Sucked In by Shane Maloney. Text, Melbourne, 2007, 276pp. Paperback, RRP $32.95, ISBN 978-1-921145-44-5, website.
Winston Churchill described democracy as the worst political system – except for all the others. The same could be said about the Australian Labor Party amongst Australia’s political parties. Shane Maloney has recognised the potential for drama and farce within this historically significant institution, and created Murray Whelan as the vehicle through which these traits can be expressed. Sucked In sees Whelan reach a cynical peak, working the numbers to his advantage and as he Truly Believes, to the long term benefit of the party and nation.
Over the course of six novels, Whelan has risen through the ranks from trade union researcher to electorate secretary, to ministerial adviser and on into the Victorian Legislative Council. His seat of Melbourne Upper centres on Sydney Road where "rusted-on-blue-collar meets multicultural melting-pot". Whelan skilfully balances the interests of local branches that are predominantly Greek, Turkish and Lebanese. It is 1997 and the demand on everyone’s lips is 'please explain!' Whelan and his mentor Charlie Talbot, federal opposition frontbencher and "elder of the tribe" are on a bush tour called Labor Listens. As they dine in the Grand Hotel Mildura, Charlie dies suddenly while reading the Melbourne Herald Sun.
The intertwining stories of Sucked In involve Whelan’s attempts to protect Charlie’s reputation and to ensure that Coolaroo, Charlie’s seat in Canberra, which overlaps with Whelan’s state seat, goes to a suitable successor. The police are inquisitive because it seems possible that Charlie’s death was caused by a newspaper report that a body has been uncovered from Lake Nillahcootie. The body is likely that of Mervyn Cutlett, who disappeared at the lake in 1978 while on a fishing expedition with Charlie and other labour movement heavyweights to discuss union amalgamations.
Knowing where the bodies are buried is one means to ensure a successful career in the Labor Party, but Cutlett’s old associate Sid Gilpin is interested in blackmail of a financial kind. Whelan must tread carefully to ensure that no blame attaches to his deceased comrade Charlie, while maintaining some leverage with his companions at Lake Nillahcootie, and especially with Senator Barry Quinlan. By factional agreement, the Left, despite splitting more often than a "hyperactive amoeba", is to fill Charlie’s seat. Quinlan, the Left’s influential powerbroker, plans to parachute his staffer into the seat.
Whelan observes that "by long-established custom, the ALP is loath to