Wonky


Could the polls actually be undercooked for Labor?

The ALP has been surging ahead in the polls of late, but Possum Comitatus has found a curious anomaly. Is it possible Labor’s vote is even higher than the headlines are suggesting?

The 2010 Federal Election Pendulum

With the new NSW electoral boundaries finalised, ABC poll master Antony Green has the new pendulum, predicting five Liberal seats will fall to the ALP.

Poll Bludger: NSW redraw redrawn

William Bowe looks at the redistribution of New South Wales’ federal election boundaries.

Antony Green: A Higgins by-election preview

With Peter Costello retiring, his seat of Higgins will be up for grabs in a by-election. Antony Green wonks out on the polls and predictions: Will Labor field a candidate? Will Tim Costello run? Could we see a swing to the Greens?

Is Rudd responsible for Turnbull’s unpopularity?

What if Malcolm Turnbull’s poor polling had nothing to do with Turnbull himself? Possum Comitatus crunches the Coalition’s polling metrics and uncovers some bizarre results.

Antony Green dissects the double dissolution election

Does the Government want an early election? Nope, says Antony Green. But don’t rule out a double dissolution just yet — a constitutional loophole means Rudd can have his cake and eat it too.

Australia: land of the landslide

Crunching all 199 polls taken since January 2008, Possum Comitatus reveals some astonishing results about public political opinion in Australia: landslides have become the norm.

Video of the Day: Al Franken draws USA map from memory

Comedian turned US Senator Al Franken gets his wonk on and draws a very detailed American map straight off the top of his head (even includes Alaska and Hawaii). We’d vote for that.

Essential Report redux and the perils of push polling

Possum Comitatus crunches all the data from the latest Essential Report and explains the problems with “push polls” and why good pollsters don’t use them.

Pollytrend: Coalition fading further

Possum Comitatus crunches the numbers from the last polling cycle. No surprises here: it’s a continued push upward for the Labor Party.

Territory set to sail uncharted constitutional waters

The upheaval in the Northern Territory government could result in the first constitutional test of Australia’s move to fixed-term Parliaments, says the ABC’s resident wonk Antony Green. Will the NT ALP sit it out until 2012, or play some tricky numbers games to wrangle an early election?

Unemployment by electorate

Possum Comitatus gets wonky with the latest jobless figures, breaking down unemployment by electorate in a handy series of colour-coded maps.

Jobs for wonks: do you want to work for Wayne or Malcolm?

The last two weekends’ career sections have thrown up some interesting job positions.

The West Wing of iPhone apps

Marc Ambinder runs down the top 10 Jesus Phone apps for Washington insiders.

iPhone apps for political wonks

Mashable rates the top 5 iPhone apps for political junkies.

What it takes to trigger an early election

Charles Richardson explains the nuts and bolts of triggering a double dissolution.

Tasmanian upper house elections

On Saturday week, one fifth of Tasmanian voters go to the polls to perform some reupholstering on the state’s 15-members Legislative Council.