Democracy Sausage with Mark Kenny: The gallery view with Phil Coorey and David Crowe

Abstract

The coronavirus crisis is posing new questions and serious challenges to Australia’s political leaders. And those leaders are responding assertively – closing borders, slowing the economy, and working hard to keep infection numbers down. But are they making the right choices? On this Democracy Sausage Extra Mark Kenny talks with the insiders who ask the tough questions of those leaders every day – press gallery veterans David Crowe and Phil Coorey. Initial political optimism from an early Federal Government response and subsequent low infection numbers has now given way to fear, with Australia’s internal borders closed, and soul searching and inquiries about community protection and service provision. So what does this unprecedented political time look like to the insiders – the people who report from Canberra’s press gallery? Joining Professor Mark Kenny are Phil Coorey of the Australian Financial Review and David Crowe of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. The panel discuss the questions the pandemic raises about Australia’s federated system, why every leader gets judged on the numbers, whether Australia’s good performance through the Global Financial Crisis encouraged complacency about the impacts of COVID-19, and the ‘bad men’ in charge of the world. Show more