The election of Australia's first Labor government in 21 years, led by Gough Whitlam, was the first I was old enough to be aware of. It marked not only a change of political tides but of election campaigning with mass media and marketing now critical to candidates' success.

The break-in at the Democrat headquarters, organised by President Richard Nixon's re-election committee against his political opponents, was before my active interest in US politics. But his resignation in disgrace two years later was its beginning.

Governor-General's dismissal of the Whitlam government and its susequent defeat in a federal election, was my first exposure to the Machiavellian nature of politics.

(Photo: CC-BY-SA National Museum of Australia)

The election of Bob Hawke's Labor Government in March 1983 heralded a period of major economic and social reform, and coincided with the begining of my own political activism within the student union movement.

The re-election in 1983 of the National Party (in their own right rather than moderated by their Liberal coalition partners) occured while I was editor of my college's student newspaper. I interviewed Liberal leader Terry White and found him decent and generous, and his defeat was an especially sad aspect of this election which cemented Australia's most corrupt government for another 6 years.

The days of a corrupt government were numbered when Tony Fitzgerald's Commission of Inquiry into Possible Illegal Activities and Associated Police Misconduct, began to expose systemic corruption enabled by the ruling National Party and senior police. After initial reported by Chris Masters on the ABC Four Corners program and Phil Dickie in the Courier Mail, Deputy Premier Bill Gunn (in the absence of Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen) launched the inquiry, empowering it to issue subpoenas and offer immunity to whitleblowers.  

This election, where Labor was originally projected to lose, helped me understand how state and federal politics can intersect. The corrupt Qld Premier, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, allowed hubris to get the better of him and his "Joh for PM" campaign split the coalition at the worst time for them, helping Bob Hawke to be re-elected.

I was on a teaching prac placement when the political demise of Bjelke-Petersen played out. Like other fascists, he was defeated by the truth, especially the revelation of his anti-democratic corruption. The narcissism that drove his career was also evident in his cowardly retreat to his office bunker as he tried every trick to cling to power.

After the Nationals-perfected gerrymander kept a corrupt government in power for decades, Wayne Goss brought the ALP in from the wilderness. I celebrated the end of my first year of teaching, by watching Bjelke-Petersen's leftovers fall, including the odious Brian Austin. Like fellow turncoat Don Lane he was now out of Parliament and subsequently the two crooks along with Leisha Harvey and Geoff Munz were prosecuted for misappropriation. Sadly, Bjelke-Petersen himself would escape justice, allegedly because of foreman (Young Nationals member) Luke Shaw holding out for a hung jury.

This election was notable for its aftermath as much as its conduct. The Hawke Labor government survived a major swing, in part thanks to preference deals crafted by then-Social Security Minister Graham Richardson which ensured that most of the anti-ALP protest vote, which went to the Australian Democrats and the Greens, flowed back to Labor. Hawke's failure to reward the NSW powerbroker with the portfolio of Transpport and Communications led to Richo leading the pustch against him in favour of Treasurer Paul Keating. 

Why do so many Australian politicians vie for underdog status? The 1991 Brisbane City Council election may be part of it. When little-known former priest Jim Soorley defeated the once-popular Lord Mayor Sallyanne Atkinson, the upset was credited to enough protest votes mounting up to see her defeated.

While US President George HW Bush enjoyed 90% approval in the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War, the following year a recession eroded this and allowed Democrat nominee to stage an upset landslide. Bill Clinton's campaign was centred around three key themes: "The economy, stupid", "Change vs. more of the same", and "Don't forget health care!"

Having reached The Lodge through a party room coup against Bob Hawke, and having steered Australia through a recession as Treasurer, Paul Keating was expected to lose to urbane Liberal leader Dr John Hewson. But the ALP combines a return to core party values with an effective campaign against Hewson's over-detailed Fightback! manifesto, to pull off an upset re-election. Since then, many candidates have preferred the "small target" strategy of withholding policy details as deep into a campaign as possible. 

In 1995, the state government of Wayne Goss narrowly survived the "baseball bats" predicted to be awaiting federal Labor. The ALP held onto 45 of the 89 seats, the National-Liberal coalition got 43 while independent Liz Cunningham won Gladstone. However a successful challenge to the result in Mundingburra triggered a by-election early the following year, won by Liberal Frank Tanti. With Cunningham's support, Nationals' leader Rob Bordidge became Premier. 

Voters who had lost patience with the effects of a recession and were unimpressed with what they perceived as Labor's social justice agenda, found a new home in the Liberal-National coalition led by resurrected leader John Howard. This election featured "Howard's Battlers" - socially conservative and economically aspirational working class voters - would underpin 11 years of coalition rule.   

One term after losing power, the ALP under well-liked Kim Beazley came very close to regaining government. But this election showed a winning two-party-preferred vote (close to 51%) isn't enough if the swings aren't in the right seats. John Howard held on and claimed a mandate to introduce a 10% Goods and Services Tax (GST) which remains a staple of the modern Australian economy.

This election shone a clear light on how different US presidential elections are to Australian federal elections. Because of the Electoral College system, former Democratic Vice President Al Gore's popular vote win was irrelevant, and the outcome was determined in the last state to return results - Florida. Republican George W Bush's campaign co-chair was Katherine Harris, also the Florida Secretary of State responsible for running the election. After a razor-thin margin gave the state to Bush, Harris blocked key recounts. The Florida Supreme Court ordered statewide recounts that independent analysis showed would have handed Gore the state, but these were blocked by the US Supreme Court. Eventually the clock ran out and Bush won. 

The Al Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in Washington DC, fundamentally changed the US political landscape. For the next 20 years, foregin and domestic policy in amost every country would be influenced by real and perceived terror threats. US sponsored wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, major tightening of security at airports, detention of asylum seekers and governments surveillance of their own citizens became commonplace. Ironically, blowback from the measures included a range of new terror threats such as the emergence of ISIS, lone wolf attacks, and cyberterrorism. 

When I first learned of the rescue by the MV Tampa of  over 400 Afghani asylum seekers, I totally misread the electoral mood, especially as I had seen thousands of Vietnamese refugees in the 1970s seek asylum in Australia and become a valuable part of the community, I failed to read both the electorate's shift and the willingness of the Howard Government to exploit cynically a dark and often racist strain in popular opinion.

(Image: CC-BY-SA Remi Jouan, MV Tampa, Wikimedia Commons)  

This election was a lesson in squandered chances before and after the poll. Despite leading the polls going into the campaign, Labor was tripped up by wedge politics and the performance of their own new leader Mark Latham. After his re-election, PM John Howard used a rare senate majority to introduce Work Choices, designed to undermine the rights of workers, which the electorate rejected. This waste of goodwill was driven partly by long-held ideology, but also Howard's desire to cement his authority in the face of a perceived leadership threat from Treasurer Peter Costello.

In this election, under new leader Kevin Rudd, Labor overcame a jaded coalition government, unpopular partly because of its Work Choices legislation. But while Rudd's campaign is often remembered as a "small target" one it incuded a number of distinct and politically attractive policies including significant measures to address climate change and (relevant to me as I work in IT-enabled education) an ambituious plan to revolutionise digital life through funding for student computers and the building of a national broadband network.

Because incumbent President George W Bush had served two terms and was ineligible to run again, 2008 was an open-seat election. The Democratic nomination was won not by initial favourite Hillary Clinton (wife of former POTUS Bill) but by a little-known Senator from Illinois. Barack Obama was backed by the powerful Chicago political machine, had a powerful rhetoric that captured the public attention and deftly navigated the tangle of US race politics to become the nation's first ever African-Amercian President.   

"I will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man; I will not."
Having endured months of vile attacks based on her gender, appearance and family circumstances, Australia's first female Prime Minister Julia Gillard put her foot down. Firmly. Eloquently. On the throat of repeat offender and then-Opposition Leader Tony Abbott. who had moved a motion of no-confidence in his own former party colleague and now-independent speaker Peter Slipper. Abbott (accurately) accused Slipper of sexism in a series of putrid private text messages, but Gillard rose to point out Abbott's hypocrisy in trying to accuse her of supporting this behaviour. 

Coming into this election, the Liberal National Party led by former Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman, promised a cap to the public service but no sackings or forced redundancies. Then after the election, with questionable justification from a "Commission of Audit" Newman and his government ousted tens of thousands of public employees. While these were described as "voluntary" the reality for most was very different. Many temporary employees simply had their contracts terminated while permanent employees who had been identified for redundancy were threatened with slashing of entitlements if they did not accept the first round of "offers".

This election showed the power of (un)friendly mainstream media abd the value of simplicity in campaigning. In 2010, Labor had barely clung to power in a minority government. Constantly pummeled by highly partisan Murdoch-owned newspapers and talk-back radio especially in the capital cities, Labor tried to minimise the damage by switching leadership from Julia Gillard back to former PM Kevin Rudd. Liberal leaderTony Abbot kept himself a small target, sticking to simple, three word slogans, then led his coalition to a resounding victory.

This election highlighted the consequences of underestimating public opinion and voters' memories. After slashing the public service by tens of thousands, the powerful LNP government seemed to have a large enough buffer to survive any swing. But for every ousted public servant, there were multiple family members who felt strongly about the conduct of a Premier whose promises they believed three years earlier. Meanwhile, Labor led by Anastasia Palazcuk, focused on grassroots campaigning and regaining their touch with the electorate on a seat-by-seat basis. After a fortnight of counting they won minority government, backed by Independent Peter Wellington.

Watching a self-admitted sexual assaulter and well-documented shyster get elected to office on the back of foregien interference, was more than a surprise. And as the four year term rolled out, so did his undermining of democratic norms and institutions, including the mainstream GOP itself.

Having watched the Howard-Peacock and Hawke-Keating leadership arm-wrestles of the 80s and 90s, I wasn't a stranger to factional and leadership power struggles. But this twelve-year period saw six Prime Ministerships, and eleven leadership changes across the four major parties, contrbuting to instability in governance and a general timidity in policy making.
Watch: The Killing Season | ABC Nemesis

The hope, that all consenting adult Australian couples could marry regardless of gender, came true. It would only have taken an ammendment to the Marriage Amendment Act 2004, but Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull knew pushing his conservative Liberal-National colleagues to support this would threaten his tenuous leadership. Instead, he promised to introduce a legally binding plebiscite. Winning the 2016 election by only one seat left him unable to get the necessary legislation passed so the government instead ran a non-mandatory postal survey and promised to adhere to the result. While supporters of marriage equality objected to anyone's rights being left to themercy of an opinion poll, the overwhelming (61.6%) Yes vote left the government no choice but to ammend the Act.

(Image: CC-BY  Paris Buttfield-Addison, Wikimedia Commons)

In November 2020, after four years of rule by the unpopular Republican President Donald Trump, American voters ejected him in favour of Democrat nominee (and former Vice President) Joseph R Biden Jnr. However, Trump refused to accept the election results, claiming without evidence that the election had been "rigged" in any swing state that he lost. After failing in any of the 60+ court cases he attempted, Trump attempted to mobilise confederates in each of the swing states to corrupt the Electoral College process, then staged an attempted insurrection, starting with a mass rally in the nation's capital where he whipped his supporters into a frenzy and sent them to force their way into the Capitol Building in a failed attempt to disrupt the certification of Biden's win.

(Image: CC-BY-SA TapTheForwardAssist, Wikimedia Commons)

This election followed a 16-year fracturing of American politics. Global inflation resulting from the COVID pandemic, and a persistent denigration of President Joe Biden for his age drive a late decision by him not to seek re-election. Enough voters chose to ignore Trump's criminal convictions, culture wars and conspiracy theories, hoping they could trust him to improve their financial outlook. The powerful but conventional campaign of Kamala Harris was unable to distinguish the nation's first female Vice-President from the current administration, nor could it convince enough swing-state voters that Trump's Project 2025 represented a clear and present danger to American democracy, and Trump was returned to office. At the time of writing, his approval rating (net -22%) in light of significant economic policy failures, show their buyer's remorse. But his constant attacks on democratic institutions and processes, may have already made that too late. 

(Image: CC-BY Born Isopod and US voters, Wikimedia Commons)

Inspired by the Trump victory in the US prediential election of the previous year, and the vocal rallying of MAGA-aligned conspiracy theorists on the Australian right, the Liberal-National coalition led by Peter Dutton decided in this election, to campaign for nuclear power, and against anything they associated with diversity, equity and inclusion. Dutton even toyed publicly with the idea of forcing federal public servants to return to working in-office on a full time basis, and while the suggestion did not explicitly oinclude state government or private employees, the supporting commentry from Dutton allies made the shape of the wedge clear. The LNP/coalition not only failed to make any inroads on the Labor government of Anthony Albanese, but went backwards, losing 15 seats while Labor gained 17.  Senior coalition figures on the right, and hard conservative media commentators, spent weeks in denial about the result, some even insisting that Dutton should have doubled down on the culture wars, conspiracy theories and anti-LGBQTI+ bigotry that everyone else knew voters had soundly rejected.