Tributes have flown in – from the likes of actor Russell Crowe and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese – for John Laws, the polarising broadcaster who died over the weekend at 90.

But, it has to be asked: why are we still talking about him, decades after his peak, when he played a key role in helping prime ministers either nab, or keep their hold on power?

Today, Dr Denis Muller, a former journalist and media ethicist from the University of Melbourne, on the mixed legacy of the so-called “voice of the people”.