Power Crisis
The Self-Destruction of a State Labor Party

An explosive insider's account of the self-destruction of the NSW Labor government.

Rodney Cavalier (Author)

9780521138321, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 27 September 2010

224 pages
22.9 x 15.3 x 1 cm, 0.31 kg

'… a very insightful book that provides a valuable description and analysis of the byzantine ways of the most powerful faction in the nation's most important Labor branch. Moreover, the book has a continuing relevance. What Cavalier does is outline the behavioural pattern of a group of people who, having arguably run the NSW Labor government down over a dispute between the machine and the parliamentary leadership ostensibly over policy, are now pivotal to national Labor politics.' Nick Economou, Australian Journal of Political Science

Written by former minister and Labor historian Rodney Cavalier, Power Crisis is an explosive account of the self-destruction of the New South Wales Labor government, which has seen a turnover of four premiers in five years, and is heading for rejection and even humiliation by voters at the next state election. While the catalyst was the thwarted attempt to privatise electricity, Cavalier reveals that the real issue is the takeover of Labor by a professional political class without connection to the broader community or the party's traditions. Featuring interviews with ex-premiers Iemma and Rees, Power Crisis contrasts the current turmoil and self-indulgence with the stability within New South Wales Labor over generations before, and asks, 'What went wrong?'

Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. NSW Labor and its leaders
2. Death below
3. The rise of Morris Iemma
4. Annual Conference, May 2008
5. Iemma falls
6. The protracted fall of Nathan Rees
Epilogue: does party membership matter?
Appendix A: NSW ALP branches closed 1999–2009
Appendix B: NSW ALP financial membership 2002–2009
Appendix C: delegates to NSW ALP Annual Conference, May 2008
Sources
Index.

Subject Areas: Political structures: democracy [JPHV], Political leaders & leadership [JPHL], Politics & government [JP]