Australian Pubs Now Hotbeds For Nuanced Geopolitical Discourse After Broadcasting 39-Days Of Nonstop SBS

CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT

Publicans right across the country are this week reporting a very noticeable lift in the standard of idle chit chat taking place in their venues.

From corner pubs to sprawling sports taverns, it seems Australians are now treating their local watering hole like the coffee houses of book stores of Europe.

Not even a jam-packed sporting calendar of Wimbledon, State Of Origin, Wallabies, UFC and the mid-season fixtures of both the AFL and NRL could stifle the intellectual stimulation currently taking place in pubs right across the country.

And ironically, it's this same sporting calendar that is directly responsible for Australian pubs becoming hotbeds for nuanced geopolitical discourse.

After 39-days of non-stop SBS broadcasting on the big screen, Australia's local drinkers can now officially tell the difference between Iran and Iraq.

Not since the days of pre-Foxtel grassroots political organising has such robust political and geostrategic debate taken place the front bars of Australian hotels.

Not just this, Australia's pub regulars and are now wilfully engaging with confidence on once ardous and complicated topics like international conflicts, global oil and supply shortages, ethno-religious tensions - and how they all relate to our own country's place in the world.

In recent years, the Australian pub has been considered a safe place from intellectual discussions, as working men and women were encouraged to shy away from civics and instead redirect all of their critical thinking towards sportsbetting and reality TV.

However with the airtime between FIFA World Cup matches filled with constant world news up dates, open discussion panel shows and live crosses from foreign bureaus - Australian pubs are back alive with highbrow thinking.

This phenomena is credited with the sudden collapse in One Nation's polling numbers, and explains why Pauline Hanson was so vehement in her calls to defund Australia's Special Broadcasting Service.

Publicans and bar staff say this is a refreshing change, as they no longer have to endure such distressing levels of fruitless 'shit talk' from their patrons.

However, with the World Cup coming to an end yesterday morning, there is fear that Australian pubgoers will eventually ask for the channel to be changed back to the intellectually regressive domestic sports gossip programs like NRL360 or AFL360.