--- Take a trip around Australia with , streaming free from Tuesday 8 August on . Catch the series on SBS Food at 8pm Tuesdays and Thursdays 8.30pm on SBS. ---
Many Australians thrive on our right to vote and eat a ‘democracy sausage'.
Whether you have it on white or multigrain bread, make it plant-based, top it with onions or smother it with tomato sauce, enjoying a sausage sanga on the day you vote is just the Aussie way.
Over the years, the democracy sausage has become such a food icon in Australia that it's in the running to be deemed our 'national dish', according to the new SBS series, .
“From the ballot box to a local fundraiser, Aussies love a sausage on bread,” says Adam Liaw, co-host of the SBS series. “But in recent times, the ritual of a democracy sausage on Election Day has become something distinctly Australian.”
The democracy sausage is a beloved dish, cherished by Australians because it’s an accessible meal that’s descended from the tradition of fundraising stalls and backyard barbies.
Even our national leader agrees. makes a cameo on the last episode of the SBS series to talk about national dishes and show his support for the humble sausage sizzle.
“There’s something that's inclusive [about a sausage sizzle],” the Prime Minister tells viewers. “I think it's about the context as well. Whether it’s about kid’s sport, the P&C (parents and citizens association), school fetes or the Election Day as well, it's something that's pretty easy. Everyone can do it.”
A new democratic food tradition
Even though the practice of eating a democracy sausage is now embedded in our social, political and food culture, the tradition is relatively new.
According to historian , polling stations of the 1930s always featured a fundraising cake stall, run by a community organisation. ausages didn’t start appearing at polling stations until the early 1980s when portable barbecue grills became popular, writes in .
It took another three decades for the term 'democracy sausage' to become a thing. Kate Armstrong from the use tells SBS democracy sausages took off in 2010 with a website called
“Now, as you'll be aware, snag is Australian slang for sausage and what they were doing was listing and mapping all the places, all the polling places for the federal election that had a sausage sizzle,” says Armstrong on .
“So you could actually choose to combine your compulsory voting day with a sausage sizzle, and you could be assured that you were going to get both parts of what was to become an Australian tradition.”
Within two years, the social media tag #democracysausage was trending and people were posting sausage selfies on election days.
The democracy sausage soon became such a symbolic meal that, in the 24 hours leading up to the July 2016 federal election, used an emoji of a sausage on white bread topped with sauce for #ausvotes.
During that election, the that just under one-third of the 1,992 polling booths across Australia had a sausage stand.
In December 2016, the selected ‘democracy sausage’ to be its Australian Word of the Year.
Australia is one of a handful of countries across the world where voting is compulsory. So if you’ve got to spend your Saturday voting, you may as well enjoy the process and eat a good barbecued snag.
