Australia’s election silences call for mandatory debates

A federal election debates commission should be created to ensure debates become a permanent, scheduled element of every federal election.

What next for Scott Morrison?

Political science and election history offer some clues as to why the pundits failed on election night and Scott Morrison inched towards a famous victory, but what – if anything – will he do with power now?

What next for Labor?

Anthony Albanese will face some tricky choices given the need to redouble Labor’s appeal to middle class suburbia while keeping left wing and progressive activists on board.

Voter aspiration powered the Coalition victory

Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s message of aspirational individualism resonated with voters, leaving the polls behind and leaving Labor contemplating a reshaped agenda.

Mending the opinion polls

Election opinion polls are like penalty shoot-outs at a World Cup final: there’s huge pressure to get it right and we remember the big misses most of all. Better opinions polls are more expensive, because pollsters must make more effort to get a representative and honest sample of voters, but it’s a price worth paying in the future.

3 lessons from behavioural economics which Labor forgot

Labor’s extensive policy platform was bold but its leaders overlooked some fundamental principles of behavioural economics in trying to sell it to the voters.

Understanding #Quexit

Progressive voices have lit up social media with memes blaming Queensland for Labor’s loss in the federal election, but condemning the state as regressive and redneck does nothing to understand voters’ motivations.

Fresh blood and new challenges for Labor and the Coalition

Should Labor jump to a generation when it chooses its new leader – and should Scott Morrison steal some Shorten policies to broaden his agenda in government?

Hail, the President of Parliament

Australia’s Prime Minister won re-election with a Presidential approach, but he will still have to negotiate a careful path in power given his razor thin margin of victory.

How Labor lost the people

After confidently predicting a Labor victory for the last three years, the pundits are now explaining the reasons why Labor lost. Central to the defeat was the party’s inability to convince enough people it would make their lives better in the future, rather than threaten their prosperity today.

What comes next for the ‘miracle man’?

Scott Morrison’s election victory shocked the pundits but his lack of a policy agenda for the new term is not the only question mark over the future of the Liberal Party.

Scott Morrison hails ‘miracle’ as Coalition snatches unexpected victory

As with Brexit and Donald Trump, a thousand confident polls and prognostications by the commentariat were proved completely wrong by the voting public. When it came to election day, Australians baulked at Labor’s long list of tax and spend promises and kept faith with the Coalition.