Election 2010 Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Ironically I was doing other stuff during the election period rather than focusing on the Senate. Basically, the place split as expected.

The most interesting results were in Victoria, Tasmania and the ACT.

In Victoria the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) won a seat from Family First, meaning the Coalition only won 2 seats in the state. In Tasmania the ALP/Greens won 4 seats, leaving the Coalition with only 2. The other states split 50/50 left/right. And in the ACT, the Liberal's candidate was almost pushed to preferences, setting up a fight with the Greens in the next election.

The Sex Party, Liberal Democratic Party and the Shooters Party all had decent swings to them. The Sex Party, the political arm of the Eros Foundation, in their first Senate election, ran a highly visible and well funded (well, it was funded!) campaign. The Liberal Democratic Party was probably the beneficiary of being a stable entry with a solid niche (the libertarian vote) as well as a name change from the Liberty and Democracy Party to the much more popular Liberal Democrats name ... containing not only the word Liberal, but the word Democrat and also the popular UK party name in the title.

The Senate now swings from left to right in July next year. This means the Coalition only have 7 months to annoy the government until the Greens get their turn.

Quotas are too high in the Senate.