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Stephen Mills

Stephen Mills is an Honorary Senior Lecturer in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Sydney and a former speechwriter for prime minister Bob Hawke. His latest book is The Professionals: Strategy, Money and the Rise of the Political Campaigner in Australia (Black Inc.).

Books & arts Stephen Mills 3 January 2024 The dangerous appeal of absolute rulers
Books & arts Stephen Mills 6 December 2023 The Archibalds win a convert on the NSW south coast Books & arts Stephen Mills 9 August 2023 Two talented Liberal senators paved the way for future female ministers Books & arts Stephen Mills 1 February 2023 For a remarkable quarter-century, Tony Eggleton was the power behind the Liberal throne Books & arts Stephen Mills 22 October 2021 Celebrity classicist Mary Beard turns sleuth in an entertaining account of the long afterlife of twelve emperors
Books & arts Stephen Mills 24 May 2021 Weapons inspector Rod Barton assigns to the CIA a large share of the blame for the invasion of Iraq
Books & arts Stephen Mills 31 August 2020 Books | Must the best-laid plans fall victim to bad implementation? Books & arts Stephen Mills 2 March 2020 Books | Has Geoffrey Robertson made a persuasive case for returning heritage objects? Essays & reportage Stephen Mills 29 July 2019 A former colleague pays tribute to renowned Labor speechwriter Graham Freudenberg National affairs Stephen Mills 18 February 2019 Is Labor’s election mobilisation hitting its limits?
Books & arts Stephen Mills 8 November 2018 Books | Teamed up with Mark Latham, Pauline Hanson seems set to again follow the trajectory documented by Kerry-Anne Walsh
From the archive Stephen Mills 12 October 2018 Like Martin Luther King, philosopher Martha Nussbaum wants to take the anger out of democracy National affairs Stephen Mills 23 March 2018 One week, two political campaign scandals: Cambridge Analytica’s data-harvesting and Labor’s funding scam in Victoria highlight the temptations facing parties desperate to win… Books & arts Stephen Mills 15 September 2015 Theatre | A new production of Aeschylus’ Oresteia has urgent contemporary relevance, writes Stephen Mills in London From the archive Stephen Mills 20 May 2015 Michael Cooney’s account of his years as prime ministerial speechwriter helps explain what went wrong
National affairs Stephen Mills 5 December 2014 Labor’s campaigning in Victoria had a lineage stretching back to community activist Saul Alinsky via Barack Obama, writes Stephen Mills
National affairs Stephen Mills 19 September 2014 Private secretary, chief of staff, enforcer? Stephen Mills looks at the role of the prime minister’s most influential gatekeeper From the archive Stephen Mills 21 July 2014 Cyril Wyndham, the energetic, reformist outsider, changed forever the way Labor organised itself federally. And then he paid the price Books & arts Stephen Mills 4 June 2014 Paralysed leader or bad advice? Stephen Mills reviews a new account of the Rudd–Gillard government and what it says about the party’s future Books & arts Stephen Mills 28 November 2013 How did an unelected campaign consultant come to exercise such influence over Labor’s 2013 campaign, asks Stephen Mills
Essays & reportage Stephen Mills 20 August 2013 Has Labor’s campaign taken a fatal turn? History shows that divided control of campaign messages can be a disaster, writes Stephen Mills Essays & reportage Stephen Mills 29 November 2012 Not only was the 1972 election a watershed for Labor, it also created the modern political campaign From the archive Stephen Mills 25 July 2012 The Liberals’ innovative 1949 election campaign offered voters an alternative worldview