cam, 106 words, 0 comments, Changes in Government Graphs, Tasmania, States

Like South Australia, Tasmania has been pretty competitive other than one period of 30+ years of dominance between 1934 and 1969 by the Labor Party.

Aynsley Kellow argues that during Labor's hold on Tasmanian politics between 1934 and 1982 the politics were "distributive rather than redistributive in flavour, what Lowi calls patronage politics." State sponsored development for industrialisation, mineral extraction and hydro-electric power led to electoral success. (more)

cam, 398 words, 1 comment, Decentralisation, Water, Sewerage, Tasmania, Greg Barns, Market-state

When Canberra cherry-picks responsibilities from the states it is anti-federalism. When the states take from the local councils there is no real name for it other than centralisation. Tasmanian Councils are defending their authority and responsibility over sewerage and water. It is a familiar pattern, a crisis appears, and a central authority uses that crisis or emergency to covet new powers. It has been a dominant force in Australian politics. (more)

cam, 164 words, 0 comments, Robson Rotation, Incumbency, Churn Rate, Tasmania

The Robson Rotation is an electoral technology used in Tasmania which jumbles the order of the candidates within a party grouping on the ballot paper. it was developed as a challenge to the donkey vote, effectively dampening any skewing of the vote by voters ticking off the first five in the list. Does the Robson Rotation affect incumbency? (more)

cam, 790 words, 0 comments, Judy Jackson, Rene Hidding, Guy Barnett, Industrial Relations, Federalism, Lionel Murphy, Tasmania

Judy Jackson, Tasmania's Attorney General, has announced that Tasmania will join New South Wales and Western Australia in challenging the constitutionality of the Howard Government's IR laws. I think this a good thing. Anything that can stall the rampant anti-federalism emanating from Canberra is a positive. The States need to be more diverse and heterogeneous in their economic policies. Canberra dictating from afar is not a good thing. (more)

cam, 658 words, 0 comments, Tasmania, Robson Rotation, Neil Robson, Hare-Clark

Australia has a strong history of innovation at the electoral level. The states have been the incubators for this innovation with Tasmania being one of the leaders. The Robson Rotation gets it name from Neil Robson's bill to the Tasmanian Assembly in 1979. The Tasmanian Assembly uses a preference voting system. One of the inefficiencies of the preference system that skews the outcome is the "donkey vote". The Robson Rotation limits the effect of this.

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