Politics with Michelle Grattan Nick Xenophon on launching a political party
At the start of a frenetic year for independent Nick Xenophon, the South Australian senator tells Michelle Grattan his new national political party, the Nick Xenophon Team (NXT), will fill a vacuum.
“People want a genuine choice from the political centre. I think they’re sick of the left and right skirmishes we see in politics - the red team, blue team approach where even if one side acknowledges that the other side has a good idea, it needs to tear it down,” he says.
Xenophon talks about the preselection process for his candidates, the difficulty of operating on a “dental floss budget”, and his views on how to create a fairer senate voting system.
Mentioned in this episode:
Your support matters
Support non-profit journalism you can trust.
The Making of an Autocrat
Search: "The Conversation Weekly" for our new series. Is America watching its democracy unravel in real time? In The Making of an Autocrat from The Conversation, six of the world’s pre-eminant scholars reveal the recipe for authoritarian rule. From capturing a party, to controlling the military, Donald Trump is borrowing from the playbook of strongmen thoughout history. This is the story of how democracies falter — and what might happen next.