Curtin’s Cast Episode 65 - 12 August 2026 - Ross McMullin: The Light on the Hill

This week on Curtin’s Cast, Nick Dyrenfurth is joined by award-winning historian Ross McMullin, author of the definitive history of the Australian Labor Party, The Light on the Hill. Thirty-five years after its original publication, McMullin has returned to his landmark work, updating Labor’s extraordinary story through Keating, Rudd, Gillard and the leadership wars to Anthony Albanese’s historic 2025 victory. What has changed about Labor — and what has endured across 135 years? Where do Keating and Albanese sit in the Labor pantheon? What was the party’s greatest mistake? And who are the underrated, overrated and forgotten characters of Labor history? A fascinating long-form conversation about Labor, history, leadership and the craft of writing political history.