Download Quarterly Essay 60: Political Amnesia: How We Forgot How to Govern AudioBook Free
What ever happened to good government? What are the symptoms of bad government? And may Malcolm Turnbull apply the lessons of days gone by in an exceedingly different world? With this crisp, deep and witty essay, Laura Tingle looks for answers to these questions. She runs from old Rome to the demoralised express of the once-great Australian public service, from the jingoism of days gone by to the tabloid scandals of the web age. Pulling on new interviews with key results, she shows the long-term harm that has result from undermining the general public sector as a repository of ideas and experience. She tracks the destruction done when responsibility is 'contracted out' and when politicians shut out or abuse their traditional resources of advice. In Political Amnesia, Laura Tingle examines what has gone wrong with our politics and how exactly we might put things right. 'There was lots of speculation about whether Turnbull would do it again his flaws as Opposition leader in the way he handled people. But there's not been quite so much about a lot more fundamental question of whether the revolving door of the perfect ministership has much deeper triggers than the personalities in Parliament House. Is the question whether Malcolm Turnbull - and those around him - can learn from history? Or is there a structural reason nation-wide politics is becoming so dysfunctional?' (Laura Tingle, Political Amnesia) Laura Tingle is political editor of the Australian Financial Review. She acquired the Paul Lyneham Award for Excellence in Press Gallery Journalism in 2004 and Walkley accolades in 2005 and 2011. This year 2010 she was shortlisted for the John Button Reward for political writing. She appears regularly on Radio National's Late Evening Live and ABC-TV's Insiders.
