A columnist’s job is to process deeper currents in news, politics, and culture – all in 800 words.

Who are we as a nation and a people, and what’s going on for us beneath the daily headlines of the 24/7 media cycle?

Few of us stop long enough to wonder – but if we ever wanted to find out, a good place to start would be Sean Kelly’s writing in The Sydney Morning Herald.

Sean Kelly is a former political staffer in the Rudd and Gillard governments, who now writes a weekly column on politics for The Sydney Morning Herald. He’s also the author of the book The Game: A Portrait of Scott Morrison.

Sean has a front row seat to what’s going on for us as a nation and combines that perspective with an insider’s view of how politics works. In this interview with Life & Faith he considers what it might mean to be considered a chronicler of the national soul.

Explore

Sean Kelly’s column on how “kindness” won Anthony Albanese the 2025 Federal election.

His column about what might be called “the Albanese effect”: the move towards the centre, and the adoption of a less divisive tone, in the new leadership of the Greens and Liberal Party.

His book The Game: A Portrait of Scott Morrison