The Senate: Western Australia

Published by William Bowe at 5:11 pm under Federal Election 2007

Western Australia has produced variations on the same result since the first six-seat half-Senate election in 1990: three seats for the Liberals, two for Labor, plus one for a minor party. That party was the Greens in 1990, 1993 and 2004, with the election of Jo Vallentine, Dee Margetts and Rachel Siewert respectively. The Democrats won the seat in 1996 and 2001, when Andrew Murray was elected and re-elected, and in 1998, when Brian Greig was elected.

Full post at The Poll Bludger

The Senate: Queensland

Published by William Bowe at 5:28 am under Federal Election 2007

With two remarkable exceptions, Queensland has produced the same result at each half-Senate election since the first for six seats in 1990: two Labor, two Liberal, one Nationals and one Democrat. The first exception was in 1998, when One Nation overcame the punitive preference treatment that has thwarted them every other time by scoring a quota off their own bat. The winning candidate was Heather Hill, then a close confidante of Pauline Hanson, who foolishly sought re-election in the lower house rather than take the Senate seat herself.

Full post at The Pollbludger

The Senate: Victoria

Published by William Bowe at 8:54 pm under Federal Election 2007, General

Welcome to part two in a behind-schedule seven-part series on the various Senate contests.

Along with Western Australia and South Australia, Victoria is one of three states where the Coalition has never failed to win three Senate seats since six-seat half-Senate elections began in 1990.

Full post at The Poll Bludger

Save our Senate

The Save our Senate ad that GetUp have produced (and was discussed in the email from them) has been up on YouTube for a while now. Given that we may not really see it on TV, I thought I'd put it up here.



This actually ties in nicely with something I want to post about anyway.

I finished reading Still Not Happy John during the week. I'll post more on it later, but there is something that was in the book that I think people need to be aware of.

As you know, Howard currently has control of the Senate. The election gives you the power to change this. You can ensure that Howard loses control of the Senate. The Senate that voted in WorkChoices. The Senate that has slowly had its accountability eroded by the current government.

Canberra in particular, we're looking at you. Why? Well, let's let Margo explain:

...you have the ability to empower the Senate on your own. You'd have to do something amazing, but it can be done. The ACT elects two senators who, unlike senators representing the states, take their seats immediately, not on 1 July next year. Labor always gets one ACT senator; the Libs the other. But if 9,000 Liberal voters transfer their Senate vote to the Greens or Labor, Howard's Senate control is over.

Margo Kingston, Still Not Happy John, p 438

How many people are aware of that? Not too many, I'm willing to bet.

Something I found out about from TAMS about a month or so ago (and I'm still not sure why I didn't already know), the NSW seat of Eden-Monaro is considered to be the bellwether seat* of the election. For the past 30-odd years, whoever wins Eden-Monaro, generally wins the government. Interesting, huh?

What is also very interesting is that Labor is running Mike Kelly as the candidate in the seat. Mike Kelly is the Colonel who assisted in exposing the corruption that formed the AWB scandal.

Very interesting indeed.

UPDATE: Peter Martin writes about the possibility of the government losing the Senate seat.


*The Poll Bludger did a post about the seat back in June. I swear I found the post after I wrote that it was a bellwether seat (as it is also described by William). It is, after all, the perfect word to describe it.

The Senate: New South Wales

Published by William Bowe at 2:43 am under Federal Election 2007

Welcome to the first in a seven-part series in which each state’s Senate contest will go under the microscope in turn, with a bonus post at the end to cover the territories. As we will proceed in descending order of population, the series begins with New South Wales.

Full post at The Poll Bludger

Deal between Greens and Dems good for Queensland

I was glad to hear that the Democrats in Queensland, represented by Senator Andrew Bartlett, and the Greens, have done a preference deal for the senate at the upcoming federal election. Queensland is a traditionally backward state, electing more than their fair share of redneck 'conservative' senators. Which is why it's been such rich pickings for Pauline Hanson.

Even though the Liberals and Nationals are running on a joint ticket (with the Liberals first on the ticket, of course), Nationals leader Mark Vaile denies that this will put current National Party fatcat senator Ron Boswell at risk of losing his seat. Knowing Queensland, Vaile is right, but we can dream...