Tasmanian Greens leader Nick McKim is pushing for a written agreement in return for party support. In Inside Story, Brian Costar and Jennifer Curtin look at the precedents FROM THE mid-1980s, with the growing number and influence of independent and small-party MPs in Australian parliaments, an important new ingredient emerged in state and territory politics...

This Research Note reviews trends in how women have voted in recent federal elections, compared to men. In particular it looks how women in rural and regional Australia have expressed their voting preference since 1993. Evidence suggests that while the Coalition continues to fare better than the ALP amongst women, women's support for the National...