State Premiers are usually required to be articulate; to be literate and civilised as well is an unexpected bonus.

After almost nine years in office, one of our most literate Premiers since or before Federation, has set down in urbane, often oratorical prose, his observations on the way Australia is going.

Ten chapters cover the areas that most interest him – the countryside, housing, national identity, suburbia, social protest, urban renewal, migrants, schools, and, strangely (given the man), very little about the arts.