Speaker 1: This podcast is produced in partnership with the Australian Electoral Commission.
Speaker 1: Camera already and.
Speaker 2: This is the Daily This is the Daily OS.
Speaker 3: Oh now it makes sense. Good morning and welcome to
Speaker 3: the Daily OS. It's Sunday, the twenty seventh of April.
Speaker 3: I'm belief, it's Simon's.
Speaker 1: I'm Sam because losky Sam.
Speaker 3: Can you smell that?
Speaker 1: Is that a democracy?
Speaker 3: It is the smell of democracy in action. And we
Speaker 3: are so happy, aren't we, Sam, to be here on
Speaker 3: another Sunday with another bonus episode, this time on all
Speaker 3: of the questions that you have about Australia's election process.
Speaker 3: Think of this as going right back to the basics.
Speaker 3: We are doing politics one oh one.
Speaker 1: It's a good time to tune in, isn't it. Because
Speaker 1: we are going to the polls next Saturday.
Speaker 3: It is a very good time to tune in all
Speaker 3: of Australia. Like you said, Sam will be heading to
Speaker 3: the polls on Saturday day, the third of May, when
Speaker 3: the country will decide who will next form government. Now,
Speaker 3: Sam over on Instagram, We asked our audience what they
Speaker 3: wanted to know and we were completely inundated with questions.
Speaker 3: So today we are answering all of those questions.
Speaker 1: Let's start off with the first one from Sharane. She
Speaker 1: asked what positions or roles are we actually voting for.
Speaker 3: That's the perfect one to start us off because it
Speaker 3: does take us right back to the basics and it's
Speaker 3: really important for us to understand. So in this election,
Speaker 3: we're all actually voting for a couple of things at
Speaker 3: the federal election. So you're voting for who you want
Speaker 3: to represent your local area in the House of Representatives,
Speaker 3: and you're also voting for who you want to represent
Speaker 3: your state or territory in the Senate. Now, I think
Speaker 3: for this episode we will mostly focus on the House
Speaker 3: of Representatives just because that is the house that determines
Speaker 3: which party will be in government.
Speaker 1: Cool.
Speaker 3: So it's in the House of Reps that voters will
Speaker 3: be electing someone from their area, which is also known
Speaker 3: as an electorate, and that person will speak on their
Speaker 3: behalf in Parliament. Now, Sam, do you know how many
Speaker 3: electorates there are in Australia, Well, I.
Speaker 1: Do know that you need seventy six seats to win.
Speaker 1: That is true, So therefore there would be seventy five
Speaker 1: times two, which is one hundred and fifty.
Speaker 3: That is true and a great guest because last election
Speaker 3: there were actually one hundred and fifty one electorates, but
Speaker 3: now there's been a redistribution and now, yeah, did you
Speaker 3: not know?
Speaker 1: I didn't know that.
Speaker 3: I love that you learned something new along with the audience.
Speaker 3: That's so good. So now there are one hundred and
Speaker 3: fifty electorates in Australia, and so that means that there
Speaker 3: are one hundred and fifty seats up for grabs in
Speaker 3: the House of Reps. And those electorates are based on
Speaker 3: population side, so there are roughly about one hundred and
Speaker 3: twenty thousand voters who live in each electorate.
Speaker 1: And then I imagine that would mean that there's many
Speaker 1: electorates in a metropolitan city, but then an electorate might
Speaker 1: be really massive in the outback or exactly in some
Speaker 1: of the more regional areas.
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely. And each electorate will have several different candidates,
Speaker 3: usually one from each major party, so from the Labor
Speaker 3: Party and the Liberal Party, and then some from minor
Speaker 3: parties and others will also have independence running in that electorate,
Speaker 3: which means that they just don't belong to a registered party.
Speaker 1: So it's kind of like, there's one hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: different races happening all at once, and the party or
Speaker 1: the coalition of parties that wins the seventy six number
Speaker 1: across the races is going to be the next government exactly.
Speaker 3: So there literally are one hundred and fifty different races
Speaker 3: happening at once. Plus there's also the eight Senate races.
Speaker 3: I know, we said that we were just going to
Speaker 3: focus on the House of Reps, but you can't forget
Speaker 3: about the Senate, so there are also eight Senate races.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I think that's important thing to point out
Speaker 3: because often you just focus on kind of the one
Speaker 3: big federal election race, but in reality, there are so
Speaker 3: many different races all happening at once, which determines that
Speaker 3: one overall big.
Speaker 1: Race, which makes Saturday night, when everyone's counting one hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty races at once or trying to figure out
Speaker 1: what the numbers mean and where and why, it makes
Speaker 1: it such a chaotic, bit exciting night.
Speaker 3: All the more exciting. Yeah, and it's because of this,
Speaker 3: of what's happening in all the different electorates that you
Speaker 3: won't actually see either Labor leader Anthony Albanesi or Liberal
Speaker 3: Party leader Peter Dunden on your ballot paper unless you
Speaker 3: are in their actual electorate. And it's also why when
Speaker 3: you know you're walking around your area and you see
Speaker 3: lots of posters up for the election, you're probably not
Speaker 3: seeing Albanesi or Dudden's faces. You're seeing the faces and
Speaker 3: names of the local candidates in your electorate, which.
Speaker 1: Is one of the big differences we have with the
Speaker 1: American presidential system. Yeah, where it's all about kind of
Speaker 1: the two leaders. We've got that one hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: race system. And when you said the House of Representatives
Speaker 1: is where the government's formed, tell me a little bit
Speaker 1: more about how that actually works, Like how do you
Speaker 1: form a government?
Speaker 3: Well, you kind of just answer that by saying that
Speaker 3: they need to have at least seventy six seats. So
Speaker 3: to just take a quick step back, so to form government,
Speaker 3: a party needs to have at least seventy six of
Speaker 3: their party members winning their electorate. You kind of already
Speaker 3: did the mass for us, sam be I'll do it again.
Speaker 3: So seventy six is the magic number because it is
Speaker 3: a majority of the one hundred and fifty seats up.
Speaker 1: For grabs, And I literally picture a pigraph of the
Speaker 1: House of Reps in my head, and see that kind
Speaker 1: of middle point. And if you can sneak over a
Speaker 1: little bit into the other side, you're forming government.
Speaker 3: You're in government. And it's the Labor Party and the Coalition,
Speaker 3: which is made up of the Liberal and National Parties,
Speaker 3: who are usually the two groups who are able to
Speaker 3: form that majority. So they're trying to reach that number
Speaker 3: of seventy six seats at the election next Saturday.
Speaker 1: And that might happen on Saturday night if they've got
Speaker 1: heaps of seats, but it might take a little bit longer,
Speaker 1: and they might have to kind of figure out deals
Speaker 1: with smaller parties and independence to form a minority government. Right.
Speaker 3: Yes, And that is another question that we got a lot,
Speaker 3: which is what exactly is a minority government.
Speaker 1: I hear that term thrown around a lot every couple
Speaker 1: of elections. I feel like it's kind of an almost
Speaker 1: predicted result every so often. Can you explain exactly what
Speaker 1: that means?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So if no one reaches that magic number of
Speaker 3: seventy six seats, then that's when our attention turns to
Speaker 3: a minority government, which is also known as a hung parliament.
Speaker 3: And it means that the major parties will need to
Speaker 3: negotiate with minor parties or independents to form government. Now,
Speaker 3: this doesn't mean that those parties formally join forces or
Speaker 3: that the minor parties and independence become part of the government. Rather,
Speaker 3: they kind of just agree to guarantee something called confidence
Speaker 3: and supply.
Speaker 1: Explain what that means.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So that means that they agree to keep the
Speaker 3: government in power and to vote to pass the budget
Speaker 3: so that money can be allocated to keep the country
Speaker 3: essentially running. And in exchange for that support, minor parties
Speaker 3: and independents will likely impose some sort of conditions which
Speaker 3: could look like support for particular policies that are important
Speaker 3: to them.
Speaker 1: I remember it would have to be maybe fifteen years
Speaker 1: ago or so. Now we went through one of these
Speaker 1: scenarios and it was down to a group of three
Speaker 1: independents to pick who they were going to back for
Speaker 1: that confidence and supply.
Speaker 3: You're talking about when Julia Gillard was Prime Minister exactly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I remember it almost feeling like a little
Speaker 1: bit of an Australian Idol style press conference when they
Speaker 1: were announcing who they were going to back, and it
Speaker 1: was incredible that we have this big system with all
Speaker 1: of these races all over the country, and because of
Speaker 1: the dynamics of that election, it all came down to
Speaker 1: who those independents were going to back.
Speaker 3: I'm picturing like ten year old Sam or twelve year
Speaker 3: old Sam when that was going on TV. So excited.
Speaker 1: But it can be really confusing.
Speaker 3: It can be confusing, and so I want to just
Speaker 3: give you an example, and I'm going to use made
Speaker 3: up parties and policies here to just explain how a
Speaker 3: minority government works. So, Sam, let's say the Orange Party
Speaker 3: is a major party and they after the election has
Speaker 3: been held, only have seventy four seats.
Speaker 1: So on my pigraph, in my head, they're not over
Speaker 1: the halfway line.
Speaker 3: They're not over the halfway line, and so they need
Speaker 3: two more seats to form government and to get over
Speaker 3: that halfway line. And then let's say that we have
Speaker 3: the Pink Party, which is a minority party, and they
Speaker 3: have won two seats. So if the Orange Party and
Speaker 3: the Pink Party came together, then that would mean that
Speaker 3: they have seventy six seats and that's enough to form government.
Speaker 3: So Sam, in your paragraph, that's about fifty one percent
Speaker 3: or maybe a little bit over if my mass is correct,
Speaker 3: and that could mean that they could then form government,
Speaker 3: but in exchange for it support the Pink Party, which
Speaker 3: is the minor party. They might say, I can a
Speaker 3: lot about every person getting a free puppy, and I'll
Speaker 3: only support you if you make that law. And so
Speaker 3: then it's up to the Orange Party, the major party,
Speaker 3: to decide whether or not they're actually willing to make
Speaker 3: that compromise, since giving everyone free puppies wasn't actually part
Speaker 3: of what they wanted to do when they were campaigning
Speaker 3: to be in government.
Speaker 1: It's such an interesting way that power can kind of
Speaker 1: evolve in those situations. I mean, it's a quirk of
Speaker 1: the system.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And so basically, if you're kind of listening to
Speaker 3: this and a little bit lost, all you need to
Speaker 3: know is that when it comes to the House of Representatives,
Speaker 3: which is where government is formed, minor parties and independents
Speaker 3: are most important. When there is a minority government.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine a country where everyone had a free puppy.
Speaker 3: That's why I use that example because I think it
Speaker 3: would be a happier country.
Speaker 1: I would try and figure out how to be selling
Speaker 1: like leashes or you've got that's incredible. Let's let's stick
Speaker 1: to a more real, listic scenario. Though. The next question
Speaker 1: came through. It's a really interesting one. Tell me about
Speaker 1: a marginal seat.
Speaker 3: Okay, so a marginal seat is basically an electorate where
Speaker 3: it's not clear who's going to win because it appears
Speaker 3: to be a really close race.
Speaker 1: But it's worth noting that we don't actually know who's
Speaker 1: going to win in any seat though, right.
Speaker 3: No, that's true, But the AEC has a formal definition
Speaker 3: of a marginal seat, so they define it as one
Speaker 3: where the winner last time, So at the last election
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty two received less than fifty six percent
Speaker 3: of the final vote. Now, last election, they were actually
Speaker 3: about a third of the seat, so a third of
Speaker 3: the one hundred and fifty one remember last time, it
Speaker 3: was different. A third of the one hundred and fifty
Speaker 3: one seats that fit that description of being a marginal seat.
Speaker 3: So that's quite a few. So that tells us that
Speaker 3: there were lots of really tight races at the last election. Now,
Speaker 3: anything above that fifty six percent vote is considered a
Speaker 3: safe seat. So those are the ones where we can
Speaker 3: pretty confidently say who will win that race, got it.
Speaker 3: But it's the marginal seats that tend to get a
Speaker 3: lot of the attention because they are ultimately the ones
Speaker 3: that will determine who wins government.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's really interesting and it kind of gives you
Speaker 1: a little bit of guidance. If you're sitting on the
Speaker 1: couch next Saturday night watching the election, what you should
Speaker 1: be focused on is how some of those marginal seats
Speaker 1: are going to fall. Definitely, Billy, we've got time for
Speaker 1: one more question. What if the leader of the winning
Speaker 1: party doesn't win their seat, So Anthony Aberenezi or Peter Dutton,
Speaker 1: whoever wins, they're one of the one hundred and fifty races.
Speaker 1: If they don't win their seat locally, what happens then?
Speaker 3: So in theory, that could happen because, like you just said, Sam,
Speaker 3: the leaders of the parties they don't just need to
Speaker 3: win the election, they also need to win the race
Speaker 3: in their electorate. Now, I do think it's worth mentioning
Speaker 3: that this is rare that it would happened, but it
Speaker 3: can happen. So the most recent example which I only
Speaker 3: learned about this whilst researching for this podcast, and I
Speaker 3: couldn't believe. I didn't know it was so interesting. You're
Speaker 3: a political not so you're.
Speaker 1: Absolutely eleven year old Sam soaked this up.
Speaker 3: Okay, So for those who don't know, the most recent
Speaker 3: example of something slightly similar happening is in two thousand
Speaker 3: and seven when John Howard, who was the incumbent Prime
Speaker 3: Minister at the time, and he was also the leader
Speaker 3: of the Liberal Party, he lost his electorate during the
Speaker 3: two thousand and seven election. He lost it to Kevin
Speaker 3: Right at Kevin O seven. How could we forget? But
Speaker 3: the difference with the question that you asked is that
Speaker 3: he didn't just lose his seat. His party, the Liberal Party,
Speaker 3: also lost the entire election.
Speaker 1: Do you know who he lost his seat to.
Speaker 3: I think it's a female journalist.
Speaker 1: Maxine McHugh, a former ABC journalist.
Speaker 3: Interesting who's no longer in politics.
Speaker 1: No longer in politics, But for an eleven year old
Speaker 1: Sam aspiring journalist, that was pretty cool.
Speaker 3: Eleven year old Sam is getting so much air time.
Speaker 3: He would be so proud, he would be so proud.
Speaker 3: But just quickly to answer your actual question of what
Speaker 3: would happen if a leader of a party lost their
Speaker 3: seat but the party won the entire election. If that happened,
Speaker 3: then the party would simply need to decide who the
Speaker 3: new leader of their party would be.
Speaker 1: Right, So it's unlikely, but there is a process of
Speaker 1: what could happen should that be the case. And it
Speaker 1: does just remind us all that we operate in this party.
Speaker 3: Structure and it is That's what I was going to say.
Speaker 1: It's less about the prime minister.
Speaker 3: It is much less about the prime minister because in
Speaker 3: Australia we are voting for which party we want to govern,
Speaker 3: not which leader we want to be our prime minister.
Speaker 1: I feel like we were all taught that in school,
Speaker 1: but it's always worth reminding ourselves that that's how our
Speaker 1: system actually works.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you mentioned the differences with the US before.
Speaker 3: That's again the key difference. We are voting for the party,
Speaker 3: We're not voting for the leader.
Speaker 1: It's really important to get familiar with the mechanics of
Speaker 1: the election and I think it's a point of pride
Speaker 1: always for me when we dive into how our democracy works,
Speaker 1: all the different tools available to politicians to get over
Speaker 1: the line get that magic seventy six seat number. Billy,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for taking us through that, Thank
Speaker 1: you so much, and we'll be back in your ears
Speaker 1: tomorrow morning for the final countdown towards the federal election.
Speaker 1: It's only six days away now. That is super exciting,
Speaker 1: a huge week for news, a huge week for the
Speaker 1: Daily os. We can't wait to be there with you.
Speaker 2: See then, my name is Lily Maddon and I'm a
Speaker 2: proud Arunda Bunjelung Kalkotin woman from Gadigl Country. The Daily
Speaker 2: oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands
Speaker 2: of the Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal
Speaker 2: and Torres Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects
Speaker 2: to the first peoples of these countries, both past and present.