The Light on the Hill by Ross McMullin

A revised and updated edition of award-winning historian Ross McMullin’s acclaimed history of the Australian Labor Party – an entertaining, action-packed, warts-and-all narrative full of illuminating pen-portraits and vivid anecdotes.

The story is told through the people who made it. All Labor’s prime ministers feature – Watson, Fisher, Hughes, Scullin, Curtin, Chifley, Whitlam, Hawke, Keating, Rudd, Gillard, and Albanese. The sweeping storytelling blends their governments’ achievements and tribulations with those of ALP state branches, conflicts over organisation and policy, emotional highs and lows, and intrigue and intimidation behind the scenes.

Labor’s most spectacular controversies are also examined – three devastating ruptures, the Whitlam government’s dismissal, and the fierce Hawke-Keating and Rudd-Gillard-Rudd leadership contests.

The Light on the Hill also illuminates the notable families, the lost talents, and the ups and downs for Labor’s true believers since 1891. It covers Doc Evatt and Don Dunstan, Susan Ryan and Carmen Lawrence, ‘Windy Mick’ and ‘Happy Jack’, ‘Red Ted’ and ‘Stabber Jack’, ‘Electric Eric’ and the ‘Killer of Santa Claus’ – they’re all here. So are Labor’s triumphs, notably the 2025 Albanese electoral landslide.

Prodigiously researched, captivating, and powerful, The Light on the Hill is the most authoritative and monumental account of Labor’s rich history.

‘This important and provocative book presents the tremendous and turbulent history of the Australian Labor Party warts and all. Its publication itself demonstrates the strength of a Party and a Movement courageous enough to commission an untrammelled account of its failures and faults, as well as its immense achievements.’
-Bob Hawke, Prime Minister of Australia 1983-1991

‘Scholarly, readable, and entertaining … The author’s aggregation and presentation of factual material is quite exemplary … His anecdotes encapsulate the humour, pathos, and eccentricity for which Labor is famous … For anyone seriously interested in Australian politics or history, The Light on the Hill is definitely compulsory reading. Ultimately the book reflects the best features of its subject- it is powerful, unpretentious, humorous, and fascinating.’
-Lindsay Tanner, and Rudd government minister, Overland

‘In this brave, lucid, and intellectually honest book, Ross McMullin places the conflict between principle and pragmatism, direct action and electoral representatives, and the aspirations of prominent politicians and the rank-and-file right at the centre-point of his historical analysis … As this incisive narrative reveals, crookedness, vote-rigging, and skulduggery have long been part of Labor’s rich history. So, too, have hope, inspiration, and visions for a better future.’
-Professor Ross Fitzgerald, The Age

About the Author: Ross McMullin is an award-winning historian, biographer, and storyteller. Life So Full of Promise is his sequel to Farewell, Dear People- biographies of Australia’s lost generation, which won national awards, including the Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History. His biographies include Pompey Elliott, which also won multiple awards, and Will Dyson- Australia’s radical genius, and he assembled Elliott’s extraordinary letters in Pompey Elliott at War- in his own words. His political histories comprise The Light on the Hill and So Monstrous a Travesty- Chris Watson and the world’s first national labour government. During the 1970s he played first-grade district cricket in Melbourne.

30 Jun 2026
 

The Light on the Hill: An Updated History of the Australian Labor Party by Ross McMullin ISBN 9781761381904