Episodios

  • An unfinished revolution
    Sep 30 2025

    Author Virginia Haussegger joins Democracy Sausage to discuss her new book tracing fifty years of Australian feminism and ask why the revolution that began in 1975 remains unfinished.


    What role did a Canberra house party have in selecting the world's first women's advisor to a Prime Minister? Why did ASIO surveil women's liberation meetings and photograph their knitting bags? And what does the UN Secretary-General mean when he warns we're witnessing "the mainstreaming of misogyny"?


    Virginia Haussegger AM is an award-winning journalist, author and gender equality advocate. Her new book is The Unfinished Revolution: The Untold Story of the Feminist Fightback.


    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.

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    52 m
  • Universities in crisis
    Sep 24 2025

    Columnist Jenna Price and economist Sinclair Davidson join Democracy Sausage to dissect the crisis engulfing Australia's university sector and ask whether it can be fixed before it's too late.


    Why are students being taught by academics on 13-week contracts who can't get home loans? How did universities end up with 55% of staff in administration while gutting teaching? And should prospective students skip university entirely until the sector sorts itself out?


    Dr Jenna Price is a columnist, political commentator and academic.


    Sinclair Davidson is a Professor of Institutional Economics in the School of Economics, Finance and Marketing at RMIT University.


    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.

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    54 m
  • Echo chamber politics
    Sep 16 2025

    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.

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    49 m
  • Axis of upheaval
    Sep 9 2025

    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.

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    51 m
  • Tasmania's minority report
    Sep 2 2025

    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.

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    45 m
  • The 'reform-courage' spectrum
    Aug 26 2025

    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.

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    51 m
  • Let's get productive!
    Aug 19 2025

    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.

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    42 m
  • In the dead centre
    Aug 12 2025

    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.

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    53 m