Waleed Aly, Amy Remeikis, Greg Sheridan chaired by Hannah Ferguson. Why liberal democracy feels stuck.

Has Australian politics become theatre without consequences? Politicians no longer seem to ‘govern’ in any meaningful sense – they perform. Question Time is ritualised noise: scripted outrage, zero accountability, no real scrutiny. Policy reform has slowed into managed inertia, while national ambition quietly drains away.

Where did all the big ideas go?

For decades, liberal democracy promised prosperity, stability and progress. But as governments become increasingly focused on managing crises rather than shaping the future, politics feels less like a contest of ideas and more like an exercise in risk management. Australia is drifting rather than deciding.

That drift creates opportunities for those offering certainty, purpose and simple answers. If mainstream politics can no longer articulate a compelling vision of the future, is it any surprise that populism is filling the void? How did a nation once defined by bold reforms become so cautious, and what would it take to recover the ambition to govern?