APSA 2022 SSW Webinar | Making Sense of the 2022 Elections
Open-access Webinar | Thursday 8 September 2022 12:30 pm – 2.00 pm (AEST, GMT+10:00)
The national elections in May 2022 resulted in a significant shift in the composition of the parliament. While the Australian Labor Party won government with a slim majority in the House of Representatives, both it and the Liberal Party saw a decline in their respective share of the primary vote. A record number of independent candidates won seats in the House of Representatives. The Greens went from a solitary member in the House to four and gained two new members in the Senate to make it the third largest party in that House. There was also a significant increase in the numbers of First Nations peoples elected for the ALP, the Greens, the Country Liberal Party, and the Jacqui Lambie Network. Taken as a whole such an outcome prompts a number of questions: Are these outcomes only a temporary aberration that will recalibrate come the next election? Do these outcomes signal the decline and possible demise of the so-called two-party system? How might considerations of issues around gender and race have shaped political perceptions and voting behaviours? Are we experiencing a longer-term shift in the underlying dynamics of Australia’s political culture? Might these developments be signalling a “new normal” for Australian politics? This webinar seeks to explore these questions and more in order to consider what the 2022 elections might tell us about Australia’s twenty-first century political culture.
Speakers
Dr Tim Battin (Honorary Associate, Australia Institute)
Dr Zareh Ghazarian (Monash University)
Professor Emerita Carol Johnson (University of Adelaide)
Dr Geoffrey Robinson (Deakin University)
Dr Jill Sheppard (Australian National University)
Professor Chris Wallace (University of Canberra)
Moderator
Emeritus Professor Jim Jose (University of Newcastle and APSA President)
A recording of the webinar can be found here.