The Tally Room

After today's announcement of the draft boundaries for New South Wales' federal redistribution, I thought I would summarise the consequences of the election. It appears that this result has clearly benefited the ALP in its attempts to increase the size of the majority, although, as...

The draft federal redistribution boundaries for NSW will be announced this morning. Unfortunately I'll be in work and won't be able to break the story (although generally it's best to wait until Antony Green crunches the numbers). I will hopefully be able to post...

Just to follow up on today's story, Northern Territory Labor defector Alison Anderson has announced she will become an independent and support a new Country Liberal government. This will be the first mid-term change of government, that I can think of, since John Curtin...

Two separate stories have emerged in the last few days of governments that could lose their majority with the resignations of their own party's parliamentarians. In the Northern Territory, Labor MP Alison Anderson has resigned from the party, and is yet to make clear which...

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...