Two weeks since the Australian federal election. The voters have done their job, and done it well (except perhaps for those who followed the Mark Latham "blank vote" line). The numbers have fallen in almost a complete tie. So be it.

There's no hurry to form a fresh government. The incumbents are carrying on in caretaker mode just nicely, and Julia Gillard will have first stab at forming a minority government. Negotiations continue as to which (if either) side Messrs Katter, Windsor and Oakeshott will take.

There would be a glorious symmetry at work if Gillard were to spend just two days in parliament as the Prime Minister: June 24, the day Kevin Rudd was knifed and last day of the winter session; and the first day of a new parliament where she loses a vote for speaker and immediate no-confidence motion. But I, and probably all of us, hope that the resolution is, one way or the other, more stable than that.

Considering how shonkily the Liberal leadership have behaved in presenting (and mis-representing) the costings of their election pledges, it would be easy to imagine that their chances of forming a government at this time have fallen down a large Mr Rabbit-hole. But today it's still difficult to tell.

There are so many If Onlys that could be contemplated about this election. Campaign tactics are not the issue, except inasmuch that the electorate got sick and tired of shallow campaign tactics and over-tacticing (and please acknowledge me if I have just invented a new word).

Let me be mischievous and lay the blame - if the Lib/Nat alliance fails to get up - fairly and squarely at the feet of former Deputy Prime Minister and AWB denialist Mark Vaile. If he had found the responsibility of representing his constituents from opposition a little more palatable and not spat the dummy and quit politics in mid-2008, then Rob Oakeshott would not have entered Federal Parliament. Indeed, Vaile's electorate of Lyne (encompassing Taree, Port Macquarie and other conservative-leaning mid-north coast NSW areas) may well have remained in National Party hands, instead of being represented by an unusually enlightened small-l liberal independent, who may well be offering Labor the passage of supply next week.

Whilst the Labor (caretaker) government has maintained a well-disciplined silence ever since Gillard forbade hatchetperson Senator Mark Arbib from appearing on Q&A last Monday week, the Libs have been making ever more desperate and bizarre public utterances. Andrew Robb's televised defences of the economically indefensible have strained even his credibility as alternative finance minister. The Hef (and I still think he has street cred, or perhaps dirt track cred on climate change) pretends to be the devil. In your dreams, Bill.

The outstanding quote, however, goes to Joe Hockey. The Shrekster has warned that any government consisting of the Labor Party, the Greens, Andrew Wilkie, Bob Katter and the other independents would be the "most centre-left government in Australian history".

I tried drafting a diagram of Australian governments in magnitude of "most centre-leftness". And then I burst out laughing.

August 27, 1990 - one of the great guitarists of the era, Stevie Ray Vaughan, was dead at the age of 35, his helicopter crashing shortly after completing a concert in Wisconsin.

Twenty years after his passing, here is a brilliant live performance by SRV of Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing" (and more about its composer as September 18 rolls around). Got seven minutes to spare right now? Enjoy this.

For those who came in late, here is NMA World Edition's comprehensive and accurate preview of Saturday's federal election. I can't wait for their coverage of our hung parliament.

It's almost midnight on August 21. Australia has spoken. Something along the lines of "bugger off".

A hung parliament is the fitting outcome to the worst election campaign in my lifetime. Neither side deserves to win, and it will probably be days before we know who will form government, and how they will do it.

Great news is that there will be five cross-bench MPs, up from three, including one Green, Adam Bandt in Melbourne. Though there is a strong chance that the three ex-Nationals will side with their old confreres to make Tony Abbott a minority Prime Minister. Scary thought as that is.

The rise and rise of the Greens is one of the clearer messages to come from this election. Even here in Grayndler, Sam Byrne still has a slender chance of slipping past Anthony Albanese on Liberal and socialist preferences. And they will have about nine or ten senators come next July.

There are huge wakeup calls for the Labor Party. Julia Gillard does not deserve to be axed as Australia's first female Prime Minister after two months, but her party needs to return to its roots and pay attention to its traditional constituency.

Australia did not shift to the Right today. If anything, it has rediscovered meaning to the Left. The choice between two dull right-wing alternatives is heading for the electoral equivalent of a nil-nil draw. If Julia Gillard can come through this debacle and remain Prime Minister, she needs to lead in the interests of the people, not the interest of the corporate Labor organisation.

For federal elections in the recent past, I have followed the Greens above-the-line ticket. This time, I chose not to, bit the bullet and voted 1 to 84 in the bottom half of the senate ballot. Making sure that I did my research first.

My main reasons for this were that I wasn't too keen on the Greens' flow of preferences (especially their high ranking to the Australian Sex Party), and that I wanted to choose the six people who I wanted to be my six New South Wales senators. (Is that too crazy a thing to ask?)

As it happens with such a complex task, while I am confident that I cast a formal ballot, I can't recall the complete detail of every box from 1 to 84. I have summarised the gist of it in my posting about my vote in today's election.

I placed Lee Rhiannon of the Greens first. I explained my support for her in my voting intentions which I posted yesterday.

In number two spot, I chose Brami Jegatheeswaran, who is actually at three in the Greens ticket. Known as Brami Jegan, she is a member of the Tamils for Greens advocacy group.

My third choice is the Labor Party's Senator John Faulkner, a man for whom I have enormous regard. On the whole I find the Labor Party "culture of entitlement" to Senate and upper house seats repugnant, and in many cases a sinecure issued as a reward for services rendered in branch office or the union movement. An instructive example is the story of Matt Thistlethwaite's pre-selection after an earlier "promise" to Graeme Wedderburn was cast aside. Faulkner I have chosen as an individual. His party is unsupportable in any upper house contest in my opinion, especially thinking ahead to the NSW election next March.

At fourth spot is Bill Heffernan, in what is probably the first time in my life that I have voted positively for a Liberal candidate. The Hef has had many failings over the years, in particular as a hatchet man for John Howard, and is very lucky to still be in politics at all after the Michael Kirby episode. But he understands climate change better than probably anyone on the Tory side of politics in this country, and he has a more literate reading on the relationship between climate change and agriculture than probably anyone currently in federal parliament. Fact is, after seeing him on Q and A a couple of times he's won me over a bit. (And he does seem to have apologised and shown remorse over the Kirby debacle.)

At fifth is indigenous activist Michael Anderson, whose name is recorded on the ballot paper as Michael Eckford.

My sixth pick for the six senate seats is former Australian Democrats senator and former ALP member for Dickson, Cheryl Kernot.

Who did I put last? It would have been easy to go for One Nation, the Christian Democratic Party or the Australian Sex Party, but in the end I really couldn't go past the Liberal Democratic Party. Nothing like their UK namesakes, it's not so much the shallow textbook free-market libertarianism expounded on their website that puts me off; but more the aggressive preference harvesting deals that they have done with other minor parties in the expectation that they can pull off a miracle in the manner of Steve Fielding with Family First in Victoria in 2004. And as "Liberals for Forests" in NSW that same election, that gave it a real go.

But there's more to the LDP than even that. Look for "global warming" in their policy document on Environment and you will be referred to their Energy policy, where their denial of anthropomorphic climate change is quite clear. And while I am amused that they have a policy on motorbikes and scooters, allow me to quote the following from their immigration policy:

"Given Australia’s extensive welfare system it is necessary to place limits on immigration, and new immigrants who do not share our fundamental values of democracy, freedom and responsibility are potentially dangerous when they have access to our open democratic system."

It will be interesting, and hopefully not too disturbing, to see how far the LDP get in this election.

I voted yesterday at the pre-polling booth in Ashfield. Which leaves a strange feeling of personal anti-climax this morning. Nonetheless, It's Time to Turn On The Lights, Move Forward and See It Through with my traditional "How I Voted" blog entry. (See previous posts from the 2004 and 2007 federal elections.)

For the House of Representatives seat of Grayndler, I voted thus:

5 James Cogan (Socialist Equality Party)
4 Pip Hinman (Socialist Alliance)
6 Alex Dore (Liberal Party)
2 Anthony Albanese (Labor Party)
1 Sam Byrne (Greens)
3 Perry Garofani (Australian Democrats)

For the Senate, New South Wales, I voted below the line and in fact I have not kept an accurate record of my complete vote. My priorities were to specify my first six choices, there being six vacancies in the Senate; to place Labor ahead of Liberal in the general flow of preferences; and to those parties for whom I had serious objections towards the bottom.

1 Lee Rhiannon (Greens)
2 Brami Jegatheeswaran (Greens)
3 John Faulkner (Labor)
4 Bill Heffernan (Liberal)
5 Michael Eckford (independent)
6 Cheryl Kernot (independent)

7-10 the remainder of the Greens ticket
11-12 Australian Democrats
followed by a donkey vote of minor parties for whom I had no serious concerns (beginning with the Socialist Alliance in the first column)
followed by the "ungrouped" candidates in the last column
followed by the remainder of the Labor ticket
followed by the remainder of the Liberal-National ticket
followed by a donkey vote of the parties for whom I had various ideological concerns (including Citizens Electoral Council, Climate Sceptics, Secular Party, Shooters and Fishers, Australian Sex Party, David Barker's group, Socialist Equality Party, Family First, Christian Democratic Party, One Nation) concluding with
82-84 Liberal Democratic Party.

Just think - sometime next week, this man could be one of the most powerful people in Australia:

In this federal election, I am voting for Sam Byrne of the Greens in the House of Representatives seat of Grayndler.

In the Senate, for New South Wales, I am giving my first preference to Lee Rhiannon of the Greens in a below-the-line vote which I shall explain separately.

My preferences in both houses lean towards the Labor Party ahead of the Liberals.

By any normal measure, I would argue that the Labor government of the past term, started by Kevin Rudd and concluded by Julia Gillard, is not doing enough to warrant re-election. Their record on managing the GFC stands them in good stead, their cowardice over carbon emission reductions unforgivable. Many ideals disappeared early on the road to fruition - notably, the outcomes of the 2020 Summit. The overthrow of Prime Minister Rudd was but a symptom of a parliamentary political party behaving as nothing more than the shop front for a back-room party machine gone feral. While some of their policy pledges in this campaign have considerable merit - e-health a standout in this regard - others, such as the climate change "Citizen's Assembly" are too stupid for anyone to believe they can ever be implemented.

However, the alternative prospect, of a Liberal-National government led by Tony Abbott, is worse to the point of being frightening. With a personal style that is both ostentatious and erratic and sometimes downright physically reckless (viz his 36 hour sleepless final two days of campaigning, currently in progress), as well as (regardless of how much he would deny it) misogynistic, Abbott fronts a party that has knifed two leaders in the past two years (though one, Brendan Nelson, really shouldn't have been promoted in the first place), has clearly failed to regroup after its 2007 election loss, and has failed to put vested interests in their place on the matter of climate change policy. Their disproportionate preoccupation with "boat people" is simply disgraceful.

The Greens tick a lot of boxes in terms of ideals that many progressive voters like. It would be easy to dismiss them on this argument, but with Labor faltering as a party of the Left, support for the Greens is rising to the level where they can actually wield influence in federal parliament. They are likely to hold the balance of power in the Senate in their own right (from 1 July 2011) and, if they can win the seat of Melbourne, could be influential in the (slightly unlikely) prospect of a hung parliament. They may well have to compromise some of those ideals in the real world of federal politics - negotiating instruments to set a price for carbon will be difficult after they helped block the ETS earlier this year (rightly in my opinion, as it was bad policy as formulated). But their influence will add depth to a shallowness of ideals that has permeated both major parties in the dumbed-down post-Howard era.

For mine, there has been no more inspirational speech by an Australian politician in recent times than this one given by Greens Senator Christine Milne at the National Press Club in June 2009.

In my electorate of Grayndler, the Greens candidate Sam Byrne gets my vote. He already claims a place in local history as the first Greens mayor of Marrickville Council in 2005-06. Having said that, I have no strong objections to sitting member Anthony Albanese, who gets my second preference, and whom I expect to see elected. Byrne should achieve what no Greens candidate in Grayndler has done before - finish as high as second place. With the Liberal Party effectively running dead in the electorate by selecting 19 year-old university student Alex Dore as their candidate, this is highly likely.

Lee Rhiannon will have a tough time being elected for the Senate. She needs 16.66% of the vote after distribution of preferences, and most of the other parties are directing their preferences in directions away from the Greens (many, quite dangerously, towards the Liberal Democratic Party). Rhiannon, however, would be a definite credit to the Greens contingent in Canberra, after more than a decade in the New South Wales Legislative Council. A relentless approach to accountability, especially in the area of political donations, helps make her what I believe is the ideal third-party member of a "house of review". I really hope she gets over the line. It would be a loss to politics if she drifts into retirement after the election.

This is my thirteenth federal election, nine (1977-1998) in the electorate of Shortland, my fourth (2001 to date) in Grayndler. I voted Labor in the lower house from 1977 to 2004, this will be the second in which I have given first preference to the Greens.

In the Senate I have generally favoured minor parties over the ALP, but this will be the most complex below-the-line ticket I have completed. It needs a blog entry to itself, but just a teaser for now, Bill Heffernan comes in at number 4...

Although the Murdoch empire is generally perceived as pursuing a pro-Liberal agenda in this election, this clearly evidences itself only in its loss-leading broadsheet "The Australian". As for the "Daily Telegraph", famously endorsed by Kristina Keneally as "the people's paper" a while back, there is only one over-riding agenda - to make money.

If Tony Abbott says something stupid enough, the Tele will lampoon it. And so they did in Monday's edition after he said in a press interview that he, as Prime Minister, would personally decide in each individual case whether to Stop The Boats.

It didn't take long on Sunday night for the Telegraph's Comic Book Editorial Board to decide what the lead headline for the morning's edition would be. Well, not quite the lead - that spot was pre-sold to a gaming promotion for a well-known Hasbro Corporation property. Hence the bulk of the comic strip was left for Page Five:

Anyway, to the boatphone, Mr Rabbit:

A continuation of my Twitter log of election comments, mostly but not all under the #ausvotes hashtag. Part one of this digest covered the period to Friday 30 July.

Friday, 30 July 2010:

Looks like the Liberal Democratic Party's website isn't quite launched yet. http://www.ldp.org.au/ #ausvotes
Friday, 30 July 2010 11:49:31 PM

Must say I'm impressed at the number of political parties in this election using @drupal for their websites. #ausvotes
Friday, 30 July 2010 11:53:59 PM

Saturday, 31 July 2010:

A summary of the candidates in my electorate of #Grayndler plus the NSW senate race http://www.rickeyre.com/blog/node/1951 #ausvotes
Saturday, 31 July 2010 12:16:46 AM

Reporting of opinion polls would gain more credibility if Statistical Margin Of Error was mentioned in said reports. #ausvotes
Saturday, 31 July 2010 8:33:54 AM

#ausvotes I've cobbled up a list of some minor party candidates for the senate in NSW http://twitter.com/rickeyre/senate-candidates-nsw
Saturday, 31 July 2010 9:36:52 AM

Sunday, 1 August 2010:

#ausvotes Interesting that quite a few of the smaller groups on the NSW Senate ticket are funnelling preferences through the Lib Dem party..
Sunday, 1 August 2010 8:18:09 PM

...the NSW Lib Dem ticket being led by one Glenn Druery. He of Liberals For Forests 2004, among other senate campaigns. #ausvotes
Sunday, 1 August 2010 8:20:20 PM

Antony Green's 2004 report of NSW senate count. http://bit.ly/9JXEsD Note how Liberals for Forests harvested prefs. LDP could repeat in 2010
Sunday, 1 August 2010 8:32:39 PM

I think I can say the Lib Dems in Aus should not, by any stretch of the imagination, be confused with the Lib Dems in the UK. #ausvotes
Sunday, 1 August 2010 9:04:05 PM

The blog post I write when I'm too tired to write a blog post - "A comic book too far" - http://www.rickeyre.com/blog/node/1952 #ausvotes
Sunday, 1 August 2010 9:35:16 PM

Monday, 2 August 2010:

And the margin of error is... ? RT @bennpackham Essential poll has Labor 54, Coalition 46 on 2pp #ausvotes
Monday, 2 August 2010 2:43:28 PM

See, Labor stopped the boats! RT @joehockey: Just looking at 80 coal ships sitting off Mackay. Didn't Labor promise to end the bottlenecks
Monday, 2 August 2010 4:31:18 PM

Tuesday, 3 August 2010:

Debate? Why argue against debate now? Why argue against debate before? Just do it. #ausvotes
Tuesday, 3 August 2010 8:02:28 AM

New from me: "The Raul Julia, featuring Tony Abbott as John Astin" - http://www.rickeyre.com/blog/node/1953 #ausvotes
Tuesday, 3 August 2010 11:53:16 AM

When does ch7 want it? RT @sunriseon7: Gillard still wants debate. 'We'll do it on another night' #sunrisedebate #ausvotes
Tuesday, 3 August 2010 3:34:23 PM

Wednesday, 4 August 2010:

Greens do photo-op at independent Marrickville Cr Thanos' (in photo but not ID'd) dentist surgery. RT @InnerWestNews http://bit.ly/ajgDXl
Wednesday, 4 August 2010 10:25:06 AM

indeed, local #Grayndler Greens candidate @GreenSamByrne is in same pic and not named in article. Strange reporting. http://bit.ly/ajgDXl
Wednesday, 4 August 2010 10:30:10 AM

Err, Anna Bligh has won a general election. RT @sfpAustralia: In NSW, Vic & QLD we’ve unelected Labor Premiers chosen by the party not you.
Wednesday, 4 August 2010 1:53:33 PM

I'm enjoying listening to the voice of K.Rudd again. I miss him. #lnl #ausvotes
Wednesday, 4 August 2010 10:13:22 PM

Thursday, 5 August 2010:

"Are we half-way there yet?" - http://www.rickeyre.com/blog/node/1955 #ausvotes
Thursday, 5 August 2010 10:15:06 AM

Why do I find it ironic that @senatoronline hasn't tweeted since July 28? #ausvotes
Thursday, 5 August 2010 10:50:08 AM

Some recommended links and bloggage for election reading - http://www.rickeyre.com/blog/node/1956 #ausvotes
Thursday, 5 August 2010 4:48:46 PM

@senatoronline I would have expected a political party making much of its online presence to be more visible online, not inactive for 8 days
Thursday, 5 August 2010 10:54:57 PM

@senatoronline I would have expected a political party making much of its online presence to be more visible online, not inactive for 8 days
Thursday, 5 August 2010 10:54:57 PM

Friday, 6 August 2010:

Congratulations to @getup, so how will the AEC put today's High Court decision to practice in the next 14.5 days? #ausvotes
Friday, 6 August 2010 12:51:47 PM

RT @GetUp @rickeyre the AEC has 150 staff on standby 2 inform those Australians affected that they will b able 2 vote this election! #HighCourt
Friday, 6 August 2010 12:56:20 PM

@GetUp Thanks. I was one who told you not to do the High Court challenge. Happy to admit that I was wrong!
Friday, 6 August 2010 1:02:12 PM

Saturday, 7 August 2010:

so why didn't JG and KR meet in private, unannounced, film on mobile and video sent as press release? This staging is nonsense! #ausvotes
Saturday, 7 August 2010 10:49:43 AM

I should add that these stage-managed photo-ops have nothing to do with policy and *should* be totally irrelevant to the election. #ausvotes
Saturday, 7 August 2010 10:51:15 AM

So Mark Latham is channel 9's (a) Chaser, or (b) Norman Gunston? #ausvotes
Saturday, 7 August 2010 1:38:06 PM

silly question at this juncture, I know but: what is Tony Abbott doing today? #ausvotes
Saturday, 7 August 2010 2:07:54 PM

Don Hewitt - the creator of the "60 Minutes" brand - must be spinning in his grave today. #latham #ausvotes
Saturday, 7 August 2010 2:18:57 PM

NSW election coming soon! RT @julie_posetti Next campaign, I'd like to see the major parties, [...] fund a Cit J campaign bus #ausvotes
Saturday, 7 August 2010 3:53:31 PM

Anyone willing to frame odds on 60 Minutes pulling the pin on #Latham before he ever goes to air? #ausvotes
Saturday, 7 August 2010 5:23:51 PM

Sunday, 8 August 2010:

Sunday Tele report from the JG campaign trail by @chmharvey, a curious slant on what we witnessed yesterday: http://bit.ly/bhzBEI #ausvotes
Sunday, 8 August 2010 7:54:40 AM

Daily Telegraph? Rooty Hill RSL? Is Speersy the only person in Australia with MC'ing capability? This is oozing with cliches. #ausvotes
Sunday, 8 August 2010 9:05:50 PM

Monday, 9 August 2010:

Margin of error, margin of error, wherefore art thou margin of error? #newspoll #nielsen #galaxy #ausvotes #wsst
Monday, 9 August 2010 7:02:13 AM

JG guest-editing Woman's Day? As well as Fake Julia and Real Julia there has to be a Stunt Double Julia! #ausvotes
Monday, 9 August 2010 7:29:02 AM

@JohnBirmingham If the real M.Latham was on Twitter we'd need to match him to the right cartoonist a la #kanyenewyorkertweets. #ausvotes
Monday, 9 August 2010 9:13:59 AM

Party time for Young Liberals next Monday night! RT @abcqanda Tony Abbott has just confirmed he'll be joining #qanda next Monday!
Monday, 9 August 2010 4:52:26 PM

Tuesday, 10 August 2010:

Communist Alliance person spots me wearing Jets beanie, reaches through crowd with flyer saying "I follow Newtown too. Take this." #ausvotes
Tuesday, 10 August 2010 7:53:45 AM

...which is ironic considering Newtown RLFC's rusted-on connections to the ALP. #ausvotes
Tuesday, 10 August 2010 7:54:47 AM

Did the ABC offer a live feed to Sky News of #qanda? So their complaint about the Rooty Hill lockout is... ? #ausvotes
Tuesday, 10 August 2010 5:41:01 PM

More Murdoch-sponsored democracy: the "First Inner West Courier Great #Grayndler Debate" (no online link yet I think) #ausvotes
Tuesday, 10 August 2010 9:05:32 PM

The said FIWCGGD is set for 6pm Wed Aug 18 Marrickville Town Hall per @greensambyrne (only #Grayndler candidate on Twitter AFAIK) #ausvotes
Tuesday, 10 August 2010 9:24:57 PM

Wednesday, 11 August 2010:

#ausvotes #grayndler "Lib-Labor spat over preferences" - Inner West Courier: http://bit.ly/bhlVyT
Wednesday, 11 August 2010 1:47:32 PM

acc to Wikipedia, #Rooty Hill was named by Governor King as it reminded him of a hill on Norfolk Island which was, er, rooty
Wednesday, 11 August 2010 5:35:48 PM

actually, it wouldn't surprise me if Gov.King announced the Parramatta-Epping rail link at the #Rooty Hill naming ceremony in 1803
Wednesday, 11 August 2010 6:07:08 PM

Thursday, 12 August 2010:

The Tele's reportage of the #Rooty Hill mega focus group is like its reportage of the NRL. Oozng with conflict of interest. #ausvotes
Thursday, 12 August 2010 7:02:08 AM

I think we need a full and frank debate on the NBN televised exclusively by NBN. #ausvotes
Thursday, 12 August 2010 9:37:16 AM

Libs the only party whose candidate can't make next Wednesday's #Grayndler debate. Inner West Courier - http://bit.ly/amFNPA #ausvotes
Thursday, 12 August 2010 9:59:15 AM

19yo uni student has Liberal campaign launch in beer garden. Not The Onion but Inner West Courier http://bit.ly/dkom02 #grayndler #ausvotes
Thursday, 12 August 2010 10:08:18 AM

Latham and Abbott in the same room. Now where's my copy of "From The Suburbs" again? #ausvotes
Thursday, 12 August 2010 11:16:50 AM

Friday, 13 August 2010:

If two politicans debate about a forest, will there be any sound? #ausvotes
Friday, 13 August 2010 12:01:11 PM

Not so far for Mark Latham to travel. RT @abcqanda On Monday, we're heading out to Casula for a special with Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.
Friday, 13 August 2010 2:56:17 PM

Trust the Socialist Equality Party to remind us that election day is the 70th anniversary of the murder of Leon Trotsky #ausvotes
Friday, 13 August 2010 5:14:05 PM

An #ausvotes #ff of #Grayndler candidates on Twitter: @greensambyrne and... er, that's it I think.
Friday, 13 August 2010 5:55:45 PM

Saturday, 14 August 2010:

Candidates for #Warringah talk to The Manly Daily about local transport issues. Guess who didn't reply - http://bit.ly/bJdlCP #ausvotes
Saturday, 14 August 2010 10:04 AM