Australia goes to a federal election

Politics & Elections
41

And some Australian election trivia for anybody following events:

Q1. How many Australians are enrolled to vote?

Answer

A. The exact answer is 18,098,797. That’s 98.2% of the estimated proportion of eligible Australians involved

Q2. How many people voted on the first day of early voting?

Answer

A. It’s exactly 542,141 people, which is a record.

Q3. How many electorates are there?

Answer

A. There are 150 seats! This is less than the last election
New South Wales and Victoria both lost a seat each — North Sydney and Higgins — while Western Australia gained one called Bullwinkel.

Q4. Which electorates are the largest and smallest by area?

Answer

A1. Durak in north-west WA is the biggest, at 1,410,947km²
A2. Wentworth in Sydney’s eastern suburbs is the smallest, covering 31km²

Q5. Which electorates are the largest and smallest by total population?

Answer

A1. The electorate of Sydney, which takes in the suburbs in the city’s centre, is the biggest, with a population of 213,261
A2. Braddon in north-east Tasmania is the smallest, with 109,556 people.

Q6. How many seats are being voted on in the Senate?

Answer

A. The answer is 40. Unlike members of the House of Representatives who get a three-year term, state senators get six years and half contest their seats each election . So six states by 6 plus two territories by 2.

Q7. Which seat has the highest number of House of Representative candidates?

Answer

A. Riverina, in regional New South Wales, and Calwell in Melbourne’s outer north-western have 13 candidates.

Q8. How many different countries have polling centres?

Answer

A. 83 countries and overall there are 111 international polling centres.

Q9. How many ballot boxes will be set up across Australia on election day?

Answer

A. More than 80,000

Q1. How many pencils are being used at polling booths?

Answer

A. 250,000 pencils all up. That works out to be about 72 people per pencil

42

Ok, that was quality. Now I hate Dixon and I don’t even live there!

43

for reference
England has a total area of approximately 132,932 square kilometers (51,325 sq mi). This figure includes both land and water area

even all of UK

The total area of the United Kingdom is approximately 94,354 square miles (244,376 km2 ), with a land area of 93,723 square miles (242,741 km2).

Australias a big country

Australia’s total land area is approximately 7,688,287 square kilometers. This makes it the sixth-largest country in the world. Although Australia is the smallest continental landmass, it’s the largest island, covering about 5% of the world’s total land area.

27 June 2014 — Australia is the planet’s sixth largest country after Russia, Canada, China, the USA, and Brazil. At 7 688 287km2, it …

tho still dwarfed by Canada…both make for same awkward managing of voting.

Canada’s total area is 9,984,670 square kilometers (3,855,100 square miles). This makes it the second-largest country in the world by land are

44

There we are; civil duty done and dusted.

Had a bit of a snooze in. From being in northern India last week to home I am only just coping with a 30C drop in ambient temperatures. So left home @ 9:30am . Walked the 90m to the primary school local which operates as a polling station on election days.

As usual the LIBs have got in early and postered up the best spots. If that will be the last time I see Button’s ugly mug on a poster, that will be a blessed relief. The LIBs have a bit of a track record of vandalising and disposing of the others artwork. Nothing untoward this year at this location.

So being a bit behind schedule a queue of about 100 had formed. Que sera, sera.
With the inclement weather about, the polling station Officer in Charge had allowed the canvassers to set up inside the school perimeter which is unusual and violated the zone of contemplation and sanctuary between the school gate and the booths. Nothing even mildly untoward happened during the transition but I found it a tad irksome.

The woman in front of me was carrying a Greens flyer and her 2yo. We chatted pleasantly about families. She was genuinely, earnestly telling her babe-in-arms how important it was to vote. And about silly things happening in silly places where they didn’t. Young Theo had his mind more on doing zoomies around the school quadrangle with a mate.

https://i.ibb.co/qMt1rVST/Vote1.jpg

Once inside I verbally ID’ed myself and was handed two initially bit of paper for my trouble.

Increasingly I find myself following the @kambuckta how-to-vote algorithm:

  1. Interesting
  2. Harmless
  3. Nutters
  4. Dangerous

There were no interesting idiots on the Reid HoR ballot, so I picked from the harmless and put the dangerous at the bottom. I determined Pauline was worse than Clive. If there is anybody offended, please forgive me. I did the best I could.

I didn’t partake in a Democracy Sausage. Have had three kids pass through the learned halls here. I was secretary of the Drummoyne P&C and ran the chocolate wheel on fete days. I’ve given my pound of flesh for the cause.

Back home @ 10:07.

45

I did the deed yesterday as I was feeling sorta ok (after a brief illness) but didn’t want to take my chances in case today I had relapse or whatever.

Early-voting centre was 2 min drive away, found a carpark in the pub next door, tottered up to the queue and there were only 3 x people in front of me, was asked at the registration desk whether I was eligible to pre-vote (just said yes, like everyone else, no certification was needed) popped over to the cardboard booth, and a minute later was out.

My federal seat is a safe National Party (in coalition with the Liberal Party) so I won’t be clinging to the edge of my seat and biting my nails tonight.

I’m actually more interested in my PREVIOUS federal seat, where the sitting member for the last gazillion years is retiring (Warren Entsch, also Liberal). THAT seat will be one to watch, because while Queensland is reputably the bastion of the hard-right, the Far North is a far more eclectic place, with lots of lefties hanging out in the vegan coffee houses. With Entsch’s seat up for grabs, who knows now?

And after tonight, no more Trumpets. See ya Clive!

46

I can’t link to the story because it’s in Fairfax media which is paywalled but here’s an excerpt:

Alt-right agitator urges voters to ruin ballots for Putin

Alt-right figure Simeon Boikov or “Aussie Cossack” has asked voters to use messaging app Telegram to send him pictures of spoiled ballots which depict votes cast for Vladimir Putin.

Photos of spoiled ballots include those for the NSW electorates of New England and Kingsford Smith and for Senate ballots in NSW and Queensland.
…

Boikov is vocally pro-Putin and is living in the Russian consulate in Sydney to evade arrest warrants after allegedly assaulting a man at a pro-Ukrainian rally in 2022.

I’m thinking that he’s doing us a favour - anyone stupid enough to do this is probably only going to do more damage if they actually cast an effective vote.

47

Is it allowed to take photos within the polling station, or of a ballot paper? Strictly forbidden in the UK: if someone openly campaigned for that, there’d be at least a hefty fine, though I suppose there might be some allowance for the pointless idiocy of it.

48

Absolutely not, no.

49

No photography within the polling station, no material can leave the polling station.

50

Liberal Party & Opposition leader Dutton has lost his Queensland seat.

Pundits suggest there is no path to victory for the Coalition, but unclear whether Labor will win in a majority

51

As the count continues, it has become increasingly clear that the ALP have won a majority, currently with 84 declared seats, needing 74 to form government.

52

Typo; it’s 76 to win

53

Just to be sure: ALP is the Australian Labor Party, they’re the center-left party, and the Liberal Party, despite the name, is a right-ish party, right?

54

That’s correct … nomenclature of political parties is a pretty rubbery concept.
The Liberals would be a reasonable match to the UK Conservatives. Their coalition party, the Nationals are the political wing of the mining lobby, melded with the agrarian socialists.

55

What a glorious night that was. :slight_smile:

56

Congratulations! The only good thing Trump has done is to show the rest of the world how NOT to govern a country.

57

Its probably worth emphasising that this result [as of just now its 88 seats for Labor with more to be determined - perhaps into mid-90s] is even more extraordinary because as a nation of compulsory voting the usual results is a few seats either side of the 75 mid-point. It takes a major shift in voting behaviour to get a change of this scale; its by no means a normal thing. It represents not just the usual swingers in the middle but inroads into the traditional party base.

An amazing night indeed.

58

Interesting that our PM, Anthony Albanese, is still waiting for a phone call from Trump congratulating him on his win. It’s considered polite, and a bit of a political more for western leaders to give a quick buzz to the newly elected leader/s…but for some weird reason, Trump isn’t playing nice.

Oh well. :stuck_out_tongue:

59

Monday update!

The phone call has happened! Over screaming helicopter engines Trump affirmed that he had spoken to Albanese - “I don’t know anything about the election other than the man that won, he’s very good”. In case you think he knew less about Australia and Albanese than everything else, he affirmed that he and that guy were “very friendly”, and that that guy was “very respectful”. When asked, that guy confirmed that he had spoken to Trump, which puts him ahead of the Chinese and tariff discussions which didn’t.

Apart from the Potato being thoroughly mashed, the two main rightwing parties went down the gurgler as well.

One Nation - formerly racist ratbag Pauline Hanson’s One Nation - got about 6% of the vote, a lot less than the 10% they were predicted to get. 6% is about 1-in-16, which is the scientifically confirmed ratio of awkward, creepy uncles in any family grouping, so its really down to being the natural sump where the contrarian tendency of the population who’d otherwise be carrying on like dicks at the supermarket accumulates.

The other one over whom I will shed many, many tears is billionaire scoundrel Clive Palmer whose Trumpet for Patriots (aka Vuvuzela for Billionaires) spent an estimated $50 million to torment most of Australia with texts, Youtube ads and road signs. He got 1.5% of the vote, and didn’t come close to getting a seat or having lasting influence.

In one seat Trumpet contested with massive expenditure they got fewer votes than Legalise Marijuana, who spent $6,000. I feel so terribly sorry for him.

Final counts are still in progress with a bit of ebbing as postal ballots and preferences get sorted.

60

Gift link: a brief analysis of Trump’s impact on the Australian election.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/04/world/australia/albanese-labor-election-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.E08.DQsQ.UpLu5fPDdW0Z&smid=url-share

In short, both candidates were soft on Trump, but the visibility of his chaos, plus the sudden (again, visible) impact on retirement accounts, swung voters to action.