Power Failure: The inside story of climate politics under Rudd and Gillard

One of the most bitterly contested political issues of recent times has been climate change, and how – or indeed whether – Australia should act to mitigate its effects. Different policy approaches have been developed and discarded by both major parties. The leaders who promoted or blocked these attempts have themselves become casualties. According to some observers, Australia's dependence on coal makes climate policy failure inevitable.

Philip Chubb interviews the key political figures in the struggle, including Julia Gillard, Wayne Swan, Greg Combet and Penny Wong. He examines the tenacity of fossil fuel interests and he analyses the political strategies employed by prime ministers Rudd and Gillard as they tried to overcome the structural obstacles created by Australia's carbon-intensive economy.

The result of these investigations is Power Failure, a compelling study of Australian leaders' successes and failures in climate policy, and the strategies they must employ for the future.