For several years now Crikey has engaged in the ritual denunciation of our Commonwealth electoral donation laws. It’s worth repeating.
Australian Electoral Commission
Electoral funding figures show Labor’s donations collapse
Labor’s donations advantage vanished at the 2010 election, new data from the Australian Electoral Commission shows.
A hundred years later, it’s time for another vital voting reform
Out of the clash of interests in federal parliament in 1911 came an enduring electoral reform, writes Brian Costar. An update is long overdue.
The Power Index The man behind Katter’s AEC party name rejection
The man responsible for ending the possibility of Bob Katter abbreviating his Katter’s Australian Party name to “Australian Party” is David Doe, a man who has been highly active in the video games censorship debate, writes Angela Priestley.
Crikey Says: The Hanson prank is funny to a point
The Pauline Hanson plot thickens.
The political donations data is nowhere near the full picture
The material released this week by the Electoral Commission only gives a partial picture of who is funding our political parties.
Miners big on donations, but not on disclosure
Several companies and individuals have been identified in Liberal and Labor documents as making donations, but were not recorded on the AEC website as having made any returns, as they’re required to do.
Political donations give and take
The Australian Electoral Commission released political donations data today for 2009-10, giving us an insight into what political parties received from donors between 7 and 19 months ago.
Mayne on donations: Vic Libs still richest political division in the country
The Victorian Liberals clearly remain the richest political division in the country. No one else can claim to own $50 million worth of shares.
Future of the National Tally Room again in doubt
While its seven metre-high board of polling figures and swarm of electoral officials may have come to symbolise Australian suffrage, the future of the National Tally Room as the centre of election night may again be in doubt after ABC election numbers guru Antony Green ran into technology issues on Saturday night which meant he could not receive data or offer predictions.
Political snippets: Fiddling with the electoral system
I just love the way that the so-called political numbers experts invariably get things wrong when they start fiddling with the electoral system.
Greater compulsion isn’t the answer to voter disengagement
There are calls for automatic voter enrolment to address the alarming decline in voter participation in the 2010 election. But that doesn’t address the real problem of disengagement.
Wankley Awards: The Latham/Henderson double act
This week’s Wankley goes to a dual bout of disingenuousness between the upstanding director of the Sydney Institute, Gerard Henderson and fellow Fairfax columnist and former Liverpool Mayor Mark Latham.
Green: Don’t believe the Tally Room
The 2PP figure currently on display on the Australian Electoral Commission’s Virtual Tally Room is wrong. Antony Green explains why it’s wrong and why it’s there anyway.
Three seats in doubt, but Hasluck will probably decide the race
So it’s down to three. Probably. The seats of Brisbane, Corangamite and Hasluck remain in doubt, with counting likely to continue for another week.
ALP loses seats (but for the next election, not this one)
As has now been pointed out many times, conducting a redistribution while an election campaign is under way is sheer madness.
How to get 1.4m people on the electoral roll without Abbott’s support
Whenever the federal election is held up to 1.4 million of us will not be entitled to cast a ballot because we are not on the roll. But there is a solution, even if the Coalition doesn’t support it, writes political science academic Brian Costar.
The ALP deserves deregistration
Kellie Tranter pens a letter to the Australian Electoral Commissioner on why the ALP should lose its political party registration, since its recent actions don’t align with Labor’s history and constitution.
Weird and wonderful ways to slice up Victoria
Political junkies, as well as those who just appreciate dodgy geography, can now amuse themselves by checking out the submissions received on the current redistribution of federal electoral boundaries for Victoria, now available at the AEC website, writes Charles Richardson.
Really bad timing on redrawing the boundaries in Vic
Whoever wins the marginal seats in this year’s Victorian election, such as McEwen and Deakin, could find that the boundary commissioners will have a big influence on their tenure.
NSW automated electoral rolls make sense, yet Feds reject them
NSW is moving into the 21st century with automated electoral rolls, while the federal system may be left languishing in the early 20th century, writes Graeme Orr.
Political donations drought: cash levels fall by 60%
Are we witnessing the drying up of political donations? Total political donations of $93.7 million fell 60% last year. Plus some of the more interesting donors uncovered by Crikey readers.
Influential or not? Big political donors show how it’s done
Despite a big drop in political donations in 2008-09, the AEC figures released yesterday still show how influence works — and fails to work — in Canberra. Even if the data isn’t that surprising.
Automatic enrollment: Sneaky plot or common sense?
Crikey pundits have been duking it out over the NSW government’s plan to introduce automatic electoral enrollment. Is it really a “shameful encroachment on basic rights”, or just good bureaucratic process? William Bowe wraps the debate.
Dust off your Smiths albums, it’s 1988 and the Australia Card all over again!
Stock up on the ammo and canned food! Bernard Keane’s conspiracy theories on electoral reforms are flat out wrong, says Peter Brent.
