Data-driven fieldwork is rapidly emerging as a significant form of election campaigning in Australia. The recent double dissolution campaign set a new high water mark, with no fewer than six separate fieldwork campaigns… Continue reading
Prior to the 2016 federal election held on 2 July, the Coalition demonstrated a rare degree of collaboration with the Greens and passed changes to reform the electoral process for the Senate. This… Continue reading
At the moment I am revising my chapter on Qualitative Methods for the fourth edition of the text-book Theory and Methods in Political Science. Today I was also invited to referee a paper… Continue reading
At the 2016 Federal election One Nation experienced a political resurrection of the first order with the election of four of its candidates to the Australian Senate – including Hanson herself. In Tasmania,… Continue reading
Non-party interventions can inform or influence the outcome of court cases. For example, in the Tasmanian Dams Case, the High Court permitted the Tasmanian Wilderness Society to make representations about the probable destruction… Continue reading
Perhaps there is no term more misused and abused in Australian politics than ‘mandate’. When in government both the Coalition and the Labor Party insist that they have a mandate ‘from the people’,… Continue reading
About two years ago the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House surveyed the Australian cultural landscape – in terms of things prime ministerial – and started thinking about what we could… Continue reading
Thirteen months ago I forecast that ‘Cameron returns now to 10 Downing Street for a maximum stay of three years, but it will be a rocky road ahead’. His reduction to another failed UK premier… Continue reading
The Five Star Movement (M5S) obtained two major victories in the second round of municipal elections on 19 June 2016 in Rome and Turin. Rome attracted the most international attention but it is… Continue reading
At the 2013 election, many Australians expressed their concern with the chaos that surrounded the Labor minority governments of Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd. They gave their support to Abbott as a Prime… Continue reading
