Front cover image for The PM years

The PM years

Kevin Rudd (Author)
Less than three years after taking government in a landslide election victory, Kevin Rudd was betrayed by his deputy and the factional powerbrokers of the Australian Labor Party, the 'Faceless Men', despite enjoying historically high personal and party approval ratings. The betrayal of June 2010 is the most significant Australian political event of the century. No prime minister including Rudd has since seen out a full term before being dethroned by their own caucus. But how did party games in Canberra spiral so catastrophically out of control? Kevin Rudd defeated John Howard on a platform of fresh ideas, progressive innovation and new leadership. He inherited two wars and the legacy of eleven years of conservative economic mismanagement. And within months of taking office, his new government would face the greatest economic cataclysm since the Great Depression - the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. But none of these deterred Rudd from his vision of bringing Australia into the modern age. In witty, forthright and audaciously honest prose, Rudd recounts his early triumphs and challenges in the hard business of government. He documents his time in the wilderness before his brief resurrection as Labor leader and the 2013 election, retaking the party after it had truly 'lost its way'. After years of silence, the 26th Prime Minister of Australia is finally on the record about his time in government, in this second volume of his autobiography. This is the memoir of a prime minister full of energy and ideals, while battling the greatest trials of the modern age. This is Kevin Rudd's response to the ultimate political - and personal - betrayal
Print Book, English, 2018
Pan Macmillan Australia, Sydney, N.S.W., 2018
Autobiography
xvii, 652 pages, 32 unnumbered pages of plates : colour illustrations, portraits ; 25 cm
9781760556686, 9781760783457, 1760556688, 1760783455
1052737189
"The PM Years is Volume II of Kevin Rudd's autobiography, 2007-2013. It follows on from Not For the Faint-Hearted, 1957-2007"--Title page verso