Graham, Can you (or anyone for that matter) please tell me if the voting returns for each polling booth in an electorate can be known. If so then how do I access them? Is there a link? Thanks in anticipation.

George@Denistone,

This is the link to the AEC Virtual Tally Room 'Turnout by State' page:

http://vtr.aec.gov.au/HouseTurnoutByState-13745.htm It is a good entry point to the AEC progressive results reporting.

On the left hand side of the page are clickable links to other AEC pages. Click on whichever State your are interested in under the non-clickable heading 'Division Results'. On the (State) Divisional Results page click on the Division you want. The progressive counting results for the whole Division will come up. Above the table title bar headed 'First Preferences' is a list of clickable links. One is labelled 'Two Candidate Preferred By Polling Place'. Click on that one.

That should, IMHO, give you a complete summary of the ordinary vote as per polling place acquittal, BUT IT DOESN'T. Just a dumbed-down two-party preferred result with no informals, votes for minor candidates, etc. But then again, it is headed 'Two Candidate Preferred ...'. Why would we of the dumb mug public want to know the ordinary vote details, details FINALISED ON POLLING NIGHT, five days after the poll?

Disgraceful!

Let me know if you can find anything better.

You may be interested in this post (and others in the same thread that preceed it): http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=1306#23371

Words fail me!

GRAHAM, old friend, I could argue with you all day but we would never change our convictions. But the world has changed and we have to too.You talk of "middle classes" and "left" and "right" politics, but as we are more educated and get ideas from RADIO NATIONAL which I have switched on from 5.30a.m. to midday as I go about my day, and T.V. which brings WAR and POVERTY into the lounge room and the internet where our grandchildren will be connected to in school soon.I have lived without electricity as a boy, but I'M "switched on"now!Get with it Mate!Lot's of us are unlabeled now, we have partners not wives,we have opinions on religion without dogma, we don't vote for party pollies unless we have to.But we realise all independents would be unwieldy and parliament is bad enough now.That's why Costello's given it away,we are no longer impressed by rhetoric and cleverness.At a young age he's an "old man" in politics.

George and Forrest, have a look at the ABC elections site here http://www.abc.net.au/elections/federal/2007/results/electorateindex.htm

Or alternately the AEC's detailed figures by electorate here http://vtr.aec.gov.au/HouseDivisionMenu-13745-NAT.htm

It seems to me that the victory of the Labor Party was really due to DUMB LUCK. Back in 2004, by a piece of gross ineptitude, the Labor Party gave Howard a majority in the Senate, by giving preferences in Victoria to Family First, who were then elected. With that majority Howard was able to over-reach himself with workchoices, something he had been trying to pass for the previous ten years, but had been unable to get through the Senate. So the piece of gross ineptitude turned into a stroke of genius, but of course I am sure this was not forseen.

From all my experience, if you have to choose between a conspiracy and a stuff-up, always go for the stuff-up.

It is also of interest to note that the misery index (the sum of the unemployment and inflation rates) got down to 6.8% earlier this year. When will we see this figure again?

Or, putting it another way, how long will it be before the Howard years are referred to as a "Golden Age"?

As usual Graham gives as an accurate appraisal. The libs lost, basically for the reasons he stated. However times have changed and those blue collar swinging voters now work for themselves and are the employers of others...who now do the work they once did. They are not conservative ... they don't give a damn about idealogies or labels. All they expect is a fair go for everyone. Workchoices didn't allow that. They will vote for the party which gives them economic conditions favourable to their businesses and employees and which doesn't try to allow anyone to take advantage of them and/or their employees.

At state level we have seen the alienated 'middle class' get square by sacking any Liberal who promotes the right wing Liberal ideas which often tend to mirror 'Anglo-Celtic working-class themes based on a particular concept of national identity, expressed in policies on immigration, foreign affairs and culture' and have emphasis on economic matters to the detriment of social policy. In Queensland Liberal voters rejected both Caltabiano and Santoro...the doyans of the liberal right in state parliament. I don't think that was coincidental.