Democracy Sausage with Mark Kenny

Latest Episodes:

Midterm reckoning: Trump, Texas and a test for democracy Oct 20, 2026

Show notes

How has the attack on Helen Haines changed the conversation about political violence in Australia? Are the US midterms about to become a referendum on an unpopular president? Could Democrats take the Senate, with Texas, Michigan and Kansas suddenly in play?

In this episode of Democracy Sausage, Mark Kenny and Dr Marija Taflaga are joined by the United States Studies Centre's Bruce Wolpe. They begin by reflecting on the attack on the Member for Indi, and on what politicians, parties and the media owe to a healthier political culture. The conversation then turns to the US midterms, now less than a fortnight away. They cover Trump's sinking approval ratings, affordability and the war in Iran as drivers of the vote, and the key Senate races to watch. They finish with what a Democratic Congress could mean for the rest of Trump's term and the road to 2028.

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

The One Nation vote: a map of government neglect Oct 13, 2026

Show notes

Why are Australia's least resilient communities turning to One Nation? What happens when the major parties take their heartland seats for granted? Can Labor's "shallow" 2025 win hold together in 2028?

Redbridge Group director Kos Samaras joins Mark and Marija to unpack the new Australian Resilience Index. It maps the financial, health and social resilience of communities across all 150 federal electorates. They look at why seats with low health resilience line up so closely with One Nation's projected gains, and at how decades of pork-barrelling in marginal seats have left regional Australia and the outer suburbs behind. Kos also talks about Meadow Heights, the Melbourne suburb where he grew up, which went from a Labor stronghold to one of the least resilient communities in the country.

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

Not here to fix Labor Oct 06, 2026

Show notes

Is Labor's managerial, middle-of-the-road style a sensible way to steer through rough seas, or does it leave room on the left for someone selling a bigger vision? If Pauline Hanson can do it to the Coalition, can Shoebridge do it to Labor? Or is Australia simply heading for a multi-party era where every seat is marginal?

On this episode, Professor Mark Kenny and Dr Marija Taflaga look at what was behind the Greens' first truly competitive leadership contest. They discuss why personal relationships carry so much weight in a party room that could fit in a minivan, and whether the Greens are really just a privatised left faction of the ALP.

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

The Alchemy of Leadership Sep 29, 2026

Show notes

What did John Howard understand about survival and self-correction that his six successors never quite grasped? Why do so many of our prime ministers trace their drive back to fiercely ambitious mothers — and what does that pattern tell us about who gets to lead? Is the Liberal Party's current unravelling the price of clinging to the "Howard settlement" long after the country moved on?

Historian and biographer Paul Strangio joins Mark to dissect what makes — and breaks — an Australian prime minister, drawing on his newly shortlisted book The Alchemy of Leadership: Seven Australian Prime Ministers in a Turbulent Twenty-First Century.

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

Forty Years On Sep 21, 2026

Show notes

What are the five forces reshaping Australia's economy and society over the next four decades? What it will take to keep Australians' faith in government alive while managing them? What can younger Australians expect from future governments?

Treasurer of Australia and ANU Alum the Hon Dr Jim Chalmers MP joins Mark Kenny and Liz Allen on Democracy Sausage to unpack the 2025 Intergenerational Report.

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

New game, new rules Sep 15, 2026

Show notes

Is too much political capital being put into meaningless foreign policy platitudes rather than defining what modern Australian security looks like? If Australia's shared values with its allies are contradicted can we still rely on those principles to steer policy with them? Can Australia take a globally prominent position in petitioning the US to end the wars that fundamentally threaten Australia's national security?

On this episode of Democracy Sausage, Allan Behm — a 30-year veteran of the Australian Public Service across defence, diplomacy and the Attorney-General's Department, and a former senior adviser to now-Foreign Minister Penny Wong — joins Professor Mark Kenny to discuss his new book, New Game, New Rules: A Foreign Policy for Dystopian Times, and why breaking Australia's "stranglehold of dependency" starts with an honest reckoning with our own identity.

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

Whose Side Are You On? Sep 08, 2026

Show notes

Is Australia's looming digital duty of care about censorship, as its critics claim, or about handing control back to the people whose attention is being sold to advertisers?

With Meta's $18 billion US settlement still fresh and an exposure draft due out within hours, independent MP for Curtin Kate Chaney makes the case for a broad duty on tech platforms to prevent foreseeable harm — and why she thinks this fight has nothing to do with free speech at all.

THEN: from Perth's outer suburbs to a state election in Germany, the populist right is romping home wherever voters are abandoning the major parties. So why isn't the same thing happening on the left?

After One Nation's rout of Labor in the Secret Harbour by-election, the Australia Institute's Richard Dennis and the University of Sydney's Stewart Jackson join Mark and Marija to ask whether the Greens have got too clever by half, too comfortable inside parliament, and too reluctant to just say whose side they're on.

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

Three Shocks Sep 01, 2026

Show notes

For the first time since federation Australia's population is made up of a majority of migrants and their children, changing the electoral maths for our politicians - have our leaders caught up to the times or are they getting left behind? Labor has learned how to win an election, but does the Liberal party have what it takes to break their losing streak? As trust in both our allies and our key trade partners has waned will our past inform our future?

Mark and Marija tease who we, as a nation, are becoming in the 21st century with the author of Three Shocks, George Megalogenis.

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

Hostile complexity Aug 25, 2026

Show notes

Why has David Farley's and Pauline Hanson's immigration number not matched up — and does it even matter to One Nation's supporters? What do focus groups really say when people explain why they're giving up on the major parties? If many disaffected voters want a left-wing agenda of "taking back what we own," why is it the populist right keeps cutting through?

RedBridge's Alex Fein joins Democracy Sausage to talk about the confusion at the heart of One Nation's immigration pitch, the voters who feel failed by the political class, and why the simplest story is winning.

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

Insiders and Outsiders Aug 18, 2026

Show notes

Twenty-five years ago, Insiders went to air for the first time – the morning after the Aston by-election, before smartphones, before social media, and long before anyone had to explain what a fax machine was. So how much of what's changed in Australian politics since has really been about the politicians, and how much about the technology reshaping how they communicate and how we watch? Is the feminisation of politics and the press gallery a quarter-century story, or something that's only really happened in the last five years? And now that everyone gets their news from a different, algorithmically sorted feed, is there still such a thing as a shared public – or a shared set of facts – for a democracy to argue over?

Historian Anna Clark, Professor of Public History at the University of Technology Sydney and author of Making Australian History, joins Democracy Sausage to mark Insiders' 25th anniversary and take the long view on how politics, the media and the public conversation between them have been transformed.

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