Dark Victory is the secret history of John Howard's campaign against boat people that began with the Tampa and ended ten extraordinary weeks later after deaths and disappearances, violent confrontations in the Indian Ocean and international uproar-with the Australian people giving the Prime Minister his third, most daring election victory.
David Marr and Marian Wilkinson, two of the country's most accomplished investigative journalists, burrow deep into the ways of John Howard's Australia. They reveal a world of ruthlessly skilled politicians, timid bureaucrats, a cowed Opposition, outmanoeuvred top brass, subtle spin doctors-and the men and women arriving on rotten boats who found themselves ambushed at sea by an angry Australia.
Dark Victory is a thrilling and provocative account of events that shattered many of the myths Australia has about itself and changed profoundly the way it is seen in the eyes of the world.