This week on The ABR Podcast, Joel Deane reviews Niki Savva’s Earthquake, an account of the 2025 Australian federal election and the role of political expediency in shaping a country. ‘Like payday loans,’ Deane writes, ‘the costs of short-term political decisions accumulate and compound’, demanding repayment. Joel Deane is a speechwriter, novelist, and poet. He has worked in newspapers, television, and politics in Australia and the United States. He is the co-author of Making Progress: How good policy happens, published in 2025 by Melbourne University Publishing. Here is Joel Deane with ‘Lemmings over a cliff: On political and publishing expediency’, published in the March issue of ABR.