The Fadden by-election is upon us tomorrow, and the Poll Bludger’s results page stands ready for action, to provide live updates of results down to booth level in tabular and map form (the latter viewable by clicking the “activate” button at the bottom of the page) together with projections, probability estimates and data on preference flows.
News from the front:
• Queensland Labor Senator Murray Watt candidly stated yesterday that his party had “zero chance” of overcoming the 10.6% margin, and no word coming out of the Coalition camp has indicated otherwise.
• Paul Karp of The Guardian reports that the Liberal National Party has been concerned enough about the Aston precedent to have sent a six-figure sum on digital, billboard and television advertising, whereas Labor has conducted a digital-only campaign costing about $30,000, much of it targeting outgoing member Stuart Robert over robodebt.
• The Australian Electoral Commission has expressed concern about low turnout for early voting, with only 16,000 votes cast as of Monday compared with 22,000 at the same stage at the 2022 election. Kos Samaras of RedBridge Group told the Age/Herald that a low turnout would likely hamper Labor, as the effect would be concentrated among younger voters.
• Maggie Perry of 6News has helpfully assembled a table summarising how-to-vote card recommendations, the most significant feature of which is an active recommendation by One Nation that LNP candidate Cameron Caldwell go well ahead of Labor’s Letitia Del Fabbro.
In other by-election news, the timetable for Warrandyte has been revealed, with the closure of nominations and ballot paper draw set for Thursday, August 10, early voting to open on Monday, August 14, and polling day on Saturday, August 24. The big question of whether Labor will be taking the field remains unanswered. The other by-election on the horizon, for Mark McGowan’s seat of Rockingham in Western Australia, will be held a fortnight from tomorrow.
BoP:
He had a brief career in commercial law before being elected to Parliament, but it’s wild to think that a 30-year-old with just a few years experience as a lawyer was apparently the LNP’s most qualified candidate for attorney-general of Queensland at the time.
BoP: Bleije was dubbed ‘the Conveyancer-General’
Anyone know what the turnout on the day has been like? AEC said pre-poll turnout was down quite a bit.
C@t:
Ch10 news showed a couple of people turning up to vote having no clue who the Liberal candidate was. “I wouldn’t have a clue”, said one woman. “I always just vote Liberal.”
Dutton was nowhere to be seen and Jim Chalmers campaigned with Labor’s candidate.
New thread.
Stuart Roberts’ huge margins suddenly make a bit more sense.
Asha
If you apply the same logic to lawyer and unionist in the alp (ie people who never had a real job). The alp with be left with 5 parliament members.