Betrayal
Simon Benson
The story everyone is talking about...The book that helped trigger a change of Prime Minister... and helps explain why Labor failed to win a majority in the recent election... and what Labor needs to do about it!
A story that some in the Australian Labor Party would prefer to keep buried. But to others, including former Labor giants, it's a story that needs telling.
Betrayal is a shocking, often crude, even hilarious war-story about politics, policy and petty personal ambition.
More important, it's about the train wreck of the NSW Labor Party & the policy reform framework that past Labor leaders fought hard to make it stand for, and how that culture infected Federal Labor... ultimately what cost Labor majority government in the recent federal election.
ABCTV News Breakfast
"one big morality tale... a cracker read."
Vexnews
" ...probably be the best-selling political insider’s account in years"
ABC Radio 612 Brisbane
"A rivetting read... although it's not a pretty picture." (Steve Austin)
GoodReading Magazine
"This book takes readers inside the corridors of power and re-creates critical conversations through painstaking interviews. It's a remarkable feat of investigative journalism." (Thomas Liddle)
Spectator Australia
"You are going to hate what you learn" (Caroline Overington)
Radio 2GB
"an extraordinary book...meticulously detailed...I couldn't put it down...an absolutely gripping story." (Alan Jones)
Morris Iemma, former NSW Premier
"An accurate portrayal...I had a...deal with the Prime Minister and it should have been honoured."
Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd
"I supported the government's policy. On the question of organisational matters within the Australian Labor Party, Mr Iemma's recollection of events is not accurate.”
Morris Iemma, former NSW Premier
“What I said is 100 per cent accurate. Mr Rudd's the one who's got it wrong...the one whose recollections are hazy."
Radio 2UE
"a book that will shatter the credibility of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd."
Radio 2UE
"a portrayal of the dirty world of politics...secret meetings and broken promises..." (Steve Liebmann)
Radio 2GB
"an outstanding read..." (Ray Hadley)
The Daily Telegraph
"an explosive tell-all book..."
Radio 4BC Drive
"a ripper book" (Michael Smith)
The Sydney Morning Herald
"...bombshell..." (Miranda Devine)
The Australian
"the book does a brilliant job capturing the often cinematic quality of the treachery within the ALP. There is one scene straight out of a movie." (David Penberthy)
Australian Literary Review
“Benson has the quality tabloid journalist’s feel for detail... Betrayal, however, is more than a compelling political potboiler. It should stimulate the beginnings of the conversation about what Labor government in NSW between 1995 and (if the polls are correct) 2011 has meant. If the answer to that question by most media commentators and editorialists would appear to be ‘unalleviated disaster’, that simply reflects shortness of memory, including for many of their own previously held positions.” (Imre Salusinszky)
Vexnews
Benson is best of breed in political reporting... and his skill and access shines through his book, which reads like a political spy-thriller where you’re compelled to turn the next page to read the next act of intrigue, skullduggery or bloody-mindedness. We, of course, know how it ends but it’s no less compelling for it."
The Australian
"an account of the destruction of the Iemma government in NSW on electricity privatisation reform. In effect, the party destroyed the government." (Paul Kelly)
The Australian
“Simon Benson’s riveting account...of how the unions, the state ALP machine and even the opposition brought down the Iemma government...” (Michael Stuchbury)
Robert Simeon
"a book with more twists than a Rubik’s cube."
Quadrant Online
"the first book which captures the disillusionment which followed the glory days of Kevin 07 and explores the chicanery of The Lodge’s present tenant."
Readings Bookstore
"In the most explosive political book of 2010 the underbelly of Australian politics... finally exposed!"
The Australian Financial Review
"As a snapshot of what happened, the book deserves comparison with Alan Reid’s The Gorton Experiment (1971). The events, scheming, the atmosphere and personalities, drama and ultimate tragedy are deftly sketched. Benson’s book illuminates how the NSW machine betrayed its own traditions. That’s the real betrayal...” (Michael Easson)
The Sydney Morning Herald's Spectrum
"...A rollicking read... a readable and an accessible account of the dysfunctional, damaged and cynical culture of the NSW ALP" (Michael Samara)
Upstart
"...Benson’s narrative is fast-paced and captures the hectic untidiness of politics behind the scenes... Amid the often colourful recriminations, Betrayal has a serious point to make. It is that when the party machine lacks ‘policy purpose, it has nothing more to offer than to focus on marketing and polls’..." (Stephen Minas)
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