The Game by Sean Kelly | Black Inc.

The Game: A Portrait of Scott Morrison

Awards for The Game

  • Shortlisted, 2022 Walkley Book Award
  • Shortlisted, 2022 ABIA Awards, Small Publishers' Adult Book of the Year
  • Longlisted, 2022 Australian Political Book of the Year

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About the author

Sean Kelly

Sean Kelly is a columnist for the Nine papers and a regular contributor to The Monthly. He was a political adviser to Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard.

More about Sean Kelly



Read an extract

The Game

Praise for The Game

‘An engrossing, illuminating and often disquieting study of Scott Morrison. Sean Kelly’s forensic analysis of the man he describes as the “symbolic perfection of a certain version of Australia ” compels us all to consider our complicity in his creation.’—Niki Savva

‘It’s been almost impossible to get a handle on Scott Morrison. Until now. Sean Kelly has done it, comprehensively.’ —Barrie Cassidy

‘Sean Kelly exposes Morrison with wit and righteous precision. After reading this insightful, funny and absolutely maddening dissection of the man, I can now clearly see him for what he is. Go Sharks!’ —Tom Ballard

The Game: A portrait of Scott Morrison is a tour de force, the most perceptive and complex account we yet have of our current prime minister’ —Judith Brett

‘Not only is ⁦Sean Kelly⁩ the most elegant of the next generation of Australian political writers, he understands that Australians chose Scott Morrison in 2019. It wasn’t a miracle. It said – and continues to say – something about us.’ — Hugh Riminton

The Game is a brilliant deconstruction of Scott Morrison’s place in Australian politics. The prose of Sean Kelly is an antidote to the ScoMo persona: such great weight, and never blustering for the sake of it.’ —Lech Blaine

‘This is a cracker of a book. A thoughtful, fascinating, devastating examination of Morrison’s personality, the way he plays politics, and the political game itself. Also enlightening on us, the voters.’ —Laurie Oakes

‘Sean Kelly’s The Game … is outstanding for the subtlety of its psychological insights, weighing of evidence, and the breadth of reading that Kelly brings to bear on his slippery subject.’ —Mark McKenna

‘To read The Game is to fall into an elevator shaft without a bottom.’ —Martin McKenzie-Murray, The Monthly

‘a devastating dismantling of Scott Morrison’s smoke and mirrors.’ —Judith Brett, Inside Story