Former federal politician, Jason Falinski joins Democracy Sausage to discuss the fractures within conservative politics, the challenges of opposition and the opportunity for Sussan Ley, and the Liberal Party in the wake of the dissolution.

What were the structural factors in the split of the coalition? How did the culture wars and deindustrialisation change the conservative base? Can the liberals regroup to become an effective opposition?

Jason Falinski is a former Australian politician. First elected as the Federal member for Mackellar for the Liberal Party in the Australian House of Representatives at the 2016 election, re-elected in 2019 and ousted at the 2022 election byIndependent, Sophie Scamps.

Dr 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 the Director of the Australian Studies Institute. He came to the Australian National University after a high-profile journalistic career culminating in 6 years as chief political correspondent and national affairs editor of 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.

This podcast is produced by The Australian National University.

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