Join Niki Savva, award-winning political commentator, and author of Earthquake: The Election That Shook Australia; Amy Remeikis, Chief Political Analyst at The Australia Institute; and Dr Richard Denniss, Co–Chief Executive Officer at The Australia Institute, as they discuss Niki’s new book, Earthquake: The Election That Shook Australia.

Labor’s landslide victory in May 2025 wreaked havoc across the political landscape. It triggered ministerial assassinations, trashed reputations, destroyed careers and fractured the Coalition. It took the Liberal Party to the brink of extinction and turned Anthony Albanese into a Labor hero.

When the Coalition government lost government in 2022 after nine years in office, it was tempting to portray the loss as merely a personal repudiation of Scott Morrison. Then, when opposition leader Peter Dutton torpedoed the referendum on establishing an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, his standing as a political leader improved, while Anthony Albanese’s nosedived. That was when, according to Niki Savva, the Coalition thought it had the upcoming election in the bag.

But Niki had noticed the ground shifting: the emergence of teal independents and the long-term threat they presented the Liberals; the false dawn of Peter Dutton saying no to the Voice to Parliament; and the overlooked reality, even back in August 2023, that, ‘The 2022 federal election result was no ordinary defeat … it delivered last rites to the broad-church party that Robert Menzies created.’

Book signings will be followed by the formalities and copies of Earthquake: the election that shook Australia will be available for purchase on that night.

SPEAKERS:

Niki Savva — Award-winning political commentator and author of Earthquake: The Election That Shook Australia

Amy Remeikis – Chief Political Analyst, The Australia Institute

Dr Richard Denniss – co-Chief Executive Officer, The Australia Institute