Dr Joshua Black: Performance Politics
Event details
Thursday 1 October 2026,
6pm - 7pm ACST
Online & Allan Scott Auditorium,
Hawke Building,
Adelaide University - City Campus West
55 North Terrace Adelaide
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Livestream
01 October 2026
DR JOSHUA BLACK
PERFORMANCE POLITICS
Australian politicians and the stories they tell
Join us for an insightful discussion with Dr Joshua Black as he delves into his latest book Performance Politics: Australian Politicians and The Stories They Tell. Dr Black will be in conversation with Walkley award winning journalist, writer and editor James Button.
Drawing on memoirs, autobiographies, documentaries, media coverage, personal papers and original interviews, Dr Black explores how Australian politicians have become experts at fashioning and refashioning stories about themselves, their lives, personal ambitions and political entanglements. He uncovers how much of our recent political history has been shaped through the prism of the publishing house, the book launch, the documentary, and the lounge rooms where political retrospectives were broadcast.
Tracing the shift from a time when, as Billy Hughes once put it, "telling tales out of school" was not the done thing, to one where the 2024 Nemesis documentary showcased backstabbing, character assassinations and high emotions, Dr Black sheds light on the evolution of Australia's story-driven political culture.
Discover how political life writing and documentary making has played an outsized role in settling scores, shaping legacies and dramatising the democratic process, sometimes in shocking ways.
Dymocks will be selling copies of Dr Joshua Black's Performance Politics: Australian Politicians and The Stories They Tell in the Auditorium foyer on the night of the event.
Presented by The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre
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JAMES BUTTON
JOURNALIST, WRITER AND EDITOR
James Button was a feature writer, deputy editor and Europe correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. In 2009 and 2010 he worked in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, writing speeches for then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, an experience he describes in his book, Speechless: A Year in my Father's Business. He has also written Comeback: The Fall and Rise of Geelong and co-written Bhutan to Blacktown: Losing Everything and Finding Australia. He has won three Walkley awards and a Melbourne Press Club Quill award for feature writing. He worked for six years at the Grattan Institute and now works as a writer and editor. You can find his current writing on Substack at https://jamesbutton.substack.com/.
Presented by
The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre
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 Adelaide University 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.
