Economist Richard Denniss joins Democracy Sausage and argues policies suffer because of our need to find the centre in any debate.

What does pragmatism really mean for Australian politics? How do attempts at unity constrain political debate? And how do evidence, position and politics interact in policymaking?

On this episode of Democracy Sausage, Dr Richard Denniss and Professor Mark Kenny talk about the reality of pragmatic politics.

Richard Denniss is an economist and the Executive Director of the Australia Institute. He is also the author of Dead Centre: How political pragmatism is killing us.

Mark Kenny is the Director of 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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