The ballot draw ritual: @takvera reports Wills

By John Englart 16 August 2013 At the declaration of nominations in Wills (See Seat profile), Dean O’Callaghan, running as a Save the Planet independent, drew the top spot on the ballot paper. Greens candidate Tim Read took second position, with Liberal and Labor candidates at the bottom of the ticket. Kelvin Thomson, the sitting […]

#QldPol and the birth of Newmanism

By David Marler  @Qldaah No Fibs Queensland Reporter 31 July 2013 Out of all the Australian states and territories, it is Queensland’s Newman Government that is the most indicative of what an Abbott led Australia might look like. Welcome to hashtag #Qldpol. May 17, 2012: New Premier of Queensland Campbell Newman rises and delivers his maiden […]

Di Smith’s Labor pitch in Wentworth

By Di Smith 30 July, 2013 People often ask me why I have put myself in what they perceive to be an impossible situation: pitting myself against someone who is respected, well liked and, according to some commentators, quite possibly the most popular politician in the country. There are also those that say nothing is […]

Is @TonyAbbottMHR really ‘volunteering’?

By Margo Kingston 15 July 2013 For as long as I’ve been on Twitter tweeps have questioned the correctness of Mr Abbott’s claiming travel allowance from taxpayers for his ‘volunteer’ activities. Just yesterday @phonytonyabbott posted a piece detailing his expenses for surfing, fun runs and cycling. I am advised that Mr Abbott can claim these activities […]

Review – The Stalking of Julia Gillard

By Matthew Horan  @mattyhoran July 9 2013 With the blood still fresh on the walls of the caucus room, Kerry-Anne Walsh’s The Stalking of Julia Gillard is a victim of excellent – or poor – timing. Excellent because the public is looking for an insight into what went wrong with the nation’s first female PM in […]

When blocking a troll escalates risk of troll-harm: A @geeksrulz investigation

by Tony Yegles (The Geek) 5 July 2013 In which my investigation into who is behind Twitter DIRTBOT accounts @LaborDirt and @ALPdirt and websites Labordirt.com and Twittertrolls.com reveals a series of inadvertent coincidences, happenstances and riddles wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. What do you do when you come across obnoxious online behaviour of the troll-abuser-defamer […]

Why the people demand – and pay for – an #Ashby investigation

Margo: In part five of our series on new political activists, the man who inspired the formation of the Ashbygate Trust tells the why and how of it. By Brock Turner (@Turlow1) 2 July 2013 So how do you get complete strangers to commit more than $50,000 in two weeks, and what would prompt you […]

Ethical lapses by journalists contributed to Gillard’s demise

By Denis Muller, University of Melbourne Originally published at The Conversation June 28 2013 An integral power of the media is that of portrayal: the act of determining how people, events, ideas and organisations are described to the public, and therefore how they are perceived by the public. In this way, the media constructs for us […]

@nancycato1 tribute to our shy first female PM

[clear] Video by @mytwocentsandme Musical insert by @krONik  by Nancy Cato 30 June 2013 My darling Granddaughters Olivia and Hannah, You are now 4 and 2 years old respectively and as my Nanna (your Great Great Grandmother) and I started to discuss matters of great importance when I reached the age of 5, I’m  making sure I […]

A punter’s request to add class to political reporting

By Noely Neate 28 June 2013 Apart from excitement of Origin I have been pretty quiet on Twitter this week.  The blood sport that has been our politics has been particularly unedifying and to be perfectly frank, has depressed the hell out of me.  I don’t mean the fanbois type cheering of Rudd vs Gillard […]