William Bowe
Editor of The Poll Bludger @PollBludger
William Bowe is a Perth-based election analyst and occasional teacher of political science. His blog, The Poll Bludger, is one of the most heavily trafficked forums for online discussion of Australian politics, and joined the Crikey stable in 2008.
Labor is comfortably ahead on a two-party preferred basis, and the latest Newspoll results show support for minor parties blossoming in Western Australia.
Questions are being asked about the transparency of the Australian Electoral Commission, with the AEC refusing to open its vote-counting software to public scrutiny. Does the AEC have a reason to be so secretive?
It looked for a while like the Coalition's numbers were going to turn around, but this week's BludgerTrack shows Labor still ahead.
Tasmania punches well above its weight in terms of political influence -- and the state's aluminium smelting industry is not happy with keeping the Renewable Energy Target.
Australia's first voter ID laws will be put to the test next month in a Queensland byelection. The public is increasingly worried about lax identification requirements at polling booths -- but with very little voter fraud, are increased measures necessary?
Tony Abbott will have to woo the Palmer United senators and a few more to get any of his legislation passed. Let's look at the new senators who will be standing in the way of an Abbott agenda.
Victoria is less likely to be heading to an early election, with the Napthine government skillfully heading off Labor's plan to oust independent MP Geoff Shaw.
Geoff Shaw, Denis Napthine, Daniel Andrews and a lot of bad blood -- we take a look at the nightmare on Spring Street.
Post-budget polling has emphatically confirmed a second major shift in public opinion since the election, the first being a strikingly early dip in the new government’s fortunes in November, leaving the opposition with a narrow lead when the dust had settled.
After the debacle of the Senate election last year, Parliament is looking at changing the way Australians vote. And for once, the changes actually make a good deal of sense.
