Mark Kenny's Canberra, Syrians return home and Lord Howe Island cockroaches

Mark Kenny's Canberra, Syrians return home and Lord Howe Island cockroaches

June 1, 2026 · 55 min

About this episode

The episode discusses political polling in Australia, the return of Syrians to a war-torn homeland, and the ecological recovery of Lord Howe Island.

A new poll published in the Australian Financial Review has Pauline Hanson's One Nation ahead of Labor and the Coalition on primary vote, and Mark Kenny says political parties can't agree on how to respond. Meanwhile the government is bogged down in budget backlash. Millions of Syrians forced to flee the brutal Assad regime are now returning home, but with much of Syria destroyed what’s left to return to? Plus insect life on Lord Howe Island has significantly increased since the eradication of invasive rodents in 2019. Guests: Prof. Mark Kenny, Director of the Australian Studies Institute, host of Democracy Sausage podcast Kholoud Helmi, Syrian journalist and Managing Director of Enab Baladi news publications’s Daraya edition Maxim Adams, PhD candidate at the University of Sydney, co-lead in a new study with the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, published in Biological Invasions

People in this episode

Guests: Mark Kenny, Kholoud Helmi, Maxim Adams

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Australian Financial Review, Enab Baladi, University of Sydney, NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Labor, Coalition

Places: Lord Howe Island, Syria

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