Earthquake

the election that shook Australia

Niki Savva

$36.99

Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

Scribe Publications
24 November 2025

Reportage & collected journalism; Politics & government; Political leaders & leadership; Australian Society

The best of Niki Savva's scene-setting newspaper columns from The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, along with riveting book-length new chapters about an epoch-making period in Australian politics.

When the Coalition government was overthrown in 2022, it was tempting to portray the loss as merely a personal repudiation of Scott Morrison. And when opposition leader Peter Dutton torpedoed the referendum on establishing an Indigenous Voice to parliament, his credibility as a political leader improved at the expense of the prime minister's. That was when, according to Niki Savva, the conservative Coalition thought it had the forthcoming election in the bag.

But Niki had noticed the ground shifting. Back in December 2021, she flagged the emergence of the teal independents and the long-term threat they represented to the Liberals. In March 2023, she warned that Dutton saying no to the Voice referendum would 'win the applause of the Sky After Dark sirens, whose counsel will only lead him to another glorious defeat'. And in August 2023 - 20 months before the 2025 election - she noted that, 'The 2022 federal election result was no ordinary defeat, not just part of a normal cycle of wins and losses. It delivered last rites to the broad-church party that Robert Menzies created.'

In her highly popular columns, Niki Savva captured all this and more in her typically uncompromising, penetrating, and prescient way. Now, following on from So Greek, The Road to Ruin, Plots and Prayers, and Bulldozed, she provides a detailed, considered analysis of what went on behind the scenes, accompanied by her trademark access to important players and eyewitnesses, of an election that transformed Australian politics.

'A powerful combination of columns from The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age with a piercing new analysis by one of the country's most admired political commentators.' -Laurie Oakes

By: Niki Savva
Imprint: Scribe Publications
Country of Publication: Australia
Dimensions: Height: 1mm, Width: 1mm,
Weight: 1g
ISBN: 9781761381898
ISBN 10: 176138189X
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 24 November 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Niki Savva is one of the most senior correspondents in the Canberra Press Gallery. She was twice political correspondent for The Australian, and headed up the Canberra bureaus of both The Herald Sun and The Age. Her work has brought her into intimate contact with Australia's major political players for more than 40 years. Niki has written four previous books- So Greek, a memoir that also dealt with the relationship between John Howard and Peter Costello and the workings of their government, followed by The Road to Ruin, Plots and Prayers, and Bulldozed, the award-winning and bestselling trilogy about the Coalition governments that ruled Australia from 2013 to 2022. In March 2017, the Melbourne Press Club presented Niki with a lifetime achievement award for 'outstanding coverage of Australian politics as a reporter, columnist and author'. She is a regular columnist for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, and often appears on ABC TV's Insiders.