Marian Sawer
Marian Sawer is an emeritus professor of politics at the Australian National University and coeditor of the forthcoming Watershed: The 2022 Australian Federal Election (ANU Press, 2023).
Marian's recent articles
18 February 2023
The Liberal Party's extraordinary intervention in the 2022 election inquiry
The Liberal Party has made an extraordinary intervention into the parliamentary inquiry on the conduct of the 2022 Australian election.
10 January 2023
How to win back women: The Liberal Party review
The Liberal Party Review has once again recommended a 50 per cent target for women but the apparent belief that this will win back electoral support from women is misplaced.
13 November 2022
Behind closed doors: deciding which parliamentarians get what
How many staff should parliamentarians have? It depends whether they hold the balance of power.
25 June 2022
Stepping back already from the integrity election?
Labor won government promising more accountability, so why disempower the crossbench?
9 February 2022
Restore trust by letting the voters see who is paying the piper, in real time
In 2019 a billionaire spent $83.6 million to influence a federal election. Why in 2022 is our democracy still for sale?
9 November 2021
Understanding corruption: there's no need to get personal
Politicians have kept their ethical rulebook as vague as possible. All the better to deflect critics of their blatant vote-buying.
17 December 2020
The 2019 Federal Election: was there a level playing field?
The multifarious attempts at voter suppression in the 2020 US presidential election might prompt Australians to be grateful for the quality of our electoral administration. Uniquely, Australia has had since the 19thcentury a tradition ofprofessional electoral administration, with administrators taking pride in an electoral roll as comprehensive and accurate as possible.
11 November 2020
Media moguls versus elites
Members of the Murdoch media have once again used the US election as an opportunity to pursue elites. Chris Kenny suggested in The Australian (5 November) that the election had been a win for the mainstream, against elites who treated the choices and preferences of the people with disdain. Who are these elites?