The Latham Diaries

Mark Latham

Here are the political diaries of one of Australia's most promising national leaders-published within twelve months of his resignation from office-an historic first.

Awards

Shortlisted for two ABA awards:
Australian General Non-Fiction Book of the Year 2006
Australian Marketing Campaign of the Year 2006

Opinion

"Latham's diaries promise to be a highly entertaining foray into a sadly neglected genre."
"Everyone interested in political dirt will want a copy, as will anyone mentioned in the index."
"I, for one, can't wait for my review copy and hope for repeated appearances in Mark's index as a reward for 'told you so'."
"I'm already bidding for the film rights. Only one bloke has the physicality and the truculence to play young Mark, not to mention the willingness to biff people. Russel Crowe."
(Philip Adams, The Australian, 10/5/05)

"It's a shame Latham isn't our prime minister. Every time he opened his wild, colonial mouth he would have said something worth thinking about."
"Our bland times explain why Latham, who strikes me as a clear-headed and intellectually agile chap, is being generally perceived to be odd and mad."
(Ian Warden, The Canberra Times)

About this Title

Here are the political diaries of one of Australia's most promising national leaders-published within twelve months of his resignation from office-an historic first. The Latham Diaries are searingly honest bulletins from the front line of Labor politics. They provide a unique view into the life of a man, the Party and the nation at a crucial time in Australian history.

Mark Latham resigned from parliament in January 2005, after only fourteen months as Leader of the Opposition, amid bitter post-election recrimination and his own ill health. From the beginning of his career he was viewed by many observers as the ALP's resident intellectual and larrikin, the great hope of a new generation with the drive and talent to become prime minister.

So why did his career end so abruptly? As The Latham Diaries reveal, the rising tide of public cynicism about politics, the cult of celebrity, the dangerous liaison between politics and the media, and the sickness at the heart of the Labor machine all played their part. As did Latham's own errors, as he candidly records in these diaries.

This is a riveting chronicle of life inside politics: the backroom deals, the frontroom conniving, the bitter defeat of idealism and the triumph of opportunism. The Latham Diaries is not just the story of the Labor Party in the last years of the twentieth century and the early twenty-first century, but a sobering account of the state of Australian democracy 100 years after Federation.

In The Latham Diaries, Mark Latham has written the story of the ALP and in so doing he has also written our story as Australian citizens.

Back cover quotes:

August 1996: 'Opposition politics feels like dog shit on the boot of democracy.'

April 1998: 'I'm a sheep man in cattle country.'

December 2003: 'I'm not opposed to unionism per se, just the idea of six union secretaries sitting around a Chinese restaurant table planning the future for everyone else.'

May 2005: 'It is not unusual for people who try to change the system to leave public life with feelings of betrayal and disappointment. This was certainly my experience as Labor Leader. My commitment to the Labor cause was destroyed by the bastardry of others.'

About the Author

Mark Latham was the Federal Member for Werriwa from 1994 to 2005. He was Leader of the Labor Party between 2003 and 2005. Mark Latham is the author of five other books on Australian public policy, including Civilising Global Capital (1998) and From the Suburbs (2003). He has also written numerous journal and newspaper articles. He lives in the outer suburbs of Sydney with his wife and two children.