Sean Kelly on Belief in Politics

Award-winning journalist Sean Kelly joins Misha Ketchell, Editor of The Conversation, to discuss the state of the nation and the prospects for change and renewal.

In Quarterly Essay 100, Kelly captures the strange transitional moment we find ourselves in: sick of neoliberalism yet afraid of what might replace it. We are obsessed with work but resentful of it; desperate for community but stuck inside our phones; protective of our way of life while wanting to change everything.

Amid this uncertainty about who we are, what we believe and what we want, it seems harder than ever to make out where our politicians want to take us. The Liberal Party is in crisis. Labor, meanwhile, as it leaves old ideologies behind, insists it is both bold and incrementalist, committed to progressive values but middle of the road.

With vividness and insight, Kelly reflects on this period of uncertainty. He argues that the end of ideology may yet offer hope for a new politics. As the prime minister promotes a new nationalism, could Australia show other countries the way forward?

Imprints Booksellers will be selling copies of Sean Kelly's Quarterly Essay 100: On Belief In Politics in the Auditorium foyer on the night of the event.

Presented by The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre