Democracy Sausage with Mark Kenny

Can international law still work when powerful states ignore it? Are Australia's defamation laws silencing women who speak out about abuse? And what does it take to keep fighting a case everyone says is impossible?

On this episode of Democracy Sausage, recorded live at ANU, Sydney Peace Prize winner Jennifer Robinson joins Professor Mark Kenny. They talk about her path from a public high school on the NSW South Coast to Oxford and the international courts. They also cover the landmark climate advisory opinion at the International Court of Justice, the 14-year campaign to free Julian Assange, and her 25 years of advocacy for West Papua.
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Why has the Fraser government been so overlooked, by Labor and the Liberals alike? What did a government with progressive, conservative and reactionary wings get done in a time of global upheaval? Why does Malcolm Fraser's era sound so familiar in 2026?

On this episode of Democracy Sausage, Historian Dr Joshua Black joins Professor Mark Kenny and Dr Marija Taflaga to discuss his special issue of the Australian Journal of Politics and History on the Fraser years. They cover the dismissal and the question of legitimacy, Vietnamese refugees and multiculturalism, and the Liberal Party's uneasy relationship with its own past.
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Why are Australia's publicly funded universities some of the least accountable institutions in the country? What went wrong at the University of Wollongong, and what does it reveal about who really runs our universities? Has rudeness in public life been mistaken for authenticity?

On this episode of Democracy Sausage, NSW Labor MLC Dr Sarah Kaine joins Professor Mark Kenny and Dr Marija Taflaga to discuss her parliamentary inquiry into university governance, the loss of universities' public mission and social licence, and the growing abuse directed at politicians in the wake of the attack on Dr Helen Haines.
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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.
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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.
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