It is a sign of the times that A Better Australia: Politics, public policy and how to achieve lasting reform begins with a discussion of climate and energy policy. No policy field better illustrates the deficiencies in Australia’s politics over the past generation. It is a tale, as one of the book’s authors, John Brumby, reminds us, of avoidable failure and lost opportunities, as the issue was subjected to the narrower, more immediate incentives offered by partisanship and opportunism.

Brumby, as a former Victorian treasurer (1999-2007) and premier (2007-10), has had a better vantage point than most of us on what he calls the sorry history of climate policy in this country. In ‘A Personal Introduction’, which opens the book, Brumby quotes with approval Malcolm Turnbull’s accusation that too many people’s views on climate change were determined by factors other than ‘economics and engineering’. But it would be easier to agree with this proposition if you were unaware that Turnbull regards business tax cuts in much the same way. Politics and ideology can no more be removed from the one issue than the other.