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Party Animals

The Secret History of a Labor Fiasco

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Party Animals

By: Samantha Maiden
Narrated by: Leah McLeod
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About this listen

 Secrets, lies, lawyers and covert recordings. If you thought the 2019 election was just about a death tax that didn't exist, you're in for a surprise.
From the dark arts of the dirt units to the role of billionaire Clive Palmer, this is the untold story of an election debacle.
The Labor Party was the unbeatable favourite to win the 2019 election right up until the polls closed and voters delivered the surprise verdict.

If the results staggered pundits, they also shocked Bill Shorten and his frontbench, who had spent the final weeks of the campaign carefully planning for their first days in office.
Party Animals uncovers the secret history of a Labor fiasco, the untold story behind Scott Morrison's miracle©2020 Samantha Maiden (P)2020 Penguin Random House Australia Australia & Oceania Elections & Political Process Law Oceania Politics & Government World
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This is an incredibly detailed review of what went wrong and right for Labor (and the Govt) in the lead up, and immediately following the 2019 election.

Incredibly detailed!

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Good book but the narrator is too fast and doing people’s accents is very distracting - I which I had just brought the hard copy. Next time the author needs to narrate her own book.

Good book, buy the hard copy instead

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Party Animals is very well researched and i recommend it to anyone with an interest in politics, regardless of their own political alignment. My only criticism is that i felt the narrator's voice mimicking of quotes to be sometimes unpleasantly patronising.

Well researched and insightful

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A very interesting book. Goes into great detail about the 2019 election and what went wrong from a Labor standpoint. I think numerous people have hit the nail on the head, as to what went wrong, and this provides an excellent account of their views.

A good read.

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This account of an Australian Institution is well worth the read; the style of delivery is good. But oh my God the voices leave a lot to be desired. One could say type cast.

An insight

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Not a bad analysis of the election process and the outcome but spoiled by the contrived voices used for quotes.

Contrived Voices

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Love learning about the Australian political scene. Hearing it from the point of view of Labor was enlightening. What I have learned from this book Is you can't trust the media and they always lie about the Labor party. Both Kevin Rudd and Bill Shorten were done dirty by the media and there should be laws preventing lying journalists from spreading false news. Journalists do not have the right to discredit honest parliamentarians like Kevin Rudd or Bill Shorten. America's Founding Fathers have words to say on false news and we in Australia should take note from them if we wish to protect our way of life.

it is also ironic that Scott Morrison accused Bill Shorten of a crime that is rampant behind doors in the Liberal Party.

The Narration wasn't the most enjoyable experience but I got through it. What you can't change, you endure.

The real story from the side of Labor

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This was largely a recitation of already well-known (and, in some cases, practically antiquated) political events and anecdotes. Its real value lay in the sprinkling of quotes from the first-hand interviews with insiders who, in the main, were keen to point fingers at others to divert blame from themselves for Labor’s 2019 loss. That was interesting stuff.

While not the author’s fault, the audio book was so replete with mispronunciations - both of well known individuals’ names (eg. Loughnane) and of ordinary words (eg. stipend, seconded, etc) - that it was occasionally painful to listen to. Surely they could’ve gotten someone a bit more literate, if not familiar with the political protagonists, to read the book?

Sam Maiden would be cringing if she listened to it.

Error-riddled reading marred fairly interesting book

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This was a really interesting book.

The retelling of it was totally ruined by the stupid voices done by the narrator - although I have to give credit that she did get the Pauline Hansen voice quite well, which made me snort.

Next time - don’t bother with voicing, just tell the bloody story.

Quit with the dumb voices!

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Any political animal should listen just to remind themselves of the spin that we swallowed without critical analysis last time. It will equip you better this time around.
People doing voices of the opposite sex doesn't sell well to me. It's no deal breaker but the attempts at Albo's voice made me tsk every time.

A must read to soak up the current election spin

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