Tony Eggleton AO CVO was intimately involved in the advent of Australian television; the loss of HMAS Voyager; the drowning death of Harold Holt; the hugely successful 1970 Royal Tour; the end of John Gorton’s tumultuous prime ministership; the reconfiguration of the British Commonwealth; the dismissal of the Whitlam Government; re-electing the Fraser Government; the Coalition’s ‘wilderness years’; international humanitarian crisis intervention; commemorating Australian nationhood; and, the nurture of Asia-Pacific democratic institutions. This biography reveals his private thoughts as press secretary to four Australian prime ministers, Federal Director of the Liberal Party, Secretary-General of CARE International and CEO of the National Council for the Centenary of Federation. It explores the management of public opinion, the design of election strategies and the influence of political journalism on government policy.

Professor Tom Frame AM works in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at UNSW Canberra. A former naval officer and Anglican Bishop to the Australian Defence Force, he was the inaugural Director of the John Howard Prime Ministerial Library at Old Parliament House and the Public Leadership Research Group. He is the author or editor of more than 50 books including Where Fate Calls: the HMAS Voyager Tragedy, The Life and Death of Harold Holt, and a four volume series on the Howard Government.