Journalist Lech Blaine joins us to talk Peter Dutton’s Coalition, moving working class voters, and his new essay, Bad Cop.

How did Peter Dutton’s experiences growing up in Queensland influence his politics and conservatism? 

How successful will he be in his strategy to win outer-suburban and regional seats from Labor? 

And does he have the political judgement needed to pull the strategy off? 

On this episode of Democracy Sausage, recorded live, journalist Lech Blaine discusses what makes Peter Dutton and his new Quarterly Essay Bad Cop: Peter Dutton’s Strongman Politics

This episode was recorded as part of the ANU/Canberra Times Meet the Author series

Lech Blaine is an award-winning writer and journalist from Queensland. He was the 2023 Charles Perkins Centre writer in residence. His writing has appeared in Good Weekend, Griffith Review, The Guardian and The Monthly

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 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. 

Top image: Peter Dutton speaks in the House of Representatives at Parliament House in Canberra. Photo: Tracey Nearmy/ANU

You may also like

Article Card Image

Democracy Sausage: Countering effective mislabelling

Senator Larissa Waters joins Democracy Sausage to talk electoral reform, resisting the far right and the Greens’ ongoing negotiations.

Article Card Image

Democracy Sausage: Shrinking leaders and nations

Cultural studies professor Graeme Turner joins Mark and Marija to compare election campaign expectations, media concerns, and ask whether Donald Trump’s return could affect Australian democracy.

Article Card Image

What the world can learn from South Korea’s struggle to defeat dictatorship

Declarations of martial law, attacks on the judiciary and a detained president – the political turmoil in South Korea has its roots in national particularities but also shows the growing influence of strongman politics.

Subscribe to ANU Reporter