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Democracy Sausage with Mark Kenny

Mark Kenny takes a weekly look at politics and public affairs with expert analysis and discussion from researchers at The Australian National University and beyond.

Mark Kenny takes a weekly look at politics and public affairs with expert analysis and discussion from researchers at The Australian National University and beyond.
Latest Episode3/18/2023

AUKUS and the US alliance with Hugh White

Strategic studies expert Hugh White argues that the AUKUS submarines arrangement is a deeply flawed deal that ties Australia to the United States in the event of a major armed conflict in Asia.Are nuclear-powered submarines the most cost-effective and strategically sound option for Australia? Is Australia paying for the Virginia-class submarines with a portion of its sovereignty as well as a very large sum of money? And is the Australian government basing its decision-making on flawed assumptions about the United States’ ongoing pre-eminence in Asia? On this episode of Democracy Sausage, Emeritus Professor Hugh White from The Australian National University (ANU) discusses the AUKUS deal with Professor Mark Kenny.Hugh White is an Emeritus Professor of Strategic Studies at ANU College of Asia and the Pacific.Mark Kenny is a Professor at 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 Acast, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, 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.
3/18/2023

AUKUS and the US alliance with Hugh White

Strategic studies expert Hugh White argues that the AUKUS submarines arrangement is a deeply flawed deal that ties Australia to the United States in the event of a major armed conflict in Asia.Are nuclear-powered submarines the most cost-effective and strategically sound option for Australia? Is Australia paying for the Virginia-class submarines with a portion of its sovereignty as well as a very large sum of money? And is the Australian government basing its decision-making on flawed assumptions about the United States’ ongoing pre-eminence in Asia? On this episode of Democracy Sausage, Emeritus Professor Hugh White from The Australian National University (ANU) discusses the AUKUS deal with Professor Mark Kenny.Hugh White is an Emeritus Professor of Strategic Studies at ANU College of Asia and the Pacific.Mark Kenny is a Professor at 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 Acast, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, 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.
3/14/2023

Robodebt and Australia’s ‘rotten’ public service

Senior Reporter for The Saturday Paper Rick Morton joins the show to discuss what the Robodebt royal commission hearings uncovered and the dire state of Australia’s policymaking apparatus.How was the Robodebt scheme, which illegally and inaccurately used income averaging to calculate welfare debt, allowed to become policy and wreak havoc on some of Australia’s most vulnerable citizens? What did the royal commission hearings, which concluded just last week, reveal about the culture of the Australian public service and its relationship with the former government? And what needs to change so that a policy failure of this magnitude doesn’t happen again? On this episode of Democracy Sausage, Senior Reporter for The Saturday Paper Rick Morton joins Professor Mark Kenny and Dr Marija Taflaga to discuss the Robodebt royal commission.Rick Morton is a Senior Reporter for The Saturday Paper and author ‘Robodebt and the empathy bypass’, a new essay in The Monthly about the Robodebt scandal.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 a Professor at 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.If you or anyone you know needs help, you can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or via http://www.lifeline.org.au/ or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 46 36 or via https://www.beyondblue.org.au/.Democracy Sausage with Mark Kenny is available on Acast, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, 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.
3/7/2023

One rule for some

Historian Frank Bongiorno joins us to discuss superannuation reforms, Robodebt and the state of policy debate in Australian politics on this episode of Democracy Sausage.Why has the backlash to the government’s superannuation changes been so fervent, despite an overwhelming majority of Australians supporting the move? What did the illegal Robodebt scheme reveal about the exercise of power in Australian politics and society? And what lessons can the Prime Minister and his cabinet learn from past governments if it wants to have a serious, effective conversation about economic reform? On this episode of Democracy Sausage, The Australian National University’s Professor Frank Bongiorno, Dr Marija Taflaga and Professor Mark Kenny discuss policymaking and reform in a febrile - even hostile - media environment.Frank Bongiorno AM is an Australian labour, political and cultural historian and Professor of History at The Australian National University (ANU).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 a Professor at 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 Acast, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, 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.
2/28/2023

Democracy under attack (in 280 characters or less)

Social media expert Jennifer Stromer-Galley joins us to discuss social media, echo chambers and the erosion of democratic institutions on this episode of Democracy Sausage.Effective policymaking depends on people coming together to find common ground, but is that still possible in the increasingly caustic political atmosphere in the United States? What role has social media - particularly Twitter - played in undermining democratic institutions? And what, if anything, can be done to reverse these worrying trends? On this episode of Democracy Sausage, Dr Jennifer Stromer-Galley, from Syracuse University in the United States, joins Dr Marija Taflaga and Professor Mark Kenny to discuss the search for common ground in politics in the age of social media.Jennifer Stromer-Galley is a social media expert, author of Presidential Campaigning in the Internet Age and Professor in the School of Information Studies at Syracuse 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 a Professor at 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 Acast, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.This podcast is produced by The Australian National University.