As One Nation starts announcing candidates, here's a bingo card over the possibilities
Chris Monnox
@cmonnox.bsky.social
Historian of elections and electioneering, particularly early 20th century. I'm based in Canberra and also do ACT politics.
This, from 1922, is the correct way to handle a dog interrupting your politics: 'Efforts to part the dogs were of no avail. But Mr Lazzarini was not perturbed. "Let em fight," he shouted, "it's only Earle Page and Billy Hughes having a scrap."
Somebody knows the ACT Opposition Leader's name. Subnational politics sickos will understand that he's right to be excited about that.
I obviously had to look this up, and it was a country v city thing. Reid was mad because the protectionists sent back a draft redistribution that created more city seats. They, apparently, thought the drift to the cities was temporary...
Kevin Bonham@kevinbonham.bsky.social · 4w agoNigel Farage quitting his seat for a stunt by-election which other main parties are boycotting. The only such stunt by-election in Australian federal politics was by George Reid in 1903 over an electoral boundaries bill.
Zali Steggall and Allegra Spender are part of a tradition that is very open to anti-party parties. It's not so open to admitting there's a tradition.
Chris Monnox@cmonnox.bsky.social · 2mo agoThe mainstream Australian right being quite anti-party until WWII is a hobbyhorse of mine, but it’s relevant to the teal party stuff. You can have an anti-party party. It’s been done before. But it isn’t a new idea, or even a seventies idea.
The mainstream Australian right being quite anti-party until WWII is a hobbyhorse of mine, but it’s relevant to the teal party stuff. You can have an anti-party party. It’s been done before. But it isn’t a new idea, or even a seventies idea.
Americans are arguing about drinks and social climbing, but as an Australian I know that the original class traitor drink was white wine purchased from the bottle shop.
The South Australians really went to town with their no commercialising Anzac law. No use of 'aussie' on your business, residence, or boat without permission.
This one about compulsory voting came out a bit too late for most of the 100 years of work. But for an Australian bluesky audience it also has doorknocking. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Letterboxes and Loudspeakers: Compulsory Voting and the Transformation of Grassroots Electioneering in Australia, 1910–51
Click on the article title to read more.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Evan@evansmithhist.bsky.social · 4mo agoAcademics, is there an article or paper that you've published that you feel has slipped under the radar? Reply or quote this post with your overlooked piece! Here's mine... www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
The latest instalment of Past/Present: David Lee takes a look at how Australia has weathered fuel crises in the past, and ponders what we can learn from these experiences. Crucial reading!! www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Australia has weathered fuel crises before. What can we learn from previous oil price spikes?
After the second world war, cheap oil was a foundation of global economic stability. That changed dramatically in 1973
theguardian.com
This is the week when I tell students about WWII rationing and the squander bug. Who is public domain, just if any governments are thinking about that sort of thing...
Just adding to the parliamentary expansion good but go big while you can takes. Here's Arthur Calwell in 1948 being wildly optimistic about how often you get to expand parliament:
Nice analysis by @caseybriggs.com on ACT election preference flows. #actpol www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02...
Election data confirms what we already know: Greens don't like Liberals
Greens voters overwhelmingly preference Labor over the Liberal Party across the country — and a look at the data from the 2024 ACT election suggests there's no reason to think that would be different ...
abc.net.au
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.
Ben Raue@benraue.com · 8mo agoToday's blog post dives into history and looks at how the Coalition has responded to past Labor moves to expand the size of the parliament, why the attitude of the National Party changed between 1948 and 1983, and what that has to do with redistribution rules. #auspol
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...
The Dismissal from below • Frank Bongiorno (with James Watson)
Fifty years later, what impact has the Dismissal had on Australian democracy?
inside.org.au
We covered a lot in this one. Population movements, country v city, marginal seat campaigns, and the extremely cooked old Senate system.
Ben Raue@benraue.com · 9mo agoThe podcast is back for a short run, and today's podcast is about the history of previous parliamentary expansions, in 1948 and 1983, with historians Frank Bongiorno and @cmonnox.bsky.social www.tallyroom.com.au/63628 #auspol
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
The 1948 expansion – the big map change
The first expansion of parliament was passed in 1948, and came into force at the 1949 election. It was also the largest increase we’ve seen, either proportionally or in raw numbers. The House…
tallyroom.com.au
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
The 1984 expansion – reverse musical chairs
When the new electoral map was published in 1984, it kicked off a game of musical chairs, but with a difference – this time there were more seats than players. Some of these seats were more a…
tallyroom.com.au
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.
![An excerpt from Warren Denning’s Caucus Crisis in which Hughes ‘pause[d], with a Sphinx-like smile, in the King’s Hall, to light a cigarette in a slow, deliberate manner which told the discerning that he was very well pleased indeed with himself.’](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:rvab23vlvg5ahuowfgcdrxno/bafkreihbptst6cs2qiqdnrhtf3qctya2sbwvhlzrgh32kseqjsafx7bqlm)
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.
Past Present Future Podcast@ppfideas.bsky.social · 10mo agoNEW EPISODE OUT NOW! In today’s episode David talks to political historian @dmk1793.bsky.social about whether voting should be required by law and what might change if non-participation was no longer an option. Why have some countries made voting compulsory? Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com
Halligan and Paris (1984) on the ratepayer ideology have never once missed.
Sydney YIMBY@sydney.yimby.au · 10mo agoLovely message in our inbox this morning 😊 One of the foundational NIMBY beliefs is that renters aren't worthy of having a say about their communities.
This is—and I don't say such things lightly—Canberra cross of trams level.
Darcy Murphy@darmurp.bsky.social · 10mo agoI think also that the organised opposition to the stadium comes really from that Hobart group and that when you look at their slogan and some of the images they've produced its a bit on the nose maybe...
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.
Chris Monnox@cmonnox.bsky.social · 11mo agoBad 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.
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.
Kevin Bonham@kevinbonham.bsky.social · 11mo agoLogistic drama in the 1916 Tasmanian election count. #politas
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.
Sidney Phatberg Esq.@ernmalleyscat.bsky.social · 11mo agoabsolute scenes
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.
Kevin Bonham@kevinbonham.bsky.social · 12mo agoLabor's no confidence motion in Jeremy Rockliff with confidence in Dean Winter has failed 10-24 #politas