Writer Sean Kelly finds in our current prime minister much surface and little substance. Before becoming a columnist for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, Sean Kelly was an advisor to Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard. He’s worked both sides of politics, as minder shielding politicians from intrusive questioning, and journalist, digging deep to get the real story. Like fellow columnist Niki Savva, this gives him a unique perspective. In The Game, Kelly tries to get the measure of our current prime minister, Scott Morrison, and by his own admission, pretty much fails. It’s not for want of trying, or due to intellectual limitations. Kelly is arguably one of the country’s most incisive and penetrating writers on politics. The reason for the failure is that Morrison is such a skilled politician, he never lets a crack appear that could give a clue to his real personality. Most politicians at some stage make an embarrassing gaffe, giving a clue as to what they really think. Morrison is preternaturally aware: recall when Tony Abbott, Peter Dutton and Morrison were waiting for a meeting on Syrian refugees and some indiscreet comments were made about “Cape York time”. It was only Morrison that noted there was a boom mic above them. “There’s a boom up there,” he calmly cautioned. The story is a testament to Morrison’s awareness of himself as an actor playing a part, never making a slip or going out of character. (Morrison started his career as a child actor.) He has presented himself as the suburban dad who loves sport and makes a curry once a week. A simple, uncomplicated man. Any reality that gets in the way of this image – bushfires, a pandemic, violence against women – causes Morrison to lash out and get angry. (He famously said, “I don’t hold a hose, mate,” when questioned about the bushfires of early 2020.) Sean Kelly reaches a somewhat grim conclusion in The Game: “Morrison, unlike his predecessors, is the symbolic perfection of a certain version of Australia.” In other words, the two dimensional political character that is Scott Morrison (“How good is Australia?”) is a close reflection of how most of us see the country. In many ways, Morrison is a fictional character, an actor playing the part of someone we want to believe in. Australians have voted this mythical being into life. The book argues that we need to do better than this. Otherwise the country won’t move forward. Worse, poor policy will be made that adversely affects the country's citizens. But one wonders how? The Game provides first class political analysis, bringing the problems and deficiencies of Scott Morrison’s leadership into sharp focus. It can also be read more broadly as a political treatise, examining issues of personality and appearance in bracingly intelligent prose. A brilliant debut that is a cut above the usual political biography. Sure to be read and discussed in years to come. The Game: A Portrait of Scott Morrison, by Sean Kelly. Published by Black Inc. $32.99 Review by Chris Saliba Comments are closed.
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