Dr Linda Botterill

Dr Botterill FASSA is a political scientist working in the areas of Australian politics and public policy theory. The main focus of her work is the role of values in politics and policy, and she has particular expertise in Australian rural policy. She has published nearly 70 scholarly articles and book chapters, four co-edited books, and 2 monographs.

Key publications include Interrogating Public Policy Theory: A Political Values Perspective (2019, Edward Elgar – with Alan Fenna); Wheat Marketing in Transition: The Transformation of the Australian Wheat Board (2012, Springer); The National Party: Prospects for the Great Survivors (2009, Allen & Unwin – edited with Geoff Cockfield); and articles in a range of Australian and international journals covering public policy and political science. Her latest book Juggling Values and Talking Politics: A values-persuasive perspective on democracy will be published by Edward Elgar Publishing in April 2026. She is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Australian Journal of Politics and History.

Prior to commencing her academic career, Dr Botterill worked as a policy practitioner – including over a decade in the APS, as an adviser to two Ministers for Primary Industries and Energy in the Keating government, and as senior policy adviser in two industry associations. She was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia in 2015.