Hung like a parliament

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 11:18:23 +1000

Two weeks after the election and we still don’t know who will be the next Prime Minister of Australia. We’ve had the Green’s Adam Bandt and independent Andrew Wilkie side with Labor, giving them a 74-73 lead in the race for power. However there are three independents left to make up their minds. So what happens if they split and we end up with 75-75?

I can see a few things that could happen. The first thing that happens in a new parliament is that the speaker is elected. The independents would have agreed to vote with the government on supply and confidence votes, but they could still go against them when voting for the speaker. If a speaker is elected, then the side where the speaker comes from will be down one person, as the speaker only votes in the case of a tie. If there is a tie when voting for the speaker, there is no casting vote so they would have to try another candidate. This is the point that we may find that no speaker can be elected, and therefore parliament is borked and new elections required.

Election 2010: Be Informed – know how preferences work

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 13:49:37 +1000

I am so sick and tired of hearing stuff like “If you vote for <insert party here> they are giving their preferences to <insert major party here>. So that’s a vote for <prime ministerial candidate here>!” I’m not sure if I can make this any clearer, but:

NO IT ’S NOT

Let’s cover voting basics. In the House of Representatives, you number each box from 1 to n, where n is the number of candidates on the ballot.

Election on Nick Perkins Archive

Hung like a parliament

Election 2010: Be Informed – know how preferences work