Historian Frank Bongiorno joins Democracy Sausage to dissect the Liberal Party's existential crisis and asks whether Australia's 'natural party of government' is heading for collapse.

Is the Liberal Party becoming ideologically pure but electorally toxic? Why are Liberal MPs losing control of their branches to Sky After Dark viewers? And what happens when a political party holds just one in ten metropolitan seats but refuses to moderate?

Frank Bongiorno is a Professor at the ANU School of History. He is President of the Australian Historical Association and the Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.

Marija Taflaga is the Director of the ANU Centre for the Study of Australian Politics and a Lecturer at the ANU School of Politics and International Relations.

Mark Kenny is the Director of the ANU Australian Studies Institute. He came to the University after a high-profile journalistic career including six years as chief political correspondent and national affairs editor for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times.

Democracy Sausage with Mark Kenny is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. We'd love to hear your feedback on this series, so send in your questions, comments or suggestions for future episodes to democracysausage@anu.edu.au.

This podcast is produced by The Australian National University.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Former senior Australian diplomat Jane Hardy joins Democracy Sausage to examine the new alliances emerging from Beijing's recent military parade and what they mean for global security.

What does it mean when India's Modi holds hands with Putin while Trump imposes punishing tariffs on supposed allies? How has North Korea quietly amassed enough material for 50 nuclear warheads? And is the West's post-war alliance system finally crumbling under the weight of America First policies?

On this episode of Democracy Sausage, Professor Mark Kenny talks with Jane Hardy about the rise of the "axis of upheaval" and her firsthand experiences inside North Korea.

Jane Hardy is a former Australian senior career diplomat and Australian Government official. Over three decades, Jane served in seven Australian embassies in the Indo-Pacific region, the United States and Europe, four at ambassador level.

Mark Kenny is the Director of the ANU Australian Studies Institute. He came to the University after a high-profile journalistic career including six years as chief political correspondent and national affairs editor for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times.

Democracy Sausage with Mark Kenny is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. We'd love to hear your feedback on this series, so send in your questions, comments or suggestions for future episodes to democracysausage@anu.edu.au.

This podcast is produced by The Australian National University.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Political scientist Kate Crowley and election analyst Ben Raue join Democracy Sausage to examine Tasmania's political crisis and what it reveals about Australia's democratic future.

Is Tasmania ungovernable or just badly governed? Why do the major parties keep pretending they have mandates when voters have abandoned them? And what does Tasmania's experience with minority governments tell us about where Australian democracy is heading?

On this episode of Democracy Sausage, Professor Mark Kenny and Dr Marija Taflaga are joined by Associate Professor Kate Crowley and Ben Raue to discuss Tasmania's perpetual political instability in the wash-up from July's election.

Kate Crowley is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Tasmania's School of Social Sciences. She is an expert on minority government and environmental politics, and editor of 'Minority Government: The Liberal-Green Experience in Tasmania'.

Ben Raue is an election analyst and founder of The Tally Room, one of Australia's leading sources for electoral analysis, maps and data covering federal, state and local elections.

Mark Kenny is the Director of the ANU Australian Studies Institute. He came to the University after a high-profile journalistic career including six years as chief political correspondent and national affairs editor for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times.

Marija Taflaga is the Director of the ANU Centre for the Study of Australian Politics and a Lecturer at the ANU School of Politics and International Relations.

Democracy Sausage with Mark Kenny is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. We'd love to hear your feedback on this series, so send in your questions, comments or suggestions for future episodes to democracysausage@anu.edu.au.

This podcast is produced by The Australian National University.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What does the government's reluctance to partner with the Greens reveal about its reform agenda? What do the Liberal Party's internal battles over net-zero mean for the future of conservative politics in Australia? And where does Labor sit on Mark's freshly coined 'reform-courage' spectrum?

On this episode of Democracy Sausage, Professor Mark Kenny is joined by Jason Koutsoukis and Dr Stewart Jackson to talk about whether the government is, or can be, reformist.

Jason Koutsoukis is a journalist and special correspondent for The Saturday Paper.

Dr Stewart Jackson is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Government and International Relations, with a specialisation in Australian politics, at the University of Sydney.

Mark Kenny is the Director of the ANU Australian Studies Institute. He came to the University after a high-profile journalistic career including six years as chief political correspondent and national affairs editor for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times.

Democracy Sausage with Mark Kenny is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. We’d love to hear your feedback on this series, so send in your questions, comments or suggestions for future episodes to democracysausage@anu.edu.au.

This podcast is produced by The Australian National University.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Can we fix the tax system?

What is good economic growth vs bad economic growth?

And, as the government's productivity roundtable begins, how do we become more productive as a nation?

On this episode of Democracy Sausage, Marija Taflaga enlists tax policy specialists Robert Breunig and Kristen Sobeck to help chart a productive future for Australia.

Professor Robert Breunig is the director of the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute at the Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University.

Kristen Sobeck is a Research Fellow at the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute, at the Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University.

Dr Marija Taflaga is the Director of the ANU Centre for the Study of Australian Politics and a Lecturer at the ANU School of Politics and International Relations.

Democracy Sausage with Mark Kenny is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. We’d love to hear your feedback on this series, so send in your questions, comments or suggestions for future episodes to democracysausage@anu.edu.au.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Economist Richard Denniss joins Democracy Sausage and argues policies suffer because of our need to find the centre in any debate.

What does pragmatism really mean for Australian politics? How do attempts at unity constrain political debate? And how do evidence, position and politics interact in policymaking?

On this episode of Democracy Sausage, Dr Richard Denniss and Professor Mark Kenny talk about the reality of pragmatic politics.

Richard Denniss is an economist and the Executive Director of the Australia Institute. He is also the author of Dead Centre: How political pragmatism is killing us.

Mark Kenny is the Director of the ANU Australian Studies Institute. He came to the University after a high-profile journalistic career including six years as chief political correspondent and national affairs editor for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times.

Democracy Sausage with Mark Kenny is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. We’d love to hear your feedback on this series, so send in your questions, comments or suggestions for future episodes to democracysausage@anu.edu.au.

This podcast is produced by The Australian National University.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Political scientist Jill Sheppard joins Democracy Sausage to talk about the upcoming productivity roundtables, protests on starvation in Palestine and having the courage to act.

What is a mandate and how should Labor interpret its victory? Will the upcoming productivity roundtable act as a stepping stone for action or a delegation of decision-making? And how can our politicians start to build their political and moral courage muscles?

On this episode of Democracy Sausage, Dr Jill Sheppard joins Dr Marija Taflaga for a discussion on mandates and courage in politics.

Jill Sheppard is a Senior Lecturer in the ANU School of Politics and International Relations. She is an investigator on several major survey studies of Australian public opinion and behaviour, including the Australian Election Study, World Values Survey, and Asian Barometer Survey.

Marija Taflaga is the Director of the ANU Australian Politics Studies Centre and a Senior Lecturer at the ANU School of Politics and International Relations.

Democracy Sausage with Mark Kenny is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. We’d love to hear your feedback on this series, so send in your questions, comments or suggestions for future episodes to democracysausage@anu.edu.au.

This podcast is produced by The Australian National University.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Political scientists Mark Riboldi and Pandanus Petter join Democracy Sausage to discuss housing policy, safety nets and the fair go.

How do politicians talk about housing, and does it impact policy? Who are the villains (or scapegoats) in the Australian housing narrative? And what does living with dignity mean in our current society; is it universal basic income?

On this episode of Democracy Sausage, Dr Mark Riboldi and Dr Pandanus Petter join Dr Marija Taflaga to discuss housing and social policy.

Mark Riboldi is a Lecturer at the Business School at the University of Technolgy Sydney (UTS). Mark has previously worked as a media and policy adviser in NSW Parliament, an advocacy and communications manager at Community Legal Centres NSW, and as the collaborative research and policy manager at the Sydney Policy Lab.

Pandanus Petter is Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the ANU School of Politics & International Relations.

Marija Taflaga is the Director of the ANU Australian Politics Studies Centre and a Senior Lecturer at the ANU School of Politics and International Relations.

Democracy Sausage with Mark Kenny is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. We’d love to hear your feedback on this series, so send in your questions, comments or suggestions for future episodes to democracysausage@anu.edu.au.

This podcast is produced by The Australian National University.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.