbourne business tycoon Ron Walker.
The opening pages set the scene. Economically, according to so-called meaningful indicators, Australia was thriving, company profits were running high and the recession was over. Yet, notes Williams, "the Australian electorate was consumed with insecurity".
According to Staley, "There is one defining moment in every election when one leader gets the edge over the other". For the Liberals, the question was how to achieve ascendancy. Staley believed that Keating had reached emperor stage and was convinced of his own invincibility — his Achilles heel.
Keating and Howard had been bitter enemies, their "careers entwined for 20 years". Both had been treasurer and both had shaped their own party's identity during the '80s.
One of the smarmiest yet most ironic tales in the book is that of the rise and fall of Downer.
After doing the numbers in his run to the leadership challenge against John Hewson, Downer declared: "Gee, I could win this". And he did! But as Liberal leader, Downer was a satirist's paradise: on a visit to the NT he pledged to repeal Mabo; he addressed a League of Rights meeting in 1987 thinking it was a Christian rally; and following the "Things that Matter" policy launch, he made that horrifying reference to domestic violence as "the things that batter".
Probably Downer's most revealing statement, however, was his confession that he didn't realise that becoming leader of the Liberals "meant working seven days a week and travelling constantly".
The Liberals came to the conclusion that Downer was a big mistake. This was reinforced by the fact that no donations had flowed in to the party since the 1993 election loss and party treasurer Ron Walker's statement that he couldn't persuade corporate leaders to make donations with Downer as leader. The party's debt to the National Bank had grown to $5 million, and party campaigners were concerned that Labor's advertising company could portray Downer as a joke.
These discussions take place in only the most salubrious of surroundings — Melbourne's Windsor Hotel and Athenaeum Club, the Chateau Hotel in Sydney and even the Aldgate Pump Hotel in the Adelaide Hills.
Over a barbecue, Howard ensured that his family are behind his next attempt to attain the leadership. Williams reminds us of the grubby internal realignments after the Liberals lost the 1993 election under Hewson and Andrew Peacock.
An open challenge from Howard was thwarted by Peacock lining up Hewson to renege on his promise to quit if the election was lost. The Liberal Party was decomposing however and another challenge soon resurfaced. Meanwhile, Peacock had pulled some strings to become a consultant for CRA in PNG.
The electorate was pessimistic about the re-election of Labor. The sweet relationship the ALP had nurtured with the peak environmental groups was floundering amidst "ugly" anti-woodchipping demonstrations.
Keating was displaying increasing arrogance and conceit, based on his view that he alone had grasped victory from almost certain defeat in the 1993 election. He condemned party organisers and campaigners for their lack of confidence.
The chapter entitled "Captain Wacky" shows Keating as a self-centred egotist who is concerned only with promoting himself despite advice from those supposedly at the helm of the campaign.
Keating frustrated those around him by becoming too involved in the fine detail, to the point where he even chose the style of seating and music for his election campaign entrance. After party officers had spent more than two weeks attempting to obtain approval to use Shostakovich's Gadfly Suite, performed by the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Keating changed his mind and the music was canned. Insiders complained constantly of Keating's idiosyncrasies, such as refusing to make a schedule for public appearances.
The closing pages describe the jubilance of the victorious Howard group and the dejection of the Keating band. The difficulties of the campaign had driven a wedge between Keating and most of his advisers. Reflecting his distance from reality, he failed to acknowledge the anger and disillusionment that had driven long-term Labor supporters to vote for the Liberals. Howard, of course, hailed the "mandate" from the electorate.
Throughout, the book exposes the reality of bourgeois political life. It reaffirms the view, held by the vast majority, that politicians are divorced from the lives of ordinary people.
Opinion poll results are heralded as the most important indicator for both major parties. The most crucial skill of the campaigner is to "pull a snappy one liner out of a bundle of research results". This was Liberal federal director Andrew Robb's most intimate dream — to devise a strategy to woo the wavering Labor core.
The question of where they go afterwards is also confirmed as both winners and losers take their prizes. It is not just the MPs, but also advisers, strategists and campaigners who move on to merchant banks, establishment media positions, diplomatic or ambassadorial posts.
The only regrettable aspect of this tale of intrigue and drama is that it is not fiction.