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The Bear Pit: A Life in Politics by Peter Collins (Hardcover, 2000)

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In the 1981 NSW election the Liberal Party won only one seat back from Neville Wran's ALP: Willoughby, won by 34 year old Peter Collins. Five years later Peter was deputy leader of the Liberals and in 1988 the newly elected Premier, Nick Greiner, handed him the Health portfolio, one of the toughest assignments in state politics. The Bear Pit is Peter Collins' story - his rapid elevation to deputy leadership, his role in the parliament long known as 'the bear pit', his battles as a cabinet minister, the defamation case which nearly brought him to financial ruin, the dark days of Opposition, his betrayal by colleagues who staged an eleventh-hour coup in a powerplay as breathtaking as it was suicidal. Under a new leader, the party for which he had worked for a quarter of a century went on to suffer the greatest defeat since its creation five decades before. The Bear Pit tells this story from the inside, revealing much about how politics is played out by the people we elect. But it's not all about politics. It's about growing up in half a dozen places in the country and Sydney's suburbs, about student days during the Vietnam War and days as a TV journalist in the Whitlam era. It's about lifelong passions - for the performing and visual arts, for public service, for Australia's history. It's about family and friends. And enemies, covert and overt. Being rejected at the State election, being kneecapped by Labor, being the daily target of interest groups, were risks I always knew I was running - but a suicidal last minute coup defied all political logic. No one would fall for that, I thought. But in politics you learn something new every day. Unlike Labor, which has nurtured (and used) its history, the Liberals and their coalition partners have chosen to ignore their past and to take for granted their successes. The Bear Pit is a rare contribution to the non-Labor story. No other state Liberal has written so frankly about life in politics or the inner workings of non-Labor politics. Here is public life as our representatives live it. With twelve years in either ministerial or leadership roles, I was driven to work each day knowing that I could end up catching the bus home. Roman generals had slaves walk behind them on their victory parades reminding them that, whatever their conquests, they were mere mortals. We have morning newspapers. At the heart of the life set out in The Bear Pit is a choice which led to work which dealt with the big issues and made a difference to his community. At a price: two broken marriages, and betrayal. Peter Collins acknowledges the dark side of politics, the failures as well as the successes, the bad fait

Product Identifiers

Publisher
Allen & Unwin
ISBN-13
9781865082080
eBay Product ID (ePID)
96540256

Product Key Features

Book Title
The Bear Pit: Alife in Politics
Author
Peter Collins
Format
Hardcover
Language
English
Publication Year
2000
Genre
Biographies & True Stories
Number of Pages
376 Pages

Dimensions

Item Height
230mm
Item Width
152mm

Additional Product Features

Title_Author
Peter Collins
Country/Region of Manufacture
Australia

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The Bear Pit: A Life in Politics by Peter Collins (Hardcover, 2000)

About this product

Product Information

Product Identifiers

Product Key Features

Dimensions

Additional Product Features

Best Selling in Books

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