So … Who did put Family First?
Political conservative Bob Day resigned from the Australian Senate late in 2016, but the intriguing history of his encounters with the electoral system have left a legacy of voting system issues … Continue reading
Western Australian election shows weaknesses of Australian electoral laws
Counting has finished in the state election for Western Australia. The result is a pair of only partially satisfactory democratic assemblies. Western Australia has a fairly standard form of Australian … Continue reading
Removal from elected office takes out innocent colleague
A Melbourne City Councilor, one of nine originally elected in last year’s election under the single transferable vote system (STV), has been removed from office after a technical – and … Continue reading
Australian electoral review baulks at clean foreign donations reform
The Australian Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters today released another part of its report on the conduct of the 2016 election. The multi-partisan panel, formed after every election … Continue reading
Struggle over Melbourne City election countback
A complex legal dispute is underway about the proper manner to replace a Melbourne City Councillor, initially declared to be elected in 2016 but later to discovered to be ineligible to run. The … Continue reading
Unfair voting system in Australia’s West
Voters in the Australian state of Western Australia are about to elect a Legislative Council using a built-in mechanism to bias the election in favour of non-urban voters. Voters go … Continue reading
So ends this Day – Australian Senator resigns amid eligibility doubts
The election of a Senator for South Australia in July is descending into a legal fiasco. A few weeks ago Senator Bob Day, the only federal parliamentary representative from the conservative … Continue reading
Herbert to take its place among historic cliffhanger results
Australia’s House of Representatives has not seen a member elected at a general election with a single-digit vote lead in nearly a century. But voters in the division of Herbert … Continue reading
Leaders are made, not born
The leadership of political parties is vigorously contested in all democratic nations. Party leadership processes are – or recently have been – underway in the United States, Britain and Canada, … Continue reading
Australian Government’s uneasy club of marginal House backbenchers
As if the Turnbull government’s upcoming troubles with the newly elected Australian Senate were not enough to worry about, their own House of Representatives backbench will present even more anxieties … Continue reading
On Elections 