A Premier's State

Overview

'In May 1994, while I was going through pre-selection for the seat of Williamstown, I sat down at my desk at home and I wrote a note. I was thirty-nine years old and in that note I mapped out what I hoped would happen in my life.'By the time he was forty-eight, Steve Bracks had achieved the goal he'd set himself nine years earlier. He was premier of Victoria. In A Premier's State he reflects on his ambition to make a difference, and how he reached his goal. He talks about his early childhood growing up in a conservative but impassioned family that supported the Democratic Labor Party, and about his gradual evolution from left-wing university radical to pragmatic centre-left premier. He reveals for the first time the background to his decision to take the party's leadership from his friend John Brumby in 1999—then to hand it back to John in 2007 when he sensationally resigned from office. He gives insights into how to run a successful government and how to manage the factions, and talks about everything from the impact of public life on his family, to forming minority government with independents.

Author Biography

Steve Bracks joined the Australian Labor Party in 1974 and was Premier of Victoria from 1999 to 2007. As a party elder, Steve Bracks conducted the review of the Federal ALP following the 2010 election result. He is an adviser to Prime Minister of Timor-Leste Xanana Gusmao, chairs the superannuation fund Cbus; the industry body for subscription TV, ASTRA; and is an adviser to KPMG. He is a non-executive director of numerous non-profit and industry bodies including the Deakin (University) Foundation, the Bionics Institute, Jardine Lloyd Thomson Australia, the John Button Foundation, the Union Education Foundation and the Beirut Hellenic Bank. He lives in Melbourne with his wife Terry and their three children.Ellen Whinnett is a journalist of more than twenty years experience and now works as the deputy editor of News Ltd's Sunday Herald Sun. She has won numerous journalism awards including a Walkley award for news reporting, and specialises in political, investigative and crime reporting. She is based in Melbourne.