The rejection rate for voters who applied for a provisional vote in the federal election was far higher than normal, rising from about 50 per cent to about 86 per cent. Peter Brent comments on the causes and impact.

In this paper the former Australian Electoral Commissioner considers the issue of electorate boundary changes. The paper provides a comprehensive review of the 2006 redistributions in NSW and Queensland and summarises the history of redistributions in the two states. Colin Hughes analyses the party political competition involved, even when the redistributions are carried out by...

The former head of evaluation for the Australian Public Service Commission considers the tension between the public service’s role in providing ‘frank and fearless’ advice to government and its role in development and implementation of government policy.

In the wake of the High Court’s decision on prisoner enfranchisement, Graeme Orr describes the issue of prisoner disenfranchisement as a continuing ‘political football’ in this new paper.

Australia is at the forefront of professional and independent electoral administration, especially when assessed in international comparative studies. However, while there is often debate about the levels of fairness provided by the various electoral systems in use throughout Australia, less scrutiny has been applied to the electoral management bodies charged with administering these systems. Although...