Scribe is thrilled to share that Bulldozed by Niki Savva has won the 2023 Political Book of the Year Award.
26 October, 2023
Bulldozed wins 2023 Australian Political Book of the Year
Award judges Laura Tingle, Barrie Cassidy and John Warhurst AO have shared their reflections:
‘Savva’s blunt and often eye-popping account of the Morrison Government has smashed the mould of contemporary writing on our country’s political contest, which is so often relegated to a rushed retelling of events, usually by the winners who get to shape the historical narrative, using multiple anonymous sources and hindsight.
What emerges is a portrait of politics as something beyond just partisan politics and ideology.
We see the driving factors behind crucial decisions that affect us all as often being no more than the outcome of human will, raw ambition, flaws and failings in all their splendour, and this portrait mostly comes directly through the words of those involved. There are no assertions of what unnamed players may have told Savva in her riveting account of the dying days of the Morrison Government.
Savva’s book reflects the wisdom of her judgements about politics and people formed over decades as a political reporter, and the quality of her skills as a wordsmith. Bulldozed is also the third instalment of her account of the federal Coalition which gives readers an unparalleled view of a very particular period in Australian politics.
While the book also documents the path to election victory of Anthony Albanese’s Labor Government, the book is at its most powerful in documenting the extraordinary inner workings of the Morrison Cabinet.
Journalists are often criticised for going to work for the ‘dark side’ as political staffers. But Savva’s trilogy of books demonstrates how the finest in her profession can both gain an unparalleled insight into how politics really works but emerge on the other side with their independence intact.’
Congratulations to Niki, and her publisher Henry Rosenbloom, on this significant recognition for the book.
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$36.99 AUD
Bulldozed
WINNER OF THE 2023 ABIA GENERAL NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD
‘The gripping inside story of how Scott Morrison went from miracle man to roadkill. Savva portrays a fatally flawed leader who trashed his government, his party, and his legacy.’
—Laurie Oakes
Between 2013 and 2022, Tony Abbott begat Malcolm Turnbull, who begat Scott Morrison. For nine long years, Australia was governed by a succession of Coalition governments rocked by instability and bloodletting, and consumed with prosecuting climate and culture wars while neglecting policy.
By the end, among his detractors — and there were plenty — Morrison was seen as the worst prime minister since Billy McMahon. Worse even than Tony Abbott, who lasted a scant two years in the job, whose main legacy was that he destroyed Julia Gillard, then himself, and then Turnbull.
Morrison failed to accept the mantle of national leadership, or to deal adequately with the challenges of natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic. He thought reform was a vanity project. He said he never wanted to leave a legacy. He got his wish.
Niki Savva, Australia’s renowned political commentator, author, and columnist, was there for all of it. In The Road to Ruin, she revealed the ruinous behaviour of former prime minister Abbott and his chief of staff, Peta Credlin, that led to the ascension of Turnbull. In Plots and Prayers, she told the inside story of the coup that overthrew Turnbull and installed his conniving successor, Morrison.
Now she lays out the final unravelling of the Coalition at the hands of a resurgent Labor and the so-called teal independents that culminated in the historic 2022 election. With her typical access to key players, and her riveting accounts of what went on behind the scenes, Bulldozed is the unique final volume of an unputdownable and impeccably sourced political trilogy.
‘I don’t hold a hose, mate.’ Scott Morrison, 20 December 2019, on the Black Summer bushfires
‘It’s not a race.’ Scott Morrison, 11 March 2021, on the COVID-19 vaccine rollout
