Any additional recommendations about Australian politics?
If I only have time to read one book about the Australian political system, which book should it be?
Cargill has been educating me about Australian politics, in the comments of a previous post. They write:
Here in Australia (a) we have compulsory voting for both national and state elections, and (b) we have Preferential (Ranked Choice) Voting, so even though my preferred party never wins a majority, my second preference goes to assist the most similar centre-left party, and they often win this electorate (district). So elections remain "interesting", even if your favourite isn't going to win it.
We also have a strictly independent set of electoral commissions (both national and per state), and jerrymandering is therefore much reduced. Of course there are some electorates that have been in the hands of the same party since they were created, but that is a result of the demographics (in simple terms - rich, working class, or rural); about half the electorates are "safe seats", and about a quarter are marginal or swing seats.
However, if Party A wins 54% of the votes cast nationally, they will in general have a majority pretty similar to that (so in the House, say 80 seats out of 150) - the composition of the House broadly reflects the vote, once the preferences in each vote cast have been distributed.
The Senate is decided on state-wide proportional representation, so the six Senators elected each cycle will broadly represent voter intent, with the two major parties getting around two (sometimes three) Senators, and then there is a battle among minor parties and independents for the remaining one or two seats. So even if your House electorate is going to a party you don't support, a vote in the Senate is still a good reason to turn up.
I asked for a good book about the Australian political system but they couldn’t think of any. Does anyone know of such a book? Please post recommendations in the comments.
Cargill also had these recommendations for following the upcoming election:
I would certainly recommend the national (taxpayer-funded, non-partisan) broadcaster - link to their online page is here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/elections/federal-election-2022/
And outside elections, they have comprehensive news coverage. I like The Conversation (Australian) too.
And the ABC will have a good team on Election Night (from about 6:00 am ET Saturday). And when I say "non-partisan", they have to be objective and non-political (NPR style) but deep down you really know they want a change of government, along with many of us.
Please post further suggestions in the comments.
Here is a good overview of how Australian elections work:
https://theconversation.com/how-does-australias-voting-system-work-177737
Here is one interesting seat (Brisbane) that shows clearly how Preferential Voting (Ranked Choice or Instant Runoff) works in a real life example.
CANDIDATE (PARTY) VOTES PERCENT
EVANS, Trevor (MP) (Liberal National Party of Queensland) 33,400 38.35
JARRETT, Madonna (Australian Labor Party) 24,061 27.63
BATES, Stephen (Queensland Greens) 23,389 26.86
HOLD, Trevor (Pauline Hanson's One Nation) 1,780 2.04
KNUDSON, Justin (United Australia Party) 1,593 1.83
KENNEDY, Tiana (Animal Justice Party) 1,530 1.76
BULL, Anthony (Liberal Democrats) 1,333 1.53
Formal 87,086 98.14%
Informal 1,647 1.86%
Total 88,733 100.00%
The count is about 72% completed. And because the ALP (Jarrett) and Greens (Bates) more-or-less swap all preferences, one of these two must win the seat, and the sitting member (Evans) will lose. So the race is between the ALP and the Greens to NOT come third - you have to finish in the top two to get the preference flow you need. If you finish third you are eliminated (after all the minor parties are distributed), and your second preferences are then distributed (Greens to ALP, or vice versa, we'll see).
The votes of the (mostly) conservative minor parties will flow to the Liberal (Evans), but they won't help him anywhere near enough to prevent a decisive win by either the ALP or Greens.