The Tally Room

103 - A history of Indigenous elections in Australia

Ben is joined by historian Alison Holland, who is researching the history of ATSIC, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission. We discuss the history and current existence of Indigenous elected institutions around Australia, including ATSIC and its predecessors at a federal level, regional land councils and state Voices that have started to pop up.

• Alison's article in The Conversation about why those who claim that ATSIC failed have put the blame in the wrong place.

This podcast is supported by the Tally Room’s supporters on Patreon. If you find this podcast worthwhile please consider giving your support.

102 - A history of Australian referendums

Ben is joined by Paul Kildea and Andre Brett to discuss the history of Australian referendums. We discuss the historical origins of referendums at both the state and federal level, the dynamics of referendum campaigns, how different states tend to vote, the voters' bias towards the status quo, and discuss some of our favourite referendums.

We reference some fairly obscure referendums, including the 1928 referendum in the Australian Federal Territory on ending prohibition, the 1951 and 1965 Wool Reserve Prices referendums, the national song poll of 1977 and the unsuccessful attempt to extend hotel opening hours prior to the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games.

• Paul's article on state and territory referendums in the Sydney Law Review
• The 2016 article "An Absent Negative" by Russell McGregor about the absence of a No campaign in the 1967 referendum on Aboriginal affairs

This podcast is supported by the Tally Room’s supporters on Patreon. If you find this podcast worthwhile please consider giving your support.

101 - Group voting tickets and ward changes in Victoria

Ben is joined by psephologist Henry Schlechta to discuss two issues of democratic reform in Victoria: the arguments around abolishing group voting tickets, and the implementation of single-member wards for urban Victorian councils. Sadly this isn't a story of Victoria improving its electoral systems - mostly they are getting worse or staying the same.

• Ben's podcast with Kevin from November 2022 discussing the problems with group voting tickets.
• Ben's estimates of who would have won seats in the Victorian upper house under different systems.
• Ben's blog post about the single-member ward reviews happening in Victoria.

This podcast is supported by the Tally Room’s supporters on Patreon. If you find this podcast worthwhile please consider giving your support.

100 - Redistributions all over Australia

Ben is joined by ABC chief election analyst Antony Green for the 100th episode of the Tally Room podcast to discuss the many redistributions currently underway around Australia: federal redistributions, state and territory redistributions and even local council ward redistributions.

We discuss the population trends affecting the drawing of federal boundaries, the process of drawing, and how we make estimates of margins in new electorates.

• Read Antony's most recent post about prospects for the NSW federal redistribution.

This podcast is supported by the Tally Room’s supporters on Patreon. If you find this podcast worthwhile please consider giving your support.

99 - History of STV in the USA

Ben is joined by American political scientist Jack Santucci to discuss the history of the single transferable vote electoral system and its implementation in numerous American cities in the early 20th century.

Jack's book More Parties or No Parties explores this period and advances a theory to explain why electoral system change happens when it does. We also meander into a comparison of STV and simpler proportional representation systems.

Please fill out the Tally Room survey and tell us more about what you'd like to hear.

This podcast is supported by the Tally Room’s supporters on Patreon. If you find this podcast worthwhile please consider giving your support.

98 - By-election season

Ben is joined by Kevin Bonham to discuss three upcoming by-elections in Fadden, Rockingham and Warrandyte, and for a brief update on other election news - the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters hearing on expanding the size of parliament, the potential for an early election in Tasmania and upcoming redistributions.

Please fill out the Tally Room survey and tell us more about what you'd like to hear.

This podcast is supported by the Tally Room’s supporters on Patreon. If you find this podcast worthwhile please consider giving your support.

97 - Our semi-parliamentary system

Ben is joined by Professor Steffen Ganghof from the University of Potsdam to discuss his book Beyond Presidentialism and Parliamentarism. Steffen discusses an alternative model of democracy he calls "semi-parliamentarism" which can gain the benefits of presidentialism in having a part of the legislature independent of the government, without investing executive power in a single person. And the best examples of this model can be found here in Australia.

Our conversation has relevance to debates around the role of Australia's upper houses and is a fresh outside perspective on how they improve Australia's democracy.

Please fill out the Tally Room survey and tell us more about what you'd like to hear.

You can read the full transcript here.

This podcast is supported by the Tally Room’s supporters on Patreon. If you find this podcast worthwhile please consider giving your support.

 

96 - Timor-Leste’s parliamentary election

Ben is joined by former AEC official Michael Maley, who has just returned from a trip to Timor-Leste to help with the country's recent parliamentary election. Ben and Michael discuss the constitutional structure, electoral system and party system of Timor-Leste. We also discuss the results of the recent elections, the likely shape of the new government, and the continuing dominance of the independence generation in Timorese politics.

You can read the full transcript here.

This podcast is supported by the Tally Room’s supporters on Patreon. If you find this podcast worthwhile please consider giving your support.

95 - From seats into votes

Ben is joined by Professor Matthew Shugart from UC Davis to discuss how the electoral system influences the party system. We discuss the effective number of parties measure, and the seat product model, which uses the size of the parliamentary assembly and the district magnitude to predict the shape of the party system in each country.

• The SPM is explained most simply in this journal article.
• Or you can check out Votes From Seats, which explains it in more detail.

This podcast is supported by the Tally Room’s supporters on Patreon. If you find this podcast worthwhile please consider giving your support.

94 - Moving forward in Thailand

Ben is joined by journalist Erin Cook to discuss last weekend's national election in Thailand, which saw the progressive Move Forward win the most seats and set up prospects for a coalition government made up of parties that are not supporters of the royal and military elite that has run the country since the 2014 coup.

• Subscribe to Erin's newsletter on Southeast Asian politics, Dari Mulut Ke Mulut
• Erin mentioned From Development to Democracy by Dan Slater and Joseph Wong

You can read the transcript for this podcast here.

This podcast is supported by the Tally Room’s supporters on Patreon. If you find this podcast worthwhile please consider giving your support.