This stuff matters reckons Kerry O'Brien

MORE than 250 people crowded the M|Arts Café & Bar last Thursday to hear author Jenny Hocking and journalist Kerry O’Brien in conversation.

The Politics of Life – This Stuff Matters 2025 event went off with a bang, packing the venue to capacity and last-minute arrivals turned away; such is the local interest in discussing big issues through a community lens.

Founded by Dr Richard Hil and run by a dedicated committee presenting high-level civic discourse, the series aims to unpack global and political events with a view to developing a more inclusive and peaceful society.

O’Brien and Hocking spoke seamlessly through various themes, including political change, capitalism, the Whitlam government, the impact of neoliberalism, the rise of the Teals, climate action, media ownership, community activism, international law, and Donald Trump.

O’Brien and Hocking listened carefully to audience questions. Photo: MALA NORRIS

Hocking agreed with O’Brien that politics was about people.

“It’s about ideas, and it’s about the exchange of ideas,” Hocking said.

“What I think is wonderful about this is a way of bringing ideas through people at the community level, and that is what politics has always been about, an exchange of ideas and exchange of beliefs, and then voting based on that information,” she said.

O’Brien was typically blunt with his assessments. In his 80th year, the highly respected former broadcaster laid his views on the federal government bare.

“I think that they have done good things and that on policy, they do a lot of hard work,” O’Brien said.

POL Founder Dr Richard Hil and wife and co-convenor Jennifer with professor Jenny Hocking at the M|Arts This Stuff Matters event. Photo: MALA NORRIS

“But it’s not matched by courage. It’s this caution, how you’ve got to be careful taking risks and use your first term to lay a foundation, and in the second term, you hope that you’re going to be doing more, and if you’re lucky enough to have a third term, well, you can change a bit.

“So here we are, now facing the very strong possibility of a one-term government. And even though they have achieved something, and they’ve turned some shitty stuff around. Nonetheless, it can evaporate very quickly.

“Politics has become much more short-term. I don’t think any government can make any assumption that just about any policy will survive automatically, no matter how good it might be,” he said.

For more information on the upcoming March event, visit thisstuffmatters.my.canva.site