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This paper explores the reform of environmental policy-making by the Hawke government through its creation of the Resource Assessment Commission (RAC). The paper pursues two themes. First, it argues that this reform must be seen within the broader context of the Hawke government's approach to public policy generally. The paper argues that the Australian Labor Party (ALP) has instituted a model for policy politics based on key strategic and normative approaches—a model this paper refers to as 'Accordism'. Secondly, this paper looks at the RAC and in so doing argues that, on the basis of the norms that underpinned the reform of environmental policy-making based on this body, the Commission may be placed squarely within the 'Accordist' paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2011 NSW election produced the largest two-party swing in recent Australian election history, ending 16 years of Labor government. It raises the prospect of the end of Labor's dominance of NSW politics. This paper focuses on the consequences of ALP instability for the Party's electoral opportunities and strategy in the lead-up to its 2011 defeat. The authors single out the mass departure of Labor MPs prior to the election and the loss of Greens preferences as interesting problems for empirical analysis. They explore both loss of incumbency and preference effects in a seat-level (n = 93) regression model and comment on the significance of the findings for NSW Labor. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Australia's main parties have experienced rapid deterioration in levels of membership but most have been reluctant to follow the lead of many of their counterparts in Western Europe and embrace more radical, inclusive pre-selection formats to arrest declining numbers. This paper offers a partial explanation of why the Liberal and Labor parties have been disinclined to look to reforming candidate selection as a strategy to combat their shrinking rank-and-file membership. It argues that compulsory voting in conjunction with high levels of party identification has reduced the imperative for Australia's major parties to resort to candidate selection reform as a device to stabilise their voter base. This study underscores the important role of the institutional setting in affecting the incentives for parties to use pre-selection reform to combat a shrinking membership base. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Politics & Policy is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article focuses on the Labor Party government in Queensland. The government is led by Wayne Goss, the Prime Minister of Queensland. Goss exercises lot of control over all aspects of the government. The government had prepared itself seriously for office following the elections that were held in the year 1986. It had to plan strategic policy initiatives based on the themes of decentralization of decision making and devolution of power. It released key policy papers over the 12 months period before its election. The government has tried to fight prostitution which is a major source of police corruption.

Copyright of Australian Journal of Political Science is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study contributes to the scholarship on negative campaigning, revealing the important dynamics of party and media messaging and its subsequent effects on issue salience and vote choice. Using a large-scale dataset combined with content analysis of media coverage and party press releases, we offer an innovative methodology that provides evidence showing the effect of a prominent negative campaign ("Mediscare") launched by the centre-left Australian Labor Party during Australia's 2016 federal election. We find political elites can influence what voters are paying attention to and, when issue salience is high, this can influence vote choice. We find Labor's "Mediscare" had two main effects. It significantly raised the issue salience of healthcare with voters, and it had an impact on vote choice, particularly in marginal electorates. The scare campaign providing a reinforcement effect for Labor, arresting declining support for the party that was evident prior to the commencement of the negative campaign. We conclude that under the circumstances of high public awareness, "issue ownership" and compulsory voting, this negative campaign was effective in shaping the 2016 electoral outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its formation in 1913, the Western Australian branch of the National Party has faced many challenges to its survival. Electoral reform removing rural malapportionment in 2005 prompted changes in strategic direction, including abandoning coalition with the Liberal Party and creating a discrete image, branding and policy approach. Holding the balance of power after the 2008 election, the party adopted a post-election bargaining strategy to secure ministries and funding for its 'Royalties for Regions' policy. This 'WA approach' is distinctive from amalgamation and coalition arrangements embraced elsewhere in Australia. This article updates progress of the strategy following state and federal elections in 2013 and finds that it has been a success measured by increased votes, seats and policy influence and expansion into regional Western Australia to displace Labor. However, its applicability to other branches of the National Party is likely to be limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various aspects of the political conditions in Australia between July and December 2013, focusing on the reported tribalisation of Australian politics and the nation's 44th federal election on September 7, 2013 which featured interim Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. According to the article, Australia's Labor Party-led government was swept out in 2013 after two parliamentary terms in office. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and political campaigns are examined.

The processes political parties use to select their candidates for public office constitute a crucial element of political recruitment in representative democracies and provide important insights into how power is distributed within party organisations. In this article, we develop a typology for understanding the diversity of preselection mechanisms in Australia's major parties that is based on degrees of influence between the central and local components of the party organisation. The typology in turn reflects preselection rules as public expressions of intra-party power sharing arrangements. We also identify the institutional, strategic and normative factors (including electoral systems, the accommodation of intra-party groups, candidate quality, efficiency and social norms) that influence the choices parties have to make when selecting and implementing a particular system. 政党用以选举候选人出任公职的过程构成了代议制民主国家政治遴选的一个关键因素，并提供了理解政党组织内权力分配的一个重要角度。本文根据中央和地方党组织之间影响的不同程度，提出了一种分类法以理解澳大利亚主要政党预选机制的多样性。这种分类法本身反映了作为表达政党内权力分享安排的预选规则。我们还找到了体制、战略以及规范性因素（包括选举制度、党内不同群体的相互适应、候选人品质、效率、社会规范等等），这些因素会影响政党选择和实施某种制度时的决策。 [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An article discussing the political preferences of Australian voters based on economic and postmaterialist values is presented. The author uses the example of the 2009 by-election for the Australian legislative seat of Higgins to examine an axis system created by scholars David Charnock and Peter Ellis, which measures the positions of Australian political parties, such as the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and the Liberal/Nationals (Coalition,) by synthesizing data collected by the Australian Election Study (AES.) An analysis of the data, including voter turnout trends and ideological factors, is also included

The split in the Australian Labor Party (ALP) of the mid-1950s had a lasting impact on both the political and industrial wings of the labour movement. In electoral terms the creation of the Democratic Labor Party (DLP), and the DLP's second-preference strategy, in particular, had adverse consequences for the ALP. This article re-examines the DLP in terms as a political party, a promotional pressure group and as part of a social movement. The article argues that as a party, the DLP was a failure largely due to its narrow focus on anti-communist defence and foreign policies. But as part of a social movement, it was far more successful and its legacy was still evident in 2007, and was found in the non-labourist social conservatism of the Howard government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past three decades, factions have cemented their hold over the Australian Labor Party. This has largely been due to the entrenchment of the proportional representation of factions. One of the effects of the institutionalisation of factions has been the development of factional sub-groupings ('fractions'). This article analyses the phenomenon by looking at a case study of a single ALP faction — the Left in New South Wales. Since 1971, two major fractions have developed in the NSW Left, based on ideological disagreements, personality conflicts, generational differences and arguments over the role of the union movement in the ALP. This development parallels the intra-factional splits that have occurred in many other sections of the Labor Party. Yet the factional system in the 1980s and 1990s operated relatively effectively as a means of managing power. The question now is whether it can survive the challenge of new issues that cross-cut traditional ideological lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the concentration of Australian Labor Party voters, that party has to poll more votes than the Liberal and National Parties to win an election. That is not a gerrymander, for no matter how fairly the boundaries were drawn, Labor would still need to poll more votes than its opponents under the preferential, single-member constituency voting system. Nevertheless, even under perfectly fair electoral redistributions, Labor is bound to come off worst because Labor voters are more highly concentrated than non-Labor voters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until the 1960s, the federal Labor party was formally pledged to the abolition of federalism and its replacement a system in which the central government would have plenary powers and the states only delegated administrative responsibilities. This article examines how the ALP'S platform was progressively changed during the 1960s and 1970s. The modification of Labor's commitment to abolish federalism and the Senate was due partly to a more realistic sense of what was feasible and partly to a more sophisticated approach towards working the existing system. But, as well, Labor's social and economic goals had been moderated to ones that were congenial to middle Australia and private enterprise. Progressive changes to Labor's platform were an important precondition for the Whitlam government's 'new federalism' in the 1970s. and the Hawke government's current initiative of 'closer partnership with the states' for reforming the practical working of the federal system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article shows the new party groupings and alignments that came about after the 2010 Australian parliamentary elections. It examines how the three-cornered political geometry of the Liberal, Labor and Green Parties will translate to future governmental policies and initiatives. It looks at how the 2010 elections changed some of the prevailing political trends that defined Australian politics at this time, among them the continuing impact of climate change initiatives and the gradual shift from conservative to liberal views.