Now his offsider Andrew Leigh has put out a study on the role luck plays in Australian politics from setting electoral patterns to chance luck in the succession of political leaders. Some of his work is drawn from his formal academic work which befits the erstwhile professor of economics. Leigh still turns out academic research as well as popular works.

Those on the Treasury benches might sneer at all this intellectual activity. In June while Bowen was putting the finishing touches to his manuscript we had the crazy situation where both the Treasurer, Assistant Treasurer and Finance Minister were all on leave with the Small Business Minister, Bruce Billson left to mind the shop.

Bowen must be one of the few intellectually interesting figures in Federal Parliament in the sense of penning a book on Australia's economic and political history while serving as an active member. The Money Men is an engaging authoritative study of the twelve of the most noteworthy treasurers out of a possible class of 38. Bowen has run his own critical eye, his own yardstick over his cast. Bowen's choice of characters is all bound up in a key theme running through his analysis.

First that the relationship between Treasurer and the Prime Minister is all important if the Treasurer is likely to make a strong impact either on rebuilding economic architecture or charting the economy through stormy seas. Australia has had in recent times some wonderful partnerships in that regard. Recall, for instance, the long fruitful relationship between Hawke and Keating before it all turned cancerous.

Keating's vision was shared by Hawke and even today they squabble about just who took the initiative to float the dollar which was by far the most significant economic reform in the modern era. Bowen conveys to the reader that it was Keating, of all the treasurers who had the most visceral understanding of the Australian economy; he probably still does today.

Howard and Costello kept the economy on an even keel and let Australia enjoy its resources boom without it degenerating into a wage boom or a balance of payments blow-out. Costello would argue that he had Australia back in budgetary surplus before the resource boom commenced.

Further back there was a strong relationship between Bob Menzies and Fadden in the 1950s with the only blemish being how the wool price boom of 1951 led to an almighty bust quickly after. There has been other excellent working relationship between Stanley Bruce and Earle Page and those two labour stalwarts, Curtin and Chifley. Those three partnerships never imploded as all the recent ones did. The less said about the partnership between Hockey and Abbott the better. When Howard had his time as Australia's youngest Treasurer it was marked by differences with Malcolm Fraser.

The other criterion that underpins Bowen's study is to observe the relationship between the Treasurer and the Treasury especially its high officialdom. That latter aspect might explain the rather strange inclusion of Jim Cairns who was basically isolated from his own department to an alarming degree. Cairns is enigmatic in that he did not want to be Treasurer having it forced upon him by Whitlam.

He was basically undone by not coming up with a credible answer to stagflation long before he got blindsided by the Loans Affair. It's interesting that four of the Bowen's class were Queenslanders, with Bill Hayden, Wayne Swan and E.G. Theodore having to confront quite unprecedented global economic trials.

Reading the account of Hayden's five torrid months as Treasurer from June 1975 reminds us what a heroic performance it was and how he would have saved the Whitlam government of not for the constitutional crisis. Hayden quickly re-established relations with Treasury and came up with the strategy to quell stagflation. It rekindles notions of what might have been had Whitlam made him Treasurer far earlier.

If there is one criticism of Bowen is that he tends to give some of his subjects far too much credit. During Fadden's long reign, for instance, it was the Treasury that ran the show with officials like Roland Wilson and Richard Randall pulling the strings. All Fadden did was to sign off on the budget.

The backroom boys – be they treasury officials, economists and advisers – might have been given greater respect. Of course the buck stops with the Treasurer.

Alex Millmow teaches economics at Federation University Australia.