Democracy Sausage with Mark Kenny

On this Democracy Sausage , Gunnai Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung woman and Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe joins Mark Kenny to discuss truth-telling, the right to self-determination, and the idea of a black caucus. What changes need to occur for Australia’s First People to achieve self-determination? Will the Yoo-rrook Justice Commission in Victoria put pressure on the Federal Government to begin a tru...

On the new Democracy Sausage , the ‘airport economist’ Tim Harcourt and China scholar Jane Golley join Mark Kenny to discuss the Quad leaders meeting, geoeconomics, and what it all means for Australia. What does the first ever Quad leaders meeting indicate about President Biden’s approach to China? Are calls for exporters to diversify away from China realistic for smaller Australian producers who’...

On this Democracy Sausage Extra , Europe correspondent Bevan Shields and COO of Atalanta Elizabeth Ames join Mark Kenny to discuss the status of COVID-19 in the United Kingdom, the unfolding royal family train wreck, and Mathias Cormann’s bid to become OECD head. With small freedoms set to return and the COVID-19 vaccine rollout well under way, the British Government has set 21 June as the earlies...

On this episode of Democracy Sausage , Mark Kenny is joined by China experts Yun Jiang and Graeme Smith to discuss Chinese politics, and the country’s relationships with the United States and Australia. How will relations between China and the United States progress under the new Biden administration? Is the proposal by a Chinese company to build a new fishing hub in Papua New Guinea a security th...

On this Democracy Sausage Extra , Peter Martin joins Mark Kenny to discuss why the COVID-19 recession has presented Treasurer Josh Frydenberg with the chance to permanently reduce unemployment. Is it possible for Australia to permanently lower its unemployment rate to around 3.5 per cent? What can policymakers learn from the last recession, after which the country was able to dramatically reduce i...

On this episode of Democracy Sausage , Quentin Grafton and Sharon Friel join Mark Kenny to discuss Australia’s vaccine rollout and dealing with the country’s ongoing healthcare challenges. While the COVID-19 vaccines approved in Australia are safe, will the government’s current plan provide the necessary herd immunity to allow borders to open? What public health policies will likely have to remain...

On this episode of Democracy Sausage , Liz Allen joins us to discuss social security, living with scarcity, and whether Australia needs a reset in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. What impact does the ‘othering’ of people experiencing disadvantage have on Australia’s most vulnerable citizens? Why does Australians’ postcode have such an impact on their health outcomes? And what demographic changes...

Last week Australians woke up to a bizarre state of affairs - Facebook without any news. On this episode of Democracy Sausage , Shirley Leitch and Paul Pickering from ANU Australian Studies Institute join Mark Kenny to discuss the stoush between Facebook and the Australian Government. What does Facebook’s decision to restrict the ability of its users to post and read news in Australia mean for ord...

On this episode of Democracy Sausage , political historian Frank Bongiorno joins Mark Kenny to discuss whether it is Trumpism that has undermined Australian politics or whether Australia’s problems are primarily of its own making. Has Trumpism been the cause of a decline in Australian ministerial responsibility or has this degradation been a result of a longer-term trend? Are Australian political...

On this Democracy Sausage , Mark Kenny discusses the state of Australia’s university sector with education policy expert Andrew Norton, head of Australia’s science and technology peak body Misha Schubert, and the father of Australia’s HECS system Bruce Chapman. While universities had a very tough 2020, what does the continued closure of international borders mean for the future of the sector? Will...

On this Democracy Sausage Extra , Jennifer Hunt joins Mark Kenny to discuss the Senate trial of former President Donald Trump, the future of the Republican Party, and whether President Biden’s new cabinet is a case of ‘back to the future’. He is the only president to be impeached twice, but will Donald Trump be held to account in the wake of the riots at the Capitol building on 6 January? Will the...

Australian policymakers may have dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic effectively so far, but can they heed the lessons of this crisis in order to be ready for those still to come? Joining Mark Kenny on this episode of Democracy Sausage to discuss public policy in the wake of the pandemic are Helen Sullivan and Warwick McKibbin. Australia has managed the joint health and economic crises brought on by...

On this episode of Democracy Sausage , Mark Kenny is joined by infectious diseases expert Sanjaya Senanayake to discuss what we’ve learned about the disease. The COVID-19 pandemic caused over two million deaths worldwide and turned life on its head for billions more. While pandemics aren’t a new phenomenon, many governments were unprepared for the severity and scale of this new virus. So what have...

On this Democracy Sausage , former Liberal Party leader John Hewson, health and policy expert Arnagretta Hunter, and physicist Kenneth Baldwin join us to discuss the need for political leadership and better policy to strengthen Australia’s efforts to tackle climate change. Despite the impacts of climate change becoming increasingly real for many Australians in the wake of the Black Summer, the cou...

On the first episode of Democracy Sausage for 2021, journalist and author Stan Grant joins Mark Kenny to discuss whether President Joe Biden can address the serious challenges facing the United States, plus the trajectory of the Australia Day debate. It was meant to be a reset, but will 2021 actually be a year of reckoning in the United States, with the country struggling to address its deep divis...

Dust off the tuxedo, bring out the ballgowns, and prepare your lengthy speeches. In the final Democracy Sausage for 2020, we reveal the winners of our first Annual Awards. Who were the big winners, and the biggest losers, of 2020? Our panel rip open envelopes and reveal all. Who performed the biggest political backflip of the year? What was the most risible explanation for a government failure? An...

Politics and policymaking can feel very distant from people’s everyday lives, and that disconnection can make individuals and communities feel powerless. So how are people helping to bridge this chasm and put the personal back into policy? From the community push to get an independent elected in the Victorian seat of Indi, to the knitting nannas of northern New South Wales challenging coal seam ga...

On this Democracy Sausage Extra , Ian Dunt - host of the Oh God, What Now? podcast and author of How to be a liberal - joins Mark Kenny to discuss the history of liberal thought, how it has shaped present day politics, and the origins of the ‘culture wars’. Have the culture wars emerged out of the failures of liberalism? Why haven’t contemporary political actors done more to protect people from pr...

Australia’s relationship with China continues to deteriorate, whether that’s through inflammatory tweets or trade troubles. And while there may be bipartisan support for Morrison’s response to the latest Twitter provocation, what is the government’s end game in its relationship with China? Australia’s relationship with China has been spiralling downwards, seemingly hitting new lows each week. So w...

What has 2020 taught us about Australia’s political leadership? From the devastating bushfires that affected so many in the early part of the year, to the states leading the charge on border closures to tackle the coronavirus, this year has seen dramatic challenges and some difficult choices from the country’s leaders. Insiders host David Speers joins Mark Kenny to take a look back at the year in...

John Kerry being appointed as President-elect Joe Biden’s special climate envoy has the potential to encourage much stronger action by the world’s nations to tackle climate change. But it comes at a time when the great powers of the US, China, and Russia are at loggerheads on a wide variety of issues. So how will the global climate change, and what does this mean for Australia? President-elect Joe...

On this Democracy Sausage Extra , award-winning journalist and author Malcolm Knox joins Mark Kenny to discuss the saga of Israel Folau - former star rugby union player sacked for sharing anti-LGBTQ views on social media - and how free speech got so complicated. The sacking of former star player Israel Folau by Rugby Australia for his comments on social media once again revealed faultlines which h...

A study released last week looked at the true numbers of COVID-19 infections based on mortality rates. In doing so, it painted a grim picture for a number of countries including the United Kingdom. On this Democracy Sausage , we hear from one of the authors of that report, Professor Quentin Grafton. Australia may have the coronavirus largely under control for now, but elsewhere in the world countr...

From Brexit Britain to Trump’s obsession with the stock market, and from era-defining infections to ideology vs interests, this week on Democracy Sausage Extra we look back over some of our favourite bits of the podcast from the last 18 months. Why do some Brits have a ‘yearning for chaos’? Is it really ideology that drives government spending decisions? What do Donald Trump and stock market ‘day...

On this Democracy Sausage , we discuss how policymakers get their messages right (and so badly wrong) with government media and communications experts Fiona Benson and Jannette Cotterell, plus pod regular Marija Taflaga. How can governments build public trust at a time when following public health directions is literally a matter of life and death? With COVID-19 vaccinations showing promising sign...