Joel Deane, poet and novelist, was also a speechwriter for that Labor government, and has now become its biographer. Until its unexpected defeat, it was a relatively successful government. Its first premier, Steve Bracks, liked to call it 'fiscally conservative, socially progressive'. It was cautious. The top priority on this Labor government's agenda was to keep the AAA credit rating, and it worked as closely with the state's business lobbies as it did with welfare, justice, or environment groups. It was good at working out ways to keep everyone happy, and in Bracks it was blessed with one of those rare leaders who inspire trust in his citizens.

It is worth remembering that while we focus on federal politics – it's ideological, and we like arguing – state politics matters more to our lives. The government services we rely on every day are overwhelmingly provided by the states: the roads and rails that get us places, the schools that teach us, the hospitals that fix us up, the police, the parks, the courts, the galleries, and cultural venues, the regulation of 1001 activities that concern us at some point. Running them is essentially about management, but there are always choices to be made.

Some used to argue that Canberra attracted a higher class of politician than state politics. No one could seriously argue that now. The Bracks–Brumby governments were good examples. Steve Bracks was an unassuming, amiable, intelligent, good-looking young economics teacher from Ballarat when he became Labor's leader in early 1999. Everyone underestimated him. Jeff Kennett certainly did, and it was a huge surprise to Kennett when Bracks ambushed him at the election later that year, sweeping the seats in regional cities to form a minority government supported by three anti-Kennett Independents from the bush. Bracks combined the reassuring style and political centrism of Dick Hamer, the Liberal premier of the 1970s, with the discipline and some of the reformist zeal of John Cain, Labor's premier in the 1980s. He maintained the fiscal conservatism and free-market reforms inherited from Kennett and his treasurer Alan Stockdale, but without the bullying, invective, and intolerance of opponents which blotted Kennett's innovative rule.

'For its first ninety years, Labor was camped almost permanently on the outer of Victorian politics'

There was more steel to Steve Bracks than we had realised. His autobiography, A Premier's State (2012), revealed that before entering politics in 1994 he wrote out a plan that he kept in his wallet for years, in which he set out to become an MP by the age of forty, to be party leader within seven years of that, and premier within ten. To do that, Mr Nice Guy had to spill the blood of his friends.

His first step was to win preselection. In 1994, Bracks was president of the Independents, a faction whose proud history began with the 1960s campaign by Cain, John Button, and others to wrest power from Victorian ALP secretary Bill Hartley and the left-wing unions, which led in 1970 to Federal intervention to dismiss Hartley and install power-sharing. For the next twenty years, the Independents held the balance of power in the Victorian ALP, and did well by it. But in 1991 the Socialist Left split over privatisation, and the hard left formed an alliance with the right; the Independents lost the balance of power. In 1994, when former Premier Joan Kirner quit politics, Bracks lobbied for her seat of Williamstown, but the right controlled the branches. Its power brokers, Stephen Conroy and Robert Ray, made Bracks an offer which made him choose between ambition and loyalty: he could have the seat, but only if he joined the right. He agreed, and abandoned his own faction, which then slowly crumbled away.

A visit by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Victorian Premier John Brumby to the Toyota car manufacturing plant in Altona, Victoria. They were accompanied by Senator Kim Carr and Health Minister Nicola Roxon, July 2008.

Bracks became part of a new leadership group under John Brumby, along with John Thwaites and Rob Hulls; they were Labor's 'golden four', bright and pragmatic, and all close mates. Yet as the 1999 election approached, and a bitterly divided party seemed to be heading for another defeat under Brumby's leadership, Bracks told party bosses he was ready to take over. Focus group research had told them that he was Labor's most marketable asset. They agreed, Brumby surrendered, and Labor had what seemed to be a bloodless leadership change. Catch and Kill reveals that it was years before Brumby got over his anger that Bracks, his close friend, had betrayed him.

'Bracks became part of a new leadership group under John Brumby, along with John Thwaites and Rob Hulls; they were Labor's ''golden four'''

Deane handles the complexities of Victorian factional politics well, and shows us that modern Labor, so often accused of being sentimental, is actually ruthless about winning government. Faction leaders Kim Carr (left) and Greg Sword (right) agreed on that, if nothing else. Bracks was lucky to win office when he did, but as premier he offered Victorians an attractive package of attributes. They rewarded him at the 2002 election with a spectacular forty-seat majority, and the highest vote of any Victorian government since World War I.

Bracks's handling of upper-house reform was a prime example of what made him so popular. In 1999 he had promised to introduce Senate-style proportional representation, but the Coalition blocked it. In 2002 Labor finally won an upper house majority. To deliver his promise would cost Labor its majority, and the faction leaders urged Bracks to dump the plan. Instead, he delivered it exactly as promised, at his own cost, arguing that a system of checks and balances was in the state's long-term interest. It was a rare example of integrity in politics. In 2006 Bracks was re-elected with relatively minor losses, only to retire months later and hand over – ironically, to Brumby, the leader he had displaced.

Then things started to go wrong. Rapid population growth was putting Melbourne's infrastructure under pressure, which made governments choose between keeping the AAA credit rating or building the infrastructure the city needed. Roads, trains, and trams became congested, failed to do their job, and frustration grew. A rookie firm won the contract to create Melbourne's myki public transport cards; they ended up costing three times the budgeted amount. Having resisted calls for new water sources during most of the drought, Brumby ordered two big, expensive, and unpopular projects at once – then the drought broke, and neither was needed. Scandals large and small began to accumulate. Liberal leader Ted Baillieu promised clean, open government and won by two seats.

'Catch and Kill reveals that it was years before Brumby got over his anger that Bracks, his close friend, had betrayed him'

Deane's account of all this could be subtitled 'Bracks and Brumby: the Speechwriter's Cut'. This is government as seen from the testosterone-rich, obsessive, profane, fiercely loyal, 24/7 world of the political staffer. Deane told The Age that he made the book autobiographical to break through his writer's block and to ensure it was not 'one of those batshit boring books' about state politics. (Disclosure: the only other books published on Victorian politics this decade have been written by this reviewer and Steve Bracks.)

It is a good read; Deane can tell a story, and he brings personalities and issues to life. He is loyal to his old bosses, criticisms are few, and the government's four key players – Bracks, Brumby, Thwaites, and Hulls – are all drawn much larger than life. Brumby, we read, was always 'the smartest guy in the room'. Bracks had exceptional 'emotional intelligence'. As they developed reform plans intended for the entire nation, they were no longer just a state government, but 'a quasi-federal government with national ambitions'.

Deane indulges this fantasy too much. No federal government would seriously adopt an agenda designed by a state government, and neither Howard nor Rudd did so. Most of the reforms Victoria proposed went nowhere, while some of those Brumby adopted on his own turf were inadequately thought through. Deregulation saw Melbourne's electricity prices soar seventy-two per cent in five years. Contestable funding for vocational education opened up a field for shonks to exploit, while households were made to bear the expense of installing smart power meters without the intended benefits. These contributed to the government's defeat in 2010, but such failures feature little in this book.

For all that, the Bracks–Brumby decade was one in which Victoria over-achieved, in economic performance and social reform. Part of the reason was that it was led by over-achievers. Deane captures the mood and motives of their regime with skill and flair, to give us a politically shrewd and lively account of one of the better governments of recent times.