In the midst of frenetic electioneering, shadow treasurer Chris Bowen has taken a break from selling his party's policies to sell his book.
Mr Bowen was a guest at the Sydney Writers' Festival on Thursday, promoting his book The Money Men, in which he examines the careers of 12 Australian treasurers.
Journalist Margot Saville, who interviewed Mr Bowen in front of a crowd of about 200 people, called for a short ceasefire in partisan combat for the discussion.
Mr Bowen mostly obliged, but the crowd couldn't help themselves as they applauded mentions of Paul Keating, Medicare and the public education system.
Originally asked to write a tell-all memoir of the Rudd-Gillard era, Mr Bowen declined to add to the abundance of literature about Labor's tumultuous contemporary history.
Instead he came up with the idea to study the people who have held the office he is gunning for a return to.
Not surprisingly, Mr Bowen declared Mr Keating Australia's finest treasurer.
The worst in the nation's history also shared Mr Bowen's political stripes.
"He was our most academically prepared treasurer ... and he was a disaster," Mr Bowen said of Jim Cairns, who was treasurer during the 1974 loans affair.
Peter Costello was solid, across the detail and a formidable curator, but lacked the reform record of Mr Keating, Mr Bowen said.
After an hour of discussion, an official return to the campaign trail could wait a little longer as Mr Bowen signed books for his true-believing readers.
CHRIS BOWEN ON AUSTRALIA'S TREASURERS
* Best - Paul Keating (Labor)
* Honourable mentions - Earle Page (Country), Ted Theodore (Labor), Arthur Fadden (Country) Bill Hayden (Labor), Peter Costello (Liberal) and Wayne Swan (Labor)
* Worst - Jim Cairns (Labor)
* Most interesting - William Watt (Nationalist)
