Meet the author - Niki Savva

Niki Savva will be in conversation with Kerry -Anne Walsh on her new book Earthquake, the election that shook Australia, a collection of Niki Savva’s most groundbreaking columns from The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, along with a riveting and deeply informed analysis of Australia’s epoch-making 2025 election.

 Labor’s landslide victory on 3 May 2025 wreaked havoc across the political landscape. It triggered ministerial assassinations, trashed reputations, destroyed careers, fractured the Coalition, and threatened to fracture it again. It took the Liberal Party to the brink of extinction and turned Anthony Albanese into a Labor hero.

 In her characteristically uncompromising, penetrating, and prescient way, Savva masterfully tracks a compelling sequence of events that resulted in an improbable triumph for Labor and an historic drubbing for the Liberal Party. She provides a revealing account of what went on behind the scenes — informed by her trademark access to important players and eyewitnesses — before and during the election that transformed Australian politics.

 Niki Savva is a highly acclaimed political writer. She was twice political correspondent for The Australian, and headed up the Canberra bureaus of both The Herald Sun and The Age. She was Peter Costello’s press secretary for six years and was then on John Howard’s staff for three. Her work has brought her into intimate contact with Australia’s major political players for more than 40 years. She is a regular columnist for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, appears on ABC TV’s Insiders and is the author of the bestselling books The Road to Ruin, Plots and Prayers, and Bulldozed.

 Kerry-Anne Walsh worked as a press secretary in the Hawke government before joining the Daily Telegraph’s federal parliamentary press gallery bureau. She remained in the gallery for the next quarter of a century, occupying senior posts in print, radio and TV. Kerry-Anne has published two books: the award-winning best-selling The Stalking of Julia Gillard, and Hoodwinked, about Pauline Hanson. Kerry-Anne is now a media consultant to non-government organisations, and is Radio New Zealand's Australian political commentator. 

The vote of thanks will be given by Professor Mark Kenny, Director of the Australian Studies Institute at ANU.

Books will be available for signing from 5.30pm and again after the event.

Additional information:

Registration is required for this event.

Accessible parking spaces are available around campus should you require them.

By registering for this event, you are accepting our privacy policy.

A podcast will be made available after the event.

TEQSA Provider ID: PRV12002 (Australian University) | CRICOS Provider Code: 00120C