The national election pendulum might swing Labor’s way, but it’s in the states that the seats will be won AT THE last federal election, three years ago, the national two-party-preferred swing to the Coalition was 3.6 per cent. The two states that shifted the most were the only ones still run by Labor state governments...

With the major parties level-pegging, a defeat for the Coalition isn’t out of the question. So what would a Labor government look like? THE conventional wisdom is that there won’t be a Shorten Labor government. The opinion polls say it, the commentators say it, and the bookies are saying it. In the past fortnight, Labor’s...

Barristers and solicitors have taken the unprecedented step of rallying to demand an increase in legal aid funding. Will it come to wigs on the picket lines? It was at the polite end of the protest spectrum. As the hundreds of people rallying outside Melbourne’s County Court threatened to block pedestrian access along Lonsdale Street...

There are seven reasons why the Coalition might think things are going well. And the same goes for Labor WHO will win the election on 2 July? With the first polls registering 50–50, the contest is competitive. The Coalition and Labor both have reasons to be optimistic – seven on each side, by my reckoning...

As the election campaign gets under way, a visiting political scientist reflects on four sometimes-surprising months in the national capital One of my first and strongest impressions of the differences between Canadian and Australian politics came, of all places, in the parliamentary gift shop in Canberra. As one of the small but hearty group of...