The Tally Room

Ben is joined by Phoebe Hayman and Zareh Ghazarian to discuss the Victorian election, with a particular focus on the campaign messages and campaign tactics as a new poll puts Labor under 20% and opening up the possibility of a Coalition landslide on a third of the vote. You can now watch a video version of this podcast on Youtube. This podcast is supported by the Tally Room’s supporters on Patreon...

Ben is joined by James Mulrennan from The Overhang to discuss this weekend's New Zealand election - the parties, the polls and the ways in which New Zealand's electoral system might play out in circumstances very different to past elections. You can now watch a video version of this podcast on Youtube. This podcast is supported by the Tally Room’s supporters on Patreon . If you find this podcast w...

A month out from the Victorian state election, Ben and Benita Kolovos from the Guardian discuss the last four years of Victorian politics, the issues dominating the lead-up to the election, the impact of One Nation and the race for the upper house. You can now watch a video version of this podcast on Youtube. This podcast is supported by the Tally Room’s supporters on Patreon . If you find this po...

In the final part of 'Just Vote 1', Ben runs through how parties encouraged voters to not number preferences to get a political advantage as first One Nation and then the Greens became major sources of preferences. Ben also considers who might benefit from OPV today, and possible solutions that blend the best parts of optional and compulsory preferential voting systems. You can now watch a video v...

In the second part of 'Just Vote 1', Ben looks at the history of optional preferential voting from the 1950s to the 1990s: the role of DLP preferences in keeping Labor out of power, and the Whitlam government's failed attempt to legislate for OPV in response. Then in the 1980s and 1990s, things began to change - as preferences became more favourable to Labor, the party positions changed. In the fi...

In the first in a three-party election history series about Optional Preferential Voting called 'Just Vote 1', Ben explores the rise of preferential voting - how it happened, who supported and how political self-interest explains the change. In the next two episodes, Ben will explore Labor's push for first-past-the-post and optional preferential voting in the middle of the 20th century, and how th...

Ben was joined by Mark Riboldi from UTS to preview this weekend's Farrer by-election, and what it might imply about the Coalition's bigger issues losing support to One Nation and independents. You can now watch a video version of this podcast on Youtube. This podcast is supported by the Tally Room’s supporters on Patreon . If you find this podcast worthwhile please consider giving your support. Yo...

Ben was joined by Rob Manwaring to look over the results of last Saturday's South Australian state election, in particular the emergence of One Nation as a party polling higher than the Liberal Party. You can now watch a video version of this podcast on Youtube. This podcast is supported by the Tally Room’s supporters on Patreon . If you find this podcast worthwhile please consider giving your sup...

Ben was joined by Josh Sunman from Flinders University to run through the seats that could be in play on South Australia's election night and how preference distributions could become much more complex amidst a One Nation surge. You can now watch a video version of this podcast on Youtube. This podcast is supported by the Tally Room’s supporters on Patreon . If you find this podcast worthwhile ple...

Ben was joined by Intifar Chowdhury and Anthony Zougras to bring the podcast up to speed on South Australian politics before the state election on March 21. They discussed the decline in support for the Liberal Party, the emergence of One Nation, and Peter Malinauskas' dominance in the state. You can now watch a video version of this podcast on Youtube. This podcast is supported by the Tally Room’...

How does owning your home or renting impact on how you vote? For today's podcast, Ben was joined by Shaun Ratcliff and Josh Goddard to discuss what we know about how home ownership (or asset ownership more broadly) influences voting trends. We discuss Josh's research looking at 14 different Western democracies, and also hear from Shaun about more research closer to home. You can now watch a video...

In last Sunday's Thai general election, voters swung strongly to current prime minister Anutin's Bhumjaithai Party, or BJT. In this podcast, Ben discusses Thai politics and the results of the Thai election with Erin Cook of the Dari Mulut ke Mulut newsletter .   You can now watch a video version of this podcast on Youtube.   This podcast is supported by the Tally Room’s supporters on Patreon . If...

Ben was joined by Donna Weeks, emeritus professor at Musashino University, to discuss this coming weekend's Japanese general election, where new prime minister Sanae Takaichi will be attempting to achieve her own mandate. This podcast is supported by the Tally Room’s supporters on Patreon . If you find this podcast worthwhile please consider giving your support. You can listen to an ad-free versio...

Ben was joined by George Hasanakos from pollster DemosAU to discuss the surge in support for One Nation, which has pushed them ahead of the combined Liberal-National vote in a number of polls, as well as the split in the Liberal-National coalition. They discuss how these two trends impact on how polls are conducted. This podcast was recorded before the publication of polls by YouGov and Essential...

Ben was joined this week by Osmond Chiu, Per Capita research fellow and contributor editor for the Labor Left magazine Challenge, to discuss the factions of the Australian Labor Party. Read Osmond's 2020 piece in Jacobin on the history of Labor's factions. This podcast is supported by the Tally Room’s supporters on Patreon . If you find this podcast worthwhile please consider giving your support....

Ben was joined by Sarah Cameron from Griffith University, to discuss the results of the 2025 Australian Election Study, including Peter Dutton's unpopularity, foreign policy, voter dealignment, and how the vote splits by gender, generation and whether people own their own home. This podcast is supported by the Tally Room’s supporters on Patreon . If you find this podcast worthwhile please consider...

Ben was joined by Michael Evangelidis from GovConnex to discuss the factions of the Liberal Party of Australia - how fluid they are, how they work from the branch level to federal and state party rooms, and how the factions have changed in recent years. This podcast is supported by the Tally Room’s supporters on Patreon . If you find this podcast worthwhile please consider giving your support. You...

Ben was joined by Frank Bongiorno and Chris Monnox to discuss the history of Australia's federal parliament being expanded, in 1949 and 1984. We discuss the motivations for these changes, the positions taken by the parties and why it happened when it did. We also discuss efforts to break the 'nexus' which links the size of the House to the size of the Senate. This podcast is supported by the Tally...

Ben was joined by Matt Dennien from the Brisbane Times to discuss the Queensland state redistribution, specifically the first round of submissions. The conversation focuses on the Labor and LNP submissions, and also run through some of the other public submissions. This podcast is supported by the Tally Room’s supporters on Patreon . If you find this podcast worthwhile please consider giving your...

Ben is joined by Kevin Bonham and Chris Monnox to discuss the results of the Tasmanian state election and prospects for the formation of a new government. This podcast is supported by the Tally Room’s supporters on Patreon . If you find this podcast worthwhile please consider giving your support. You can listen to an ad-free version of this podcast if you sign up via Patreon for $8 or more per mon...

Ben is joined by William Bowe from the Poll Bludger to discuss the latest Tasmanian state polls and go through Tasmania's five electorates one by one, discussing the race and possible winners in each division. We refer extensively to Kevin Bonham's blog post breaking down the latest DemosAu poll This podcast is supported by the Tally Room’s supporters on Patreon . If you find this podcast worthwhi...

Ben was joined by Tasmanian political observer Mike Lester to look at the state of the campaign and the announcement of candidates for the Tasmanian state election. We particularly look into the Tasmanian Nationals and the shadow-boxing around who takes the blame for the calling of the election and who has the best prospect of forming a majority government. This podcast is supported by the Tally R...

Ben is joined by Kevin Bonham to discuss the collapse of the Tasmanian government just 15 months after the last election, and to look at some of the early moves for independents to find a new party home. This podcast is supported by the Tally Room’s supporters on Patreon . If you find this podcast worthwhile please consider giving your support. You can listen to an ad-free version of this podcast...

For this podcast Ben interviews two scrutineers about their experience in the recounts: Adelaide, a Liberal scrutineer from Bradfield, and KJ, an independent scrutineer from Goldstein. Ben also discusses the recount procedures he saw in Bradfield last week and the latest count updates from Monday afternoon. Ben's blog post about visiting the Bradfield recount The podcast features the song 'It's a...

Ben was joined by Kevin Bonham to run through the close seats and the Senate race that have dragged out, one week after the election. This podcast is supported by the Tally Room’s supporters on Patreon . If you find this podcast worthwhile please consider giving your support. You can listen to an ad-free version of this podcast if you sign up via Patreon for $8 or more per month. And $8 donors can...