The cop and the suburban strategy

Journalist Lech Blaine joins us to talk Peter Dutton’s Coalition, moving working class voters, and his new essay, Bad Cop.

How did Peter Dutton’s experiences growing up in Queensland influence his politics and his conservatism? How successful will he be in his strategy to win outer-suburban and regional seats from Labor? And does he have the political judgement needed to pull the strategy off? On this episode of Democracy Sausage, recorded live, journalist Lech Blaine discusses what makes Peter Dutton and his new Quarterly Essay Bad Cop: Peter Dutton's Strongman Politics.

This episode was recorded as part of the ANU/Canberra Times Meet the Author series.

Lech Blaine is an award-winning writer and journalist from Queensland. He was the 2023 Charles Perkins Centre writer in residence. His writing has appeared in Good Weekend, Griffith Review, The Guardian and The Monthly.

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 democracysausage@anu.edu.au.

This podcast is produced by The Australian National University.

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