Posts tagged 'lindsay tanner'

(Click to watch video.)

Lindsay Tanner appeared at the Wheeler Centre last week, in conversation with George Megalogenis. The publication of Tanner’s book Sideshow: Dumbing Down Democracy has been extensively reported. Highlights of the media’s coverage have included an interview with Crikey, and several appearances on the ABC (Radio National, 7:30 and Q&A).

In some ways, coverage of the book penned by the former cabinet minister-turned-“private citizen” has served to illustrate Tanner’s point. Despite significant pressure brought to bear on him, Tanner has studiously avoided tipping the bucket on his former colleagues while painting a scathing portrait of the political-media landscape. Some have applauded Tanner’s position, while others have condemned or been puzzled by it. “The book’s account of our troubles is sound enough,” writes University of Canberra journalism academic Jason Wilson, “but there are significant weaknesses, especially in Tanner’s proposals for fixing it.”

Do you agree that democracy has been ‘dumbed down’? Is the media to blame? And what possible solutions are there on hand to improve policy debate in Australia?

Click to watch video.

Political journalist George Megalogenis thinks our politicians are in a “race to the bottom” as they become more dependent on polls and focus groups as the 24-hour news cycle makes them more vulnerable to the vagaries of public opinion. Former Labor member for Melbourne Lindsay Tanner engages Megalogenis on how politics is being played out today.

Megalogenis looks at how our politicians are now in “the business of winning” as the policy contest has become a dull draw. “The thing now with all this noise around is who can think their way through a campaign period and actually govern with some authority?” Megalogenis asks. He believes reform has all but disappeared from the political agenda since the turn of the millennium, while Tanner sees a great Australian complacency in politics.