Former Member for North Sydney Trent Zimmerman discusses the demographic challenges the Liberal Party faces and how it can engage younger voters.

With younger Australians now less likely to become politically conservative as they age, can the Liberal Party connect with this changing electorate?

Can the remaining moderate members of the Liberal party room effectively influence its direction and reorient it towards the political centre ground?

And will the party’s leadership address the “number one concern” of voters in inner city electorates like North Sydney – climate change?

On this episode of Democracy Sausage, leading Liberal moderate and former Member for North Sydney Trent Zimmerman joins Professor Mark Kenny and Dr Marija Taflaga to discuss the party’s direction after the 2022 federal election.

Trent Zimmerman is a former federal Liberal Member for North Sydney.

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.

You may also like

Article Card Image

Democracy Sausage: What now for the Liberal Party?

Kos Samaras joins Mark Kenny and Marija Taflaga to discuss how the Australian electorate is changing and the Liberal Party’s declining fortunes at the ballot box.

Article Card Image

Democracy Sausage: Nuclear subs and the Aston fallout with Rex Patrick

Former Senator Rex Patrick joins Democracy Sausage this week to discuss the Australian government’s “mind-blowingly absurd” AUKUS decision-making.

Article Card Image

Democracy Sausage: Crossbench compromise and ending the climate wars

We discuss negotiations between the government and the Greens over the ‘safeguard mechanism’ and the findings of the recent IPCC report with experts Mark Howden and Arnagretta Hunter.

Subscribe to ANU Reporter