* I was trying to work out why the election coverage seemed so dull on the ABC, but also the other networks I sometimes flicked over to. Sure, Wong and Sinodinos are smart and therefore a tad too reserved for lively commentary, but it seemed more than that.
The answer, I think, is the lack of the sound of background activity and the live audience that used to be around the broadcasts when they were from the tally room in Canberra. Has any station tried running an election broadcast with a mixed audience that could clap, cheer or boo results as they deem fit (rather than just the boring cuts to electorate settings when you get some of that noise)? Is that such a silly idea? Maybe it has happened and I have forgotten...
* I know the national Labor primary vote is way down - 33.3% as I write this - and you can paint the Greens (whose vote has held pretty solid at this election at 10.3%, despite their own internal ructions over the last couple of years) as hurting the Labor brand. But I'm not sure the Left leaning side of the population sees it as a fundamental problem - preferences would surely flow tightly between the two parties and I don't know that all that many people would consider not voting for Labor for fear of Greens influence. It's like an informal coalition that Labor has to deny in the interests of wanting to formulate its own policy, but I can't really see the embarrassment potential has that much effect in much the same way that moderate urban Liberal voters know they are also empowering a regional embarrassing hick like Barnaby Joyce. Perhaps this is just taking a naive view of the importance of swing voters, but I can't get too excited by it.
* Apart from my favourite explanation that the heat affects Queenslanders in weird ways, I suppose the more likely explanation is just that they (I am excusing myself from membership of the group at the moment) are ridiculously parochial - look at the popularity of Pauline Hanson and Kevin Rudd as examples. The latter is the type of nerdy swat politician who it would have been hard imagining being all that popular in Queensland, except he was from Nambour. And Hanson's party is showing 8.7% primary vote in Queensland at the moment, with the next closest state Tasmania at 2.7%. NSW and Victoria are 1.3% and 1% respectively. It's extremely likely, I think, that the "she's one of us and speaks like us" explains her success here, and it just doesn't translate to other States despite the ridiculous opportunity David Koch and Sunrise have given her over the years to try to build national appeal.
* As for polling and its accuracy - it seems the advent of the mobile phone is behind it, and no one seems sure how to get around it. At the same time, perhaps there is exaggeration about the inaccuracy - if you take into account margin of error, will they only be 1 to 2% out, and is that such a big deal? It's not as if the end result is an electoral wipeout, after all, in terms of composition of the House. I think its true that newpapers and parties should stop with the fixation on frequent polling outside of election periods. That is in large part media generated, and a bad thing for many years.
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