Disposable Leaders: Media and Leadership Coups from Menzies to Abbott [Paperback]

Since 1970 seventy-three political leaders within the major parties have been forcibly removed from their leadership positions. And at the heart of the turmoil is the media, with its 24-hour news cycle making political leadership evermore precarious.Disposable Leadersis an engaging and insightful analysis of the high-drama leadership challenge – a regular event that is now central to Australian politics. Not only does Rodney Tiffen explore some of the most intriguing federal leadership struggles that have dominated recent Australian politics in detail, he also examines all of the 73 successful leadership challenges that have occurred since 1970. In doing so Tiffen also shines a light on the central role the media plays in the revolving-door leadership that has become the new normal in modern Australian politics.

"Rodney Tiffen's important study of the galloping trend toward 'disposable leaders' is timely and necessary, not just for those concerned about our politics but our news media, which plays a crucial, even unhealthy, role in leadership challenges." —Professor Matthew Ricketson, University of Canberra

"You’ll go a long way before you find an academic smarter, more interesting and more readable than my mate Tiffen." —Ross Gittins, journalist

Rodney Tiffenis emeritus professor in Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney. He has been teaching and researching Australian media and politics for four decades. This is his ninth book – his previous book was a biography of Rupert Murdoch - and he has authored numerous scholarly articles.