News & Analysis
Articles & Opinions
Election entrée: more than one in four people living in Australia don’t get counted in elections
Australians are rightfully proud of compulsory voting, which ensures widespread participation in elections.
Election entrée: think three-year terms are too short? Spare a thought for generations past.
Complaints about the brevity of three-year parliamentary terms are common in Australia.
Election entrée: Early voting in Australia
A cornerstone of the Australian election experience is tucking into a democracy sausage after casting your ballot on election day.
Election entrée: Speakers from other parties
Every Australian parliament – federal, state and territory – has had a speaker from a party other than the one in government at some point.
Who votes with whom? Beware claims that use voting records to argue politicians have similar views
Sky News says community independent MP Allegra Spender supports more Coalition motions than Greens motions. But They Vote for You says Spender votes with Greens MPs more often than Coalition MPs. That both those claims are made about the same person is proof that voting comparisons are fraught. It is just as confusing when it
Off the Charts
The talk about domestic and family violence prevention is big, the funding less so
The amount committed by both political parties to preventing domestic and family violence suggests they believe there are other, more important, priorities.
Demonstrating Australia’s gas export problem: INPEX vs Aus states
When one company exports more than is consumed in NSW, Victoria and South Australia combined, there is clearly no gas shortage.
Coal Mine Tracker
Since May 2022, the Federal Environment Minister has approved 10 new coal mines or expansions.
There are 22 additional proposals for new or expanded coal mines currently waiting for Federal Government approval.
If approved, the lifetime emissions from all 32 projects would be equivalent to keeping all of Australia’s coal-fired power stations operating for an additional 95 years.
Hunter Valley Mine Watch
No new coal mines are needed in the Hunter Valley. Avoiding dangerous climate change requires keeping coal in the ground, and with the world moving away from coal as an energy source new coal mines will simply compete with existing coal mines for a declining market.
Total coal production gap
Rehabilitation cost shortfall
HeatWatch
HeatWatch puts current Australian research about temperature increases due to global warming into context, using data from the Bureau of Meteorology and the CSIRO.
Adelaide: HeatWatch projects up to 49 days over 35°C per year by 2090
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