Last night’s Labor preselection for Bob Carr’s seat of Maroubra produced a surprise result, with Randwick councillor Michael Daley defeating Penny Wright 140 votes to 110. It is not clear if Wright’s 110 votes include her affirmative action weighting – if not, the margin would have been a narrow 140 to 132. Most reports suggested [...]
Reflections on the Miracle of Democracy at Work in the Greatest Nation on Earth
Monthly Archives: August 2005
Our friends across the Tasman
Sunday, August 28, 2005 – 12:00 pm
Only three more shopping weeks to go until the September 17 New Zealand election, the fourth to be held under the country’s clunky Mixed-Member Proportional system. Voters get to choose both a favoured party and a representative for their local constituency, of which there are 69 including the seven Maori electorates. To these are added [...]
The by-election gazette #5
Friday, August 26, 2005 – 3:28 pm
In New South Wales, the Iemma Government has used the opportunity of Labor’s defeats in Queensland to talk up the swings they will suffer at the triple-M by-elections, now set for September 17 (the same day as the New Zealand election). State secretary Mark Arbib added substance to the argument by telling the Sydney Morning [...]
Questions and answers
Wednesday, August 24, 2005 – 3:27 pm
Hurry everybody, download this before they realise what they’ve done. It’s a 21 page report from ACNielsen that features raw figures from their last two New Zealand polls, covering seven questions (voting intention and preferred prime minister, plus five election issues) broken down by gender, age, "region" (north, central and south), "area type" (metro, provincial, [...]
Queensland by-elections live
Saturday, August 20, 2005 – 6:00 pm
In conclusion then, the Poll Bludger’s reputation as a person who gets things right sometimes has taken a hit with what would appear to be dual victories for the Liberals in today’s Queensland by-elections. My defence is that the margin in each case looks to be below 2 per cent, which I have always used [...]
Numbers crunched
Saturday, August 20, 2005 – 12:00 pm
Ignore me. Former Labor Senator John Black’s number crunching in yesterday’s (print only) Courier Mail is far beyond my powers of sophistication, being based on modelling from marketing company Australian Development Strategies. Apologies to Black for the following acts of larceny, and also for the removal of his Monty Python references. Let’s start with his [...]
The by-election gazette #4
Thursday, August 18, 2005 – 3:18 pm
Queensland Labor’s deadline for state election preselection nominations closed this week, requiring MPs to lay their cards on the table with respect to their plans for next term. The harvest of retirees (Nita Cunningham in Bundaberg, Terry Sullivan in Stafford, Jim Fouras in Ashgrove and Lesley Clark in Barron River) would not normally have been [...]
The by-election gazette #3
Monday, August 15, 2005 – 3:17 pm
With campaigning for the two Queensland by-elections entering the final week, it’s high time they were promoted up the By-Election Gazette’s batting order.
Redcliffe (Queensland, Labor 7.1%): The Courier Mail reported on Saturday that both major parties believe Labor has the edge in Redcliffe but is "struggling" in Chatsworth, in contrast to impressions at the start [...]
The by-election gazette #2
Wednesday, August 10, 2005 – 3:16 pm
For background on the New South Wales by-elections, Antony Green’s assessment in Crikey cannot be recommended highly enough. The foreground looks as follows:
Marrickville (NSW, Labor 10.7% vs Greens): After earlier ruling out a switch to the lower house when she failed to win her own faction’s support for the deputy premiership, Carmel Tebbutt has been [...]
The by-election gazette #1
Thursday, August 4, 2005 – 3:15 pm
The previous post on the New South Wales by-elections (for which no date has been set, but they are expected for early September) ended with a promise that the follow-up would focus on the two to be held in Queensland on August 20. It also said that there might yet be more by-elections to come [...]
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