On this episode, referendums expert Matt Qvortrup and social researcher Nicholas Biddle join us to examine the Voice referendum result.  

How important was the lack of bipartisanship to the outcome of the referendum? Could the government have done more to convince opposition leader Peter Dutton to support the proposal? 

And is the emphatic ‘no’ vote a sign of the Liberals’ rising stock, or will elements of the campaign backfire on the party at the next election? On this episode of Democracy Sausage, leading referendums expert Professor Matt Qvortrup and head of the ANUpoll Professor Nicholas Biddle join Professor Mark Kenny and Dr Marija Taflaga to discuss what went wrong for the ‘yes’ campaign.

Matt Qvortrup is a Visiting Professor of Constitutional Law at the ANU College of Law and Chair of Political Science at Coventry University.

Nicholas Biddle is an Associate Director and Professor at the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods.

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 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 [email protected].

This podcast is produced by The Australian National University.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.