At age 73, Australian writer Anne Summers, author of her new autobiography, Unfettered and Alive, as well as eight books, is still keen for her next assignment.

She lives in New York with her long-time partner Chip Rolley, and is allowed to work in the US. But, she’s ready to take on more projects for Australian publishers.

“This book has taken a lot out of me,” she says of the 444-pager which is brimming with historical moments and personal insights of a life lived in journalism and politics. “I’ll see what happens next year. I will certainly continue to do journalism.”

If she had only worked in journalism, she would have the equivalent of a lifetime of stories on breaking news and features that she wrote, like exposing the extraordinary phenomenom of gang rape “trains” in the town of Inham in North Queensland in 1976, many stories of government corruption, and travelling through South Africa during the apartheid period.

But Summers’ life has been much more than that . For instance, in the  book she offers an intense account of taking over the editorial reigns of Ms magazine in the US, then ownership, only to see the project crash badly. She has shed her professional skin many times, often in pursuit of a new challenge.

There’s a chapter on her stint working for prime minister Paul Keating as a political advisor dedicated to women’s issues. One result: the childcare rebate was installed by the federal government.  

Women’s issues are ever-present in the book, from her own insights of having an abortion in New York, to defending claims of her mismanagement by men who did not like her as their boss, to dealing with the reputation of her grandfather for violence against his family.

True to form, Summers in her books and life, has never stopped talking about such issues.

Has society made progress to protect women from violence?

“We haven’t even got close,” she says in our interview. “At least we are talking about it. A woman a week being killed. A tremendous amount of damaged being inflicted. The extent and types of violence are increasing . . . I don’t think we are getting any answers why it is happening, how we can stop it.”

If you were a politician, what is the biggest issue you could successfully sell that would benefit women?

“It’s impossible to answer that,” she says. “There is no one thing. There’s a number of issues that need to be addressed. For women to get equal pay. For equal access to jobs. For support systems, such as adequate child care, that would enable women to work. We don’t have a system that works together.

“We are still maintaining the fiction that childcare and bringing up children is the women’s responsibility. That function is outmoded. Society is still insisting women do two full-time jobs.”

In her book, Summers is frank about the difficulties of making money as a journalist and publisher.

Could she have done it differently?

“There was an easier way,” she says. “That’s not my strong suit. It would be nice if I had more money. I know people with more money. They are not that happy. And haven’t had as much fun.”

Living in the US (New York is home, but she plans on returning to Australia), she is acutely attuned to US politics. She is as stunned by the Donald Trump presidency as anybody.

“I can’t reconcile it. What’s happening is horrifying,” she says. “The most distressing and depressing aspect is the speed at which the institutions have collapsed. The Congress failing its duty. The Supreme Court collapse. There are no checks and balances on this president . . .”