Page 84 - Australian Defence Mag Sep 2020

84 BOOKS OF INTEREST
SEPTEMBER 2020 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
A BIGGER PICTURE
By Malcolm Turnbull Published by Hardie Grant RRP $55.00 in hardback ISBN 9781743795637
Firstly, some little known facts about Malcolm Turnbull: he is related to the actress Angela Lansbury, he was born a bastard, i.e. born prior to the marriage of his parents and, no, he has no family connection with William Bligh (of Bounty fame and former governor of the colony) despite his second name. He hated boarding school and
took some time to realise his mother’s departure for NZ was permanent. The book contains engaging admissions about his early life – how he paid a fellow law student to make a carbon copy of the lecture notes rather than attend, a not uncommon practice at the time, it seems. There are so many familiar names in this book – Wran, Packer, Murdoch, Singleton – and events such as the Spycatcher trial.
Then there is his time as an investment banker - including the Warwick Fairfax business debacle - and his investment in ISP startup Ozemail. And all this in the first hundred pages. Fast forward to the beginning of his political career in 2004 (amid
a ‘branch-stacking’ drama), his eventual elevation to the prime ministership in 2015 and his ousting in 2018 in a brutal coup. Of particular interest to ADM readers will be his revelations about the new submarine project, which his predecessor Tony Abbott had decided should be built in Japan, despite Japan’s legislative restrictions on exporting defence materiel and the lack of support from local naval experts. It was left to Turnbull to break the news in a tense meeting with Shinzo Abe that the contract would be going to the French bid. He describes Abbott - the two men never got along - as ‘a narcissist to the end’ noting his failure to retain the seat of Warringah in the 2019 election. There are other similar stinging assessments of those who, once loyal, turned against him in the final coup. He is surprisingly frank about the mental health issues
he suffered in 2010 after losing the leadership of the Liberal Party. Malcolm Turnbull was Australia’s 29th prime minister. The events that tore him down as prime minister are of such recent occurrence as to seem as if they occurred only last week. If ever there was a highly entertaining and readable biography, this is it.
WINGS OF GOLD
THE STORY OF AUSTRALIAN PILOTS AND OBSERVERS WHO TRAINED WITH THE UNITED STATES NAVY 1966–1968
By Trevor Rieck,
Jack McCaffrie, Jed Hart
Published by Big Sky Publishing
RRP $34.99 in hardback
ISBN 9781922265852
THE INSIDER
THE SCOOPS, THE SCANDALS AND THE SERIOUS BUSINESS WITHIN THE CANBERRA BUBBLE By Christopher Pyne
Published by Hachette RRP $34.99 in paperback ISBN 9780733643422
Malcolm Turnbull in his biography A Bigger Picture describes Christopher Pyne as ‘a superb raconteur’ but ‘the soul of indiscretion’ when it comes to gossip. Pyne’s memoir confirms both these traits. This is a fast-paced political memoir covering the 26 years of
his federal parliamentary career, including the recent turbulence of leadership coups and Machiavellian manoeuvrings. For ADM readers, interest may be strongest in his thoughts of his time, firstly, as Defence Industry Minister and then Defence Minister. He writes enthusiastically
Flying from an aircraft carrier
is one of the most difficult things to do in all of aviation. This is the little-known story of a group of young Australians who joined the RN to take up that challenge in the mid-1960s. Their story is unique because, unlike those who went before them and those who followed, they were sent to the US to undertake their flying training with the US Navy. So began an unusual chapter in the story of
of the development of
the Centre for Defence Industry Capability, which he insisted be headquartered
in Adelaide, the Defence Innovation Hub (with regular grant announcements, something which continues
to this day) and the Naval Shipbuilding Plan, including his unsuccessful attempt
to put forward a name for
the new submarine class
and his insights into the unsuccessful Japanese
bid for the new submarine contract, which had been
the preferred Tony Abbott option. He heaps praise on Defence as ‘collaborative, supportive, encouraging
and responsive’ dismantling the myth of an always tense relationship between minister and department. So why
did his political career end when it did? He is quite frank in his acknowledgement of
his ambition – to be prime minister – and equally honest in his assessment of his chances, realising, finally,
that coming from a small
state and from the moderate wing of the Liberal Party rendered his ultimate ambition unattainable. For anyone interested in contemporary politics, this book, replete with Pyne’s trademark wit, invites us to look inside the Canberra bubble. It’s a rare insight into how the bubble really operates.
the Royal Australian Navy.
‘The Pensacola experiment’,
as it was called, was an outstanding success. This
book follows the young men’s initial and sometimes almost accidental encounters with the Navy recruiting office to their arrival as fully fledged naval aviators at the Naval Air Station Nowra, NSW, ready to join their first squadrons. Many of them were destined for the war in Vietnam at the time. ■
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