Malcolm Turnbull’s return to the Liberal leadership means the next election will be more like other first-term polls, but Labor has been seduced by the possibility of victory, writes Paul Rodan.

What explains Victoria’s stubborn tendency to vote Labor in state and federal elections? The prolific psephologist Peter Brent recently asked why, in electoral terms, Victoria is different from the other states. He cited Labor’s dominance of the state’s two-party-preferred vote in every federal election since 1990 – even in the comprehensive defeat of 2013 –...

William McMahon’s famously ill-starred prime ministership has been back in the news, not necessarily to the advantage of the federal Labor government. In Inside Story, Paul Rodan recalls the election of nearly forty years ago.

SOME COMMENTATORS see the Greens victory in last Saturday’s Fremantle state by-election as an ominous sign for a Labor Party juggling the conflicting demands of its inner urban and outer suburban support bases. This may be so, but several caveats need to be borne in mind. In its candidate selection, Western Australian Labor seemed to...

John Howard made unexpected concessions last week to avert a backbench revolt in parliament. But why is crossing the floor seen as such a major step? Paul Rodan looks at the precedents.