Could a change be afoot in the way Australians vote in federal elections?
The Coalition government may be eyeing a shift to optional preferential voting as used in New South Wales which allows voters to simply vote “1” or allocate only a partial list of preferences on their ballot, instead of a full ordering of preferences for every candidate.
The proposal was included in a series of potentially revolutionary changes to our electoral system that were quietly released by a parliamentary committee in December, when few people were paying attention.
The joint standing committee on electoral matters claimed a shift to optional preferential voting would help address rising rates of “informal voting” in NSW caused by the differences between the state and federal systems. The reason: a valid vote at the state level with less than a full list of preferences would be invalid if repeated at a federal election.
Liberal-held Perth proposed to be abolished by AEC
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Sources familiar with the campaign who spoke on the condition of anonymity say the kitchen sink was thrown at some members, like the United States, which Morrison, Foreign Minister Marise Payne, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and ambassador Arthur Sinodinos all targeted. Sinodinos was Howardâs long-serving chief of staff and the veteran operatorâs wily ways were crucial to opening the doors to the new Biden administration. Western Australia Governor Kim Beazley also called Democrats he knew from his own ambassadorial stint in Washington to make the case for Cormann.
Cormann slipped into the US following President Joe Bidenâs inauguration in January for five days of meetings with senior officials, including at the White House. Effort went into making sure the visit stayed under-the-radar given Cormannâs travel through Europe on a Royal Australian Air Force jet had caused controversy in November.
Chief News Anchor Kieran Gilbert and Political Editor Andrew Clennell will lead SKY News coverage of the WA state election tomorrow.
Kieran Gilbert said: “With many expecting a historical Labor landslide for this election, the big questions will be whether McGowan’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic has been enough to secure Labor a rare double majority in both Houses, whether the Liberals will lose enough seats to be turfed out of the Opposition, and what would this mean federally for Scott Morrison ahead of the next election?
“Our leading political reporters and panel of experts will be here to answer all those questions live as every vote is counted.”
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Recent RBA rhetoric about the need for higher wages growth has been stark:
Wage and price pressures are subdued and are expected to remain so for some years. The economy is still operating with considerable spare capacity and the unemployment rate remains higher than it has been for some years. Further progress in reducing spare capacity is expected, but it will be some time before the labour market is tight enough to generate wage increases that are consistent with achieving the inflation target. In the central scenario, the unemployment rate will still be around 6 per cent at the end of this year and 5½ per cent at the end of 2022. In underlying terms, inflation is expected to be 1¼ per cent over 2021 and 1½ per cent over 2022. CPI inflation is expected to rise temporarily because of the reversal of some COVID-19-related price reductions.
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