BOOK REVIEWS

The Road to Ruin: How amazing thing is how many key players have spoken and Peta on the record, so the stories are more credible. Credlin Destroyed Their Savva did not provide Abbott or Credlin with Own Government opportunities to respond to key claims in the book. By Niki Savva She said she did this because of concerns that Scribe Publishing, 2016 they would pressure people making claims to $32.99, 326 pages withdraw them. While these concerns have some ISBN 9781925321401 foundation, the book doesn’t contain much comment from the supporters of either Abbott or Credlin. Reviewed by These conscious omissions mean thatRoad to Ruin Michael Potter is not a balanced view of the Abbott era. And this has perhaps been an additional reason why Abbott recent inhabitant of the Prime Minister’s chose to defend his legacy in the media after the Office (PMO) has been described as book’s publication. If he had had the opportunity controlling, a micro manager who oversaw to respond in Road to Ruin he might have spent less policyA gridlock by failing to make key decisions. time in the media following the book’s release. As a Someone who treats many people disrespectfully, result, Savva may have unintentionally encouraged including senior Ministers. Prone to profane Abbott to harm Turnbull’s standing in the public outbursts, and more interested in day-to-day and the polls. tactics than in setting a long-term policy agenda. The book is more for aficionados of politics rather Brilliant in opposition, but turned out unsuited to than policy, given the focus on the (mis)handling occupying the PMO. Unceremoniously dumped of events by Abbott and Credlin rather than from the PMO and later involved (some say) in underlying policy issues. For example, Savva dwells undermining the new Prime Minister. on the handling of the 2014 budget rather than Who am I talking about? or Peta the merits of controversial policies such as the GP Credlin? co-payment, the change to pension indexation, or This is the thing that struck me while reading the the change in payments to States for health and engaging new book Road to Ruin by senior journalist education (the so-called Gonski funding). for , Niki Savva. The book focuses Nevertheless, Savva raises several points of interest. on how poorly Tony Abbott’s Chief of Staff, Peta Some, particularly The Australian’s Editor-at-Large Credlin, related to the rest of the government, Paul Kelly, are arguing that the Australian political but we have seen this all before with Rudd. There system is broken. Savva, by contrast, argues that are plenty of differences between Rudd and Credlin: the removal of Rudd, Gillard and Abbott shows the most obviously, Rudd was Prime Minister while system is working because it ejected them from the Credlin was the Chief of Staff. However, these top office. However, it is not as clear-cut as Savva two roles have become intertwined in recent years, claims. If these three were so bad, then a good political particularly under the Abbott-Credlin duumvirate— system shouldn’t have resulted in them reaching the and Savva actually implies that Credlin was the top job in the first place. And if they weren’t that more powerful of the two, a particularly odd situation bad, then why were they removed part of the way if true. through their first terms? Either way, it isn’t obvious Rudd and Credlin have one similarity that has that the political system has been functioning at provided substantial benefit to book writers: former peak performance. colleagues have been eager to detail, on the record, Savva’s book also highlights the growing the poor operation of the PMO under both. Road to importance and power of unelected staffers in the Ruin is a clear beneficiary of these revelations. Savva political system, which is particularly obvious in is not a fan of Credlin, but the book contains plenty Credlin’s case—although the issue is broader than of primary material in support of this dislike. The Credlin alone. Road to Ruin notes the changing

POLICY • Vol. 32 No. 2 • Winter 2016 61 BOOK REVIEWS

characteristics of staffers: in the past, many staffers Hayek's Modern Family: were senior bureaucrats on secondment. By Classical Liberalism and contrast, today many staffers are political hacks. the Evolution of Social (Savva, more charitably, refers to Credlin using Institutions Abbott’s term: a ‘political warrior’.) The quality of By Steven Horwitz advice and policy has suffered as a result. The ‘good Palgrave Macmillan, 2015 old days’ might be lamented but it is hard to see US$120.00, 313 pages things turning back. ISBN: 978-1137448224 Although Savva doesn’t argue this, the growing number of staffers and their reduced policy Reviewed by Trisha Jha expertise could be partly addressed through policy responses. First, enhanced ministerial accountability hat is the family to a political philosophy for decisions. Second, encouragement of greater that views the individual as the cornerstone movement between the bureaucracy, staffer roles of society? and business. Third, more independent reviews WThat this is a vexed question should not come as from organisations such as the Productivity a surprise. Classical liberalism is much maligned Commission, the Auditor General and the by progressives and conservatives for being overly Parliamentary Budget Office—and independent concerned with topics of economics to the detriment non-government organisations such as the Centre of issues of culture, society and morality. for Independent Studies. Steven Horwitz is a professor of economics at St. However, Road to Ruin does not focus on how Lawrence University and an expert on F.A. Hayek. ’s political or policy systems are working His well-argued and eminently readable book or could be improved. Instead, it devotes more fashions what is arguably the classical liberal view space to providing an interesting but somewhat of the family. Hayek and the Modern Family tells sensationalist history of the Abbott/Credlin time the story of the family—its form, its functions and in power. We will therefore need to wait (probably how it has changed over time—blending history for some time) for a more impartial view of this with economics to produce valuable insights into period of Australia’s political history. the past, present and future. The book’s central theme is that the dynamism of Michael Potter is a the market economy, which has resulted in gains Research Fellow in the in living standards, labour productivity, access Economics Program to consumer goods and higher wages, has also at the Centre for changed the family—both its role in society (its Independent Studies. He function) and what it looks like (its form). However, worked briefly with Peta Horwitz does not cover the relatively narrow period Credlin in the Office of from the ‘golden age’ of the family in the 1950s to Dr when today. This era is the subject of most contemporary Nelson was Opposition philosophical tussles over marriage and the family. Leader in 2008. The history begins in the pre-industrial age and examines eras sequentially to show that, when examined in context, the 1950s family—nuclear, suburban, father engaged in market production and mother engaged in household production, a partnership based on love more often than not and the nature of the marriage at the heart of it— is a modern construct rather than the timeless phenomenon it is often portrayed as.

62 POLICY • Vol. 32 No. 2 • Winter 2016