Announced by Federal Treasurer, The Hon Dr Jim Chalmers MP at the National Press Club in Canberra, Savva has won $15,000 in prize money.

Jointly sponsored by Hill of Content Bookstore and York Park Group, the Award was established to highlight the significant role Australian political books play in better understanding politics and public policy.

The winner was considered and decided upon by the Award’s judges, Barrie Cassidy, Laura Tingle and John Warhurst AO as the book that provides the most compelling contribution to understanding Australian political events and debates.

The Award judges said Savva’s ‘Bulldozed’ was their unanimous choice for the 2023 Australia’s Political Book of the Year.

“Savva’s blunt and often eye-popping account of the Morrison Government has smashed the mould of contemporary writing on our country’s political contest, which is so often relegated to a rushed retelling of events, usually by the winners who get to shape the historical narrative, using multiple anonymous sources and hindsight.

“What emerges is a portrait of politics as something beyond just partisan politics and ideology.

“We see the driving factors behind crucial decisions that affect us all as often being no more than the outcome of human will, raw ambition, flaws and failings in all their splendour, and this portrait mostly comes directly through the words of those involved. There are no assertions of what unnamed players may have told Savva in her riveting account of the dying days of the Morrison Government.

“Savva’s book reflects the wisdom of her judgements about politics and people formed over decades as a political reporter, and the quality of her skills as a wordsmith. ‘Bulldozed’ is also the third instalment of her account of the federal Coalition which gives readers an unparalleled view of a very particular period in Australian politics.

“While the book also documents the path to election victory of Anthony Albanese’s Labor Government, the book is at its most powerful in documenting the extraordinary inner workings of the Morrison Cabinet.

“Journalists are often criticised for going to work for the ‘dark side’ as political staffers. But Savva’s trilogy of books demonstrates how the finest in her profession can both gain an unparalleled insight into how politics really works but emerge on the other side with their independence intact”, said the judges.

The Australian Political Book of the Year Award and our judges, extends our congratulations to the 2023 shortlisted authors for their outstanding work, which gives readers great insights into the worlds of our defence establishment, foreign policy history and the continuing failings of our legal system in the way it treats Indigenous Australians.

Each shortlisted author will receive $1,000.