Charles Richardson
Psephologist and writer
Charles Richardson has contributed to Crikey since 2002, and was a ministerial adviser in the Kennett government and a former editorial manager at the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney.
There is more confusion for election watchers in Victoria, with a new set of Electoral Commission proposals to argue about, this time in the middle of the state campaign.
Every day that Labor spends worrying about the Greens is a day that it's not trying to beat its actual opponents.
The scorecard for the Democrats was bad, very bad, although it certainly could have been worse.
This is not going to be a good night for the Democrats, but it's also not going to be a wipeout on the scale of 1994.
If he is going to be premier, Ted Baillieu will have to capture the enthusiasm - or at least the goodwill - of the regional and outer-suburban voters who so conspicuously deserted his party in 1999 and 2002.
Anna Bligh's thought bubble, in which the Queensland premier on Tuesday floated the idea of returning the state to compulsory preferential voting, has not gone down very well. Probably because Labor will win from the move, says Charles Richardson.
Labor cares a great deal about whether the Liberals give preferences to the Greens, but for the Liberals it shouldn't be a matter of much importance.
The latest yawn-worthy chapter in the John Howard/Peter Costello spat can still tell us something interesting about how political power works in Australia.
I can't remember the last time there was any good news for the New South Wales Labor Party. Today is no exception.
It's less than two months since the federal election, but the Greens already have a concrete achievement to show their supporters.
