Ben's doing some fascinating work on parliament expansion and this one makes a key point. The 1948 expansion was a big moment for the urbanisation of Australian politics, but that's done. Now it's a way to get more compact country seats without malapportionment.

My keynote, from the just-finished Labour History conference 'The Spirit of 1975' at Melbourne Trades Hall, part of the Congress of HASS. The Dismissal from below, on Inside Story inside.org.au/the-dismissa...

We covered a lot in this one. Population movements, country v city, marginal seat campaigns, and the extremely cooked old Senate system.

Today's blog post looks at the first time the federal parliament was expanded in 1948 - how the pendulum looked before and after the change, and where the marginal seats were located #auspol www.tallyroom.com.au/63613

Today's blog post is again about the 1984 election - how many MPs jumped ship to safer seats? And how different was the swing in seats with sitting Labor MPs or without any sitting MP? #auspol www.tallyroom.com.au/63522

Billy Hughes in 1929 is how you rat. You don't muck about. You bring down the government, have a durry, and walk away like there's a movie explosion pending.

I enormously enjoyed this conversation with David Runciman about the history of compulsory voting, how it came to be adopted in countries like Belgium and Australia, and what it could for British politics today.

Halligan and Paris (1984) on the ratepayer ideology have never once missed.

This is—and I don't say such things lightly—Canberra cross of trams level.

I have been the Returning Officer for ballots and feel I must repost this out of respect for my people. All politics is a little sordid, but the voting machine in Australia is wholesome and pure. Its methods, checks and balances, and all the people that make it go.

Bad roads and irregular ferries used to regularly hold up election results from the sort of small polling booths that now report first. But the Eden-Monaro returning officer who entered flood water so fifty people could vote was made of sterner stuff.

NEW SUBMISSION CATEGORY ADDED! AJPS invites Reform Notes from practitioners and/or academics that set out proposed innovations about (or relevant to) aspects of Australian politics practice - e.g. proposals for or modifications to existing political institutions, procedures, laws and practices 1/4

This is something I miss from living in Wollongong. If the rally was badly organised it would get <15 people, and that fact would make the local news.

Constitutions matter here. The ACT begins each term with a vote to elect the Chief Minister, so there's not the same onus on the opposition to put the incumbent out.

Interesting thing in this #politas mess - importance of incumbency. Could have a Premier who majority of parliament doesn't really have confidence in continuing because it doesn't have confidence in anybody else (and doesn't want to lose one lifeline to avoid an election).

If you're after material from a federal election 1910-51 let me know. Odds are I've got archival photos.

Is it possible that Labor, after polling a record low vote and winning barely a quarter of seats, could form government? Or could they have no choice but to form government? Ben discussed this topic with @cmonnox.bsky.social and @kevinbonham.bsky.social last week on the podcast #politas #tasvotes

Me: Independents aren't channeling every idea of the inter-war centre-right. Hope I'm not overdoing the comparison. Peter George: we need a non-party government to meet this economic emergency.

For this week's podcast with Chris Monnox and Kevin Bonham, we discuss the tendency in Tasmanian elections for anti-hung parliament voters to swing behind whoever can win a majority, and whether it had an effect in 2025. #tasvotes #politas

Thanks for having me on @benraue.com. I'm quite ok with extra Hare-Clark elections, even if Tasmanians aren't.

Here is the Tasmanian Electoral Commission explaining Hare-Clark with chickens. Some of you people from easy maths jurisdictions may need it explained with chickens. m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA6x...

More “Things That Go By Train”. The Victorian Railways published this full page advertisement in The Sun newspaper on 28 May 1968. #VictoriaRailways #RailwayHistory #Trains #Advertising (VR News Letter, July 1968, p 108)

This week I've read that Americans are worried about conscription and keen on buying groceries from the state. If so T. J. Ryan is their guy.

ACT 2000 is an interesting case. Two conservative independents forced a change of Chief Minister, but not of governing party, by saying they'd back a motion of no confidence against Kate Carnell.

The ACT’s ‘missing middle’ planning reforms show that Canberra doesn’t have to choose between protecting the “garden city” and making housing more affordable. It can, and it should, do both. Read the full op-ed below from Brendan Coates and myself. grattan.edu.au/news/...

This Coalition rupture is a bit of a damp squib. Lacking in fanciful audacity, bloody mindedness and ‘used car salesman pitch’ energy - and caricature. Not like those heady days of the Joh for PM campaign. “I’m a bushfire raging out of control” - there was a man who knew about Coalition-wrecking

Scrutineering instructions have lost quite a bit of zest in the last century. They used to say things like 'the word "challenge" should be uttered in clear, emphatic, almost peremptory tones.'

Late to this, but I'm surprised there isn't more talk about compulsory voting in the UK. It has the weight of tradition in Australia, but that wasn't the case when it started producing 90% turnouts.

Some of you probably did something wholesome and sociable on this pleasant Autumn day. I caught the Bean 2CP at 50:50 and am feeling like a 2021 NFT gronk who just bagged the boredest ape.

Some of you may be looking for the best way to visualise seat shares at elections where one side wins big. If so, allow me to introduce the loser falls down format of 1949.

While you are out grabbing your democracy sausage today, grab all the pamphlets for the national collections! An extra special reminder that we need your ephemera for regional and remote voters www.library.gov.au/give/offer-u...

🚨🚨🚨🚨This is a P0 election ephemera situation. The NLA needs to get its best ephemera guy on a plane to Melbourne yesterday and ensure the corflute discourse stubby holder is saved for posterity.

Today I voted in Bean. Canadians got to vote in seats like Gaspésie–Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine–Listuguj, and I voted in Bean.

Today's blog post is my best attempt to assess the historical evidence for "sophomore surge", which is the phenomenon where a first-term MP gets a relative boost thanks to their new personal vote, or a party suffers a relative loss thanks to the loss of their former MP's personal vote. #ausvotes

Eh em. Historian here. While Howard DJs (2007) is the best known iteration of this beloved Australian meme, Hughes DJs (1929) is likely the original.

Corflute discourse is back. It's back because quantity has a quality of its own. It's back because 800 corflutes have a quality of their own.

I've got a tutorial on protectionism next week, which means I get to tell students about the free trade bread meme of 1906. It might be time to bring it back.

The federal government has finally responded to the JSCEM recommendations, 16 months after the fact. The responses are noncommittal on expanding the parliament. I reckon candidates should hear from voters about why this is important! www.tallyroom.com.au/59449 #ausvotes

About once a year, CityNews's light rail neurosis boils over into psychosis, and we get amazing cover art like this.

Clive Palmer's new logo really does look like a 40s UAP visual scamified for a scammish age. The AI did a good job on that.

This is interesting but I think it misses how ambivalent the old non-Labor parties were about party politics. Grouping very pro and very anti party people as non-Coalition is a different proposition.

I don't say this lightly, but today's Canberra Times letters may rival the Geoff Chambers meth heads piece for weird descriptions of the ACT.

Just found the original record of Trevor Kaine and Bernard Collaery blowing up the ACT government over planning in 1991. Canberra nimbys have pined for a similar moment since.

Cracking read and feels true here too (certainly the policy suggestions are relevant) www.liberalcurrents.com/the-crisis-o...

New from me in the Australian Dictionary of Biography. Dolan had an interesting trajectory: he started out on the right of the union movement in the 40s and wound up starting union aid abroad in the 80s, via being a key Bob Hawke supporter. adb.anu.edu.au/biography/do...

This does affect campaigns. The how isn't always obvious, but most federal candidates didn't do much doorknocking until the 1948 redistribution (first big dip in Travis' second chart) shrank their seats.

I don't expect to see good Canberra Times letters, least of all during Summernats. But here's a pleasant surprise from @andrew.donnellan.id.au

A new year means Summernats. Which means Canberra Times letters about Summernats. None of which will be as wholesome as this one from 1989.