The Hansard Monologues

Overview

To say it's been a crazy year in Australian politics almost feels like an understatement. But amidst all the scandals and the spin, it's easy to forget that sometimes, politicians are human beings who get angry and emotional. And when they do, it makes for some great speeches. A lot of the time, these speeches either don't get mentioned in the media or are reduced to 15-second grabs that don't give you a sense of what a politician is like in real life.

Written by Katie Pollock and Paul Daley and produced by PolitiFact's Peter Fray, The Hansard Monologues is a play that takes all the most "troubling, emotional and radical" speeches made in the 43rd Parliament of Australia and re-creates them, with actors David Roberts, Camilla Ah Kin and Tony Llewellyn-Jones playing various politicians.

They will, of course, be tackling Julia Gillard's famous misogyny speech, as well as Malcolm Turnbull's thoughts on marriage equality. There's some other interesting ones in there by disgraced MPs Craig Thomson and Peter Slipper, following their scandals. According to the writers, they continued to work on the play right up until the parliamentary recess, so the leadership spill will definitely get a mention.