''Tales from the Political Trenches'' is a 2012

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n political memoir by journalist and former

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...

politician

Maxine McKew Maxine Margaret McKew (born 22 July 1953) is a former Australian Labor politician and journalist; she was the Parliamentary Secretary for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government in the First Rudd Ministry and the F ...

. McKew's account of her life in politics is highly critical of the leadership decisions made inside the Federal ALP. McKew was elected to the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. The term of members of the ...

at the 2007 general election, defeating then-

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

John Howard John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007, holding office as leader of the Liberal Party. His eleven-year tenure as prime minister is the s ...

in his own seat of

Bennelong Woollarawarre Bennelong ( 1764 – 3 January 1813), also spelt Baneelon, was a senior man of the Eora, an Aboriginal Australian people of the Port Jackson area, at the time of the first British settlement in Australia in 1788. Bennelong serv ...

. McKew was "part of the Kevin ’07 juggernaut, which dismissed the Howard Government after eleven years of power. She believed in the ideas and aspirations of the Labor Party leader,

Kevin Rudd Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957) is an Australian former politician and diplomat who served as the 26th prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010 and again from June 2013 to September 2013, holding office as the leader of the ...

. But then his own party brought him, as a first term Prime Minister, down."

Criticism of internal ALP politics

McKew describes life in Federal parliament as being "'intoxicating, joyous and humbling but also brutish, backstabbing marked by betrayals and dishonesty.'" She writes that the ALP is internally controlled by factional nobodies. In the book, former Labor Prime Minister

Paul Keating Paul John Keating (born 18 January 1944) is an Australian former politician and unionist who served as the 24th prime minister of Australia from 1991 to 1996, holding office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). He previously serv ...

lambasts the "factional Tintookies" in the federal Labor caucus, saying "we have them to thank for the fact that Rudd blinked on the CPRS (Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme)". McKew also opines that the Labor Party has wasted its time in office. "Having got rid of John Howard," she writes, "how the hell have we managed to ensure that it is the Howard legacy and not a reformist Labor legacy that is still central to the national narrative?" "It is a bitter fact for my side of politics that the Howard years are still with us."

Criticism of Gillard

''Tales from the Political Trenches'' puts the blame for Labor's electoral woes squarely on the shoulders of

Julia Gillard Julia Eileen Gillard (born 29 September 1961) is an Australian former politician who served as the 27th prime minister of Australia from 2010 to 2013, holding office as leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). She is the first and only ...

, whom she accuses of being directly involved in the plot to dump Prime Minister Rudd. McKew says Ms Gillard has never had a future policy agenda, "only a plan to knock off" Kevin Rudd. McKew also has some criticism of Mr Rudd's first term. "As a government, we didn't care much about a genuine contest of ideas," she writes. "Where he needed to charm, he scolded. Instead of cultivating loyalists among backbenchers, too often he ignored them. He is a leader who makes few allowances for people who don't share his own obsessions or can't work to his timetable," she writes.

References

{{Reflist 2012 non-fiction books Political autobiographies Books about politics of Australia Melbourne University Publishing books