The story of how a skinny kid from a working-class suburb in depression era Sydney rose to become one of Bob Hawke’s most trusted confidantes and Ministers, and then revolutionised how the world saw Australia.

Brownie is the ultimate insider’s account of the most dynamic and transformative government in Australia’s history, peppered with unique and never-before published insights and anecdotes that take the reader inside the inner sanctum of the Hawke/Keating juggernaut. Including an eyewitness account of Hawkie’s expletive-ridden late night call to Maggie Thatcher that knocked the wind out of her and spun the Iron Lady around – who was famously “not for turning”.

You’ll also read about how a unique submission to the Government’s Expenditure Review Committee led to the foundation of Australia’s Tourism Industry. “Pull your fingers out and give Brownie the money he needs!” cajoled Paul Hogan to the Mandarins and Ministers of the ‘Razor Gang’. Rather than create a 1000-page submission, Brownie got his mate Hoges to create a humorous video message that convinced the notoriously penny-pinching committee to give an unheard of 150% increase in the nation’s tourism budget.

So was born the award-winning “put another shrimp on the barbie” campaign. Sports fans will be blown away by the revelations of how Brownie conspired with his sport-mad Prime Minister to use the power of government to revolutionise Australian sport across, the Olympics, Tennis, Cricket, all codes of Football, Disabled Sport and the Racing and Thoroughbred Breeding industry.

Readers can look forward to an insider’s account of how daring, drive, vision, and a healthy disrespect for convention drove a larrikin Minister become a major player in Australia’s most dynamic government.

Synopsis by johnreedbooks