04 December 2025

   

sEAN KELLY
the good fight

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sean kelly
in-conversation with
Misha Ketchell, Editor,
the conversation

Join us as award-winning journalist and political commentator Sean Kelly discusses his latest Quarterly Essay with Misha Ketchell, Editor of The Conversation.

In Quarterly Essay 100, Sean Kelly considers the enigma of the Albanese government. With wide yet shallow support, will it change the country? Does it have big ideas, or is it content just to become 'the natural party of government'

Kelly gives a definitive account of Albanese’s political style and asks what lies behind it. In speaking to a fragmented, disengaged electorate, the Prime Minister places a high value on moderation. Often, that means ducking fights with entrenched interests. But this runs the risk of embedding an ever more unequal nation, led by a government that can seem gutless.

In this subtle and brilliant essay, Kelly explores whether Labor is still up for the good fight.

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 

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sean kelly
journalist

Sean Kelly is the author of The Game: A Portrait of Scott Morrison. The book offers many powerful and revealing insights into Morrison's career and the political tactics that characterised his prime ministership. 

He is an award-winning columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age and regular contributor to The Monthly.

Sean Kelly is a former political adviser to Labor prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard.

 X: @MrSeanKelly

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misha ketchell
editor and executive director,
the conversation australia and new zealand

Misha Ketchell is Editor and Executive Director of The Conversation Australia and New Zealand. He has been a journalist for more than 25 years. He was founding editor of The Big Issue Australia and editor of Crikey, The Reader and The Melbourne Weekly. He has also been a reporter and feature writer at The Age and worked at the ABC where he was a TV producer on Media Watch and The 7:30 Report and an editor on The Drum.

 The Conversation

Misha Ketchell The Conversation

Presented by
The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre 

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While the views presented by speakers within The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre public program are their own and are not necessarily those of either the University of South Australia, or The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre, they are presented in the interest of open debate and discussion in the community and reflect our themes of: Strengthening our Democracy - Valuing our Diversity - Building our Future. The Hawke Centre reserves the right to change their program at any time without notice.