This week on the Democracy Sausage podcast, Mark Kenny and Marija Taflaga chat to Stephanie Peatling, Patrick Dumont, and Bob McMullan about a campaign week featuring the Liberal launch and the race to the finish line.

If you start an election behind in the polls, will you finish behind? And does voter fatigue explain why so many Australians have already cast their votes in pre-polling? These are some of the questions tackled in this week’s episode of Mark Kenny’s Democracy Sausage. Mark and the panel – Stephanie Peatling, Patrick Dumont, Marija Taflaga, and Bob McMullan – also discuss just how much power independents and minor parties have, and the ANU Smartvote website.

Mark Kenny is a Senior Fellow in 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 a lecturer in the ANU School of Politics and International Relations. Her major research is on political parties and particularly the Liberal Party of Australia. She has previously worked in the Australian Parliamentary Press Gallery as a researcher at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

Stephanie Peatling is Deputy Federal Editor in Canberra for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

Patrick Dumont is a Professor of Political Science in the ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences. He is also the Principal Investigator on Smartvote Australia, a website that lets Australian voters compare their views with candidates and parties in the Federal Election.

Bob McMullan is a Visiting Fellow at Crawford School, following a long and distinguished career in the Australian Parliament as one of Australia’s pre-eminent Labor politicians, during which time he held a number of Ministerial and Shadow Ministerial positions across a broad range of portfolios.

Democracy Sausage with Mark Kenny is available on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We’d love to hear your feedback for this podcast series! Send in your questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes to podcast@policyforum.net. You can also Tweet us @APPSPolicyForum or join us on the Facebook group.

This podcast is part of Policy Forum’s Australian Election coverage, and published in partnership with The Australian National University.

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