Democracy Sausage: The power of persistence

In this special episode recorded at University House, Mark sits down with Australian human rights lawyer, barrister and ANU Alumna, Jennifer Robinson. The conversation was recorded ahead of her Sydney Peace Prize award.

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?

Jennifer Robinson is an Australian human rights lawyer and barrister with Doughty Street Chambers in London. Robinson is best known for her role as a long-standing member of the legal team defending Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. She is also known for representing Amber Heard during the defamation proceedings brought by Heard’s ex-husband Johnny Depp against The Sun newspaper in the UK. She has also provided legal assistance to activists from West Papua.

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 YouTube, 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 on the lands of the Ngunnawal, Ngambri and the Ngarigu peoples.