The History of Democracy Sausages

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Can you hear that? That's the sound of democracy sausages
sizzling away on the barbie. It's the soundtrack to voting
day in Australia, or at least these days it is.
But have we always had snags around when heading to
the polls on elections and referendums?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Let's find out well, actually selling items at polling places.
We have evidence of that happening back as far as
nineteen twenty eight, so almost one hundred years ago.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
That's Kate Armstrong. She's the manager of Interpretation and Content
Development at the Museum of Australian Democracy, located at Old
Parliament House.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
The idea of people all turning up to vote in
a particular place at a particular time was seized on
by people who were wanting to sell cakes and preserves
and crafts and things like that. It was a really
good fundraising option for community groups. It isn't really until
the nineteen eighties that what we would refer to in

(01:01):
Australia as a sausage sizzle started to turn up at
polling places. And the reason it began in the nineteen
eighties was because that was the time portable gas barbecues
became a thing.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
But what about the name. The term democracy sausage is
almost just as icotic as the very presence of the
barbecue on the day.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
And the past we might have just referred to that
as the sausage sizzle. But in twenty ten, a group
of people in Brisbane wanted to map, using new social
media tools, the different community fundraising options in that area,
and they actually set up a website called snag Votes
and that was a way to identify all the places

(01:43):
that had a sausage sizzle and actually ask people to
sort of rate the quality of the sausage sizzle. So
that was in twenty ten. Interestingly, by two thousand and sixteen,
so just six years later, the term democracy sausage actually
entered the lexicon officially when it was the Australian National

(02:04):
Dictionary Center, which is based at the ANU, decided that
it would be the word of the year.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
Just as voting day traditions have evolved over the past century,
we too can expect the very idea of a democracy
sausage to change into the future.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
So with things like halal sausages, vegan sausages, gourmet sausages,
other toppings and things like that. The other nice thing
that's been happening lately. I noticed in a twenty sixteen
election cake store that those people were selling Malcolm Turnovers,
built shortbreads and Jackie Lambington's. So we can always rely

(02:41):
on the Australian people to poke a little bit of
fun at their politicians and adjust the election day fair
to suit.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
I'm Lewis hask you reporting for amplifying news and to
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