MEANJIN: Let’s talk about writing as an exercise of power. You write as an historian, as a biographer, as a commentator—and they’re distinct modes of writing, but there’s also plenty of overlap, given your deep commitment to Australian democracy and the public good. The events leading to 11 November 1975 have become such an important focus for your work, so let’s set the scene by looking at the writing that frames that day: both your writing, and the writing that’s been hidden from the public for 50 years.

HOCKING: The Dismissal is probably one of the most written-about episodes in our political history—and yet much of what’s been written remains incomplete while key documents continue to be withheld from us. One of the things confronting me when I first started writing the biography of Gough Whitlam was people asking, ‘Why do we need more books on Gough?’ But actually, there were very few full-length biographies of Whitlam. There’s endless amounts of writing about the Dismissal: articles, academic texts, chapters, books, The Dismissal musical in 2023—which I thought was a hoot! There’s merchandise that you can buy at Old Parliament House. There’s ‘Well may we say’ mugs. It’s quite extraordinary! By the time I approached the Gough biography—it was the third biography I’d written—what struck me was that I really, really enjoyed writing in the biographical form. As an academic, it gave me the opportunity to really free up my style. I could approach my writing in a much more narrative way, making political history more interesting with a story that people wanted to follow.