The Tally Room

The issue of political donations and electoral funding has come to the fore again this week, with Queensland Premier Anna Bligh calling for a ban on political donations in the wake of criticisms of her government from anti-corruption figure Tony Fitzgerald. A call was similarly...

This morning, The Australian reported that the Labor Party is considering introducing non-compulsory voting for 16-year-olds as part of its second white paper. I think it's a great idea to allow 16 and 17 year olds to vote. We should, as a society, allow as...

So I'm still working on my UK House of Commons map, and I've reached the Scottish border! As the map below shows, I have now completed 7 of the 9 regions of England, after just finishing North West. I only have yet to do...

The Australian Electoral Commission has announced the draft boundaries for Queensland's federal redistribution, which will see the state gain a thirtieth seat. The AEC has proposed the creation of a seat using the name of 'Wright' in the rural hinterland south of Brisbane and...

A friend of mine who is a former Democrats member has forwarded to me this email sent out to former Democrats members as part of their "rebuilding" effort. I post it below the fold without comment: Dear , As a former member of the Australian Democrats,...

Imre Saluzinsky, the Australian's NSW politics reporter, wrote in today's Australian about the Mayor of Leichhardt, Jamie Parker, and his prospective candidacy for the state seat of Balmain for the Greens. Most of the article is fairly reasonable analysis of the Balmain race and...

Bizzarely, a regional Labor MP in the WA Parliament, Vince Catania, last night resigned from the Labor Party in order to join the WA Nationals, who are in a governing coalition with the Liberal Party. Catania is a young MP who was first elected...

I know, I know. I'd forgotten there was any Democrats MPs left too, but David Winderlich is the sole remaining Democrat MP, holding a seat in South Australia's Legislative Council after taking over from Sandra Kanck last November. The party appears to be effectively dead,...

South Australia's Premier, Mike Rann, yesterday announced the details of a referendum to be held alongside next March's state election, which, if passed, would see the number of seats in the Legislative Council cut from 22 to 16, with all MLCs elected for a...

At the bottom of each post and page on my blog I have now replaced my Google ads with an ad from Amazon.com. If anyone is planning to buy any books through Amazon, you might consider clicking through from those ads. If you buy...