![Author Richard Flanagan has questioned why Australian politicians have such hostility towards writing.](/web/20160902040128im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/5/9/n/v/image.related.wideLandscape.300x169.gr6pvl.png/1472727974252.jpg)
Richard Flanagan lauds Nauru files as great Australian writing
If anyone was expecting a gentle trot through the whys and wherefores of writing, the pros and cons of great writers in Richard Flanagan's first public lecture as inaugural Boisbouvier Professor of Australian Literature at the University of Melbourne they were in for a surprise.