Pre-election pendulum for the 2022 Australian federal election

Last updated

The Mackerras pendulum was devised by the Australian psephologist Malcolm Mackerras as a way of predicting the outcome of an election contested between two major parties in a Westminster style lower house legislature such as the Australian House of Representatives, which is composed of single-member electorates and which uses a preferential voting system such as a Condorcet method or IRV.

The pendulum works by lining up all of the seats held in Parliament for the government, the opposition and the crossbenches according to the percentage point margin they are held by on a two party preferred basis. This is also known as the swing required for the seat to change hands. Given a uniform swing to the opposition or government parties, the number of seats that change hands can be predicted.

Classification of seats as marginal, fairly safe or safe is applied by the independent Australian Electoral Commission using the following definition: "Where a winning party receives less than 56% of the vote, the seat is classified as 'marginal', 56–60% is classified as 'fairly safe' and more than 60% is considered 'safe'." [1]

This Mackerras pendulum includes new notional margin estimates in Victoria and Western Australia due to boundary redistributions. [2] [3] Members in italics have declared they will not contest their seats at the election, or have lost their party's preselection.

Government seats (74)
Marginal
Bass Tas Bridget Archer LIB0.4
Chisholm Vic Gladys Liu LIB0.5
Wentworth NSW Dave Sharma LIB vs. IND1.3
Boothby SA Nicolle Flint LIB1.4
Braddon Tas Gavin Pearce LIB3.1
Reid NSW Fiona Martin LIB3.2
Longman Qld Terry Young LNP3.3
Swan WA Steve Irons LIB3.3
Higgins Vic Katie Allen LIB3.7
Leichhardt Qld Warren Entsch LNP4.2
Robertson NSW Lucy Wicks LIB4.2
Casey Vic Tony Smith LIB4.6
Dickson Qld Peter Dutton LNP4.6
Deakin Vic Michael Sukkar LIB4.7
Brisbane Qld Trevor Evans LNP4.9
Lindsay NSW Melissa McIntosh LIB5.0
Pearce WA Christian Porter LIB5.2
La Trobe Vic Jason Wood LIB5.5
Flinders Vic Greg Hunt LIB5.6
Kooyong Vic Josh Frydenberg LIB vs. GRN5.6
Hasluck WA Ken Wyatt LIB5.8
Fairly safe
Ryan Qld Julian Simmonds LNP6.0
Banks NSW David Coleman LIB6.3
Cowper NSW Pat Conaghan NAT vs. IND6.8
Sturt SA James Stevens LIB6.9
Monash Vic Russell Broadbent LIB6.9
Bennelong NSW John Alexander LIB6.9
Menzies Vic Kevin Andrews LIB7.0
Bonner Qld Ross Vasta LNP7.4
Goldstein Vic Tim Wilson LIB7.8
Herbert Qld Phillip Thompson LIB8.4
Petrie Qld Luke Howarth LNP8.4
Forde Qld Bert Van Manen LNP8.6
Flynn Qld Ken O'Dowd LNP8.7
North Sydney NSW Trent Zimmerman LIB9.3
Page NSW Kevin Hogan NAT9.4
Tangney WA Ben Morton LIB9.5
Safe
Aston Vic Alan Tudge LIB10.1
Wannon Vic Dan Tehan LIB10.2
Bowman Qld Andrew Laming LNP10.2
Farrer NSW Sussan Ley LIB vs. IND10.9
Canning WA Andrew Hastie LIB11.6
Moore WA Ian Goodenough LIB11.6
McPherson Qld Karen Andrews LNP12.2
Capricornia Qld Michelle Landry LNP12.4
Fisher Qld Andrew Wallace LNP12.7
Hume NSW Angus Taylor LIB13.0
Wide Bay Qld Llew O'Brien LNP13.1
Mackellar NSW Jason Falinski LIB13.2
Calare NSW Andrew Gee NAT13.3
Grey SA Rowan Ramsey LIB13.3
Fairfax Qld Ted O'Brien LNP13.4
Durack WA Melissa Price LIB13.5
Curtin WA Celia Hammond LIB14.0
Fadden Qld Stuart Robert LNP14.2
New England NSW Barnaby Joyce NAT vs. IND14.4
Hinkler Qld Keith Pitt LNP14.5
Forrest WA Nola Marino LIB14.6
Wright Qld Scott Buchholz LNP14.6
Lyne NSW David Gillespie NAT15.2
Moncrieff Qld Angie Bell LNP15.4
O'Connor WA Rick Wilson LIB15.4
Berowra NSW Julian Leeser LIB15.6
Mallee Vic Anne Webster NAT15.7
Bradfield NSW Paul Fletcher LIB16.6
Gippsland Vic Darren Chester NAT16.7
Parkes NSW Mark Coulton NAT16.9
Groom Qld Garth Hamilton LNP (b/e)17.2
Mitchell NSW Alex Hawke LIB18.6
Barker SA Tony Pasin LIB18.9
Cook NSW Scott Morrison LIB19.0
Riverina NSW Michael McCormack NAT19.5
Nicholls Vic Damian Drum NAT20.0
Maranoa Qld David Littleproud LNP vs PHON22.5
Opposition seats (69)
Marginal
Macquarie NSW Susan Templeman ALP0.2
Eden-Monaro NSW Kristy McBain ALP (b/e) 0.4
Lilley Qld Anika Wells ALP0.6
Cowan WA Anne Aly ALP0.9
Corangamite Vic Libby Coker ALP1.0
Blair Qld Shayne Neumann ALP1.2
Dobell NSW Emma McBride ALP1.5
Moreton Qld Graham Perrett ALP1.9
Gilmore NSW Fiona Phillips ALP2.6
Dunkley Vic Peta Murphy ALP2.7
Greenway NSW Michelle Rowland ALP2.8
Griffith Qld Terri Butler ALP2.9
Hunter NSW Joel Fitzgibbon ALP3.0
Solomon NT Luke Gosling ALP3.1
Perth WA Patrick Gorman ALP3.2
Parramatta NSW Julie Owens ALP3.5
Richmond NSW Justine Elliot ALP4.1
Shortland NSW Pat Conroy ALP4.4
Paterson NSW Meryl Swanson ALP5.0
Lyons Tas Brian Mitchell ALP5.2
McEwen Vic Rob Mitchell ALP5.3
Burt WA Matt Keogh ALP5.4
Lingiari NT Warren Snowdon ALP5.5
Werriwa NSW Anne Stanley ALP5.5
Jagajaga Vic Kate Thwaites ALP5.9
Fairly safe
Macnamara Vic Josh Burns ALP6.1
Isaacs Vic Mark Dreyfus ALP6.4
Oxley Qld Milton Dick ALP6.4
Rankin Qld Jim Chalmers ALP6.4
Hindmarsh SA Mark Butler ALP6.5
McMahon NSW Chris Bowen ALP6.6
Brand WA Madeleine King ALP6.7
Fremantle WA Josh Wilson ALP6.9
Bruce Vic Julian Hill ALP7.3
Bean ACT David Smith ALP7.5
Adelaide SA Steve Georganas ALP8.2
Wills Vic Peter Khalil ALP vs. GRN8.2
Macarthur NSW Mike Freelander ALP8.4
Kingsford Smith NSW Matt Thistlethwaite ALP8.8
Holt Vic Anthony Byrne ALP8.9
Bendigo Vic Lisa Chesters ALP8.9
Barton NSW Linda Burney ALP9.4
Makin SA Tony Zappia ALP9.7
Safe
Hawke Vicnew seatALP10.2
Ballarat Vic Catherine King ALP10.3
Maribyrnong Vic Bill Shorten ALP10.3
Corio Vic Richard Marles ALP10.3
Fenner ACT Andrew Leigh ALP10.6
Whitlam NSW Stephen Jones ALP10.9
Hotham Vic Clare O'Neil ALP11.2
Kingston SA Amanda Rishworth ALP11.9
Franklin Tas Julie Collins ALP12.2
Chifley NSW Ed Husic ALP12.4
Lalor Vic Joanne Ryan ALP12.4
Gellibrand Vic Tim Watts ALP13.0
Cunningham NSW Sharon Bird ALP13.4
Watson NSW Tony Burke ALP13.5
Newcastle NSW Sharon Claydon ALP13.8
Fowler NSW Chris Hayes ALP14.0
Spence SA Nick Champion ALP14.1
Gorton Vic Brendan O'Connor ALP14.3
Cooper Vic Ged Kearney ALP vs. GRN14.6
Blaxland NSW Jason Clare ALP14.7
Grayndler NSW Anthony Albanese ALP vs. GRN16.3
Canberra ACT Alicia Payne ALP17.1
Fraser Vic Daniel Mulino ALP18.1
Sydney NSW Tanya Plibersek ALP18.7
Calwell Vic Maria Vamvakinou ALP19.6
Scullin Vic Andrew Giles ALP21.7
Crossbench seats (8)
Indi Vic Helen Haines IND vs. LIB1.4
Mayo SA Rebekha Sharkie CA vs. LIB5.1
Warringah NSW Zali Steggall IND vs. LIB7.2
Hughes NSW Craig Kelly LIB9.9
Kennedy Qld Bob Katter KAP vs. LNP13.3
Dawson Qld George Christensen LNP14.6
Melbourne Vic Adam Bandt GRN vs. LIB21.8
Clark Tas Andrew Wilkie IND vs. ALP22.1

Related Research Articles

Division of Boothby Australian federal electoral division

The Division of Boothby is an Australian federal electoral division in South Australia. The division was one of the seven established when the former Division of South Australia was redistributed on 2 October 1903 and is named after William Boothby (1829–1903), the Returning Officer for the first federal election.

Division of Makin Australian federal electoral division

The Division of Makin is an electoral division for the Australian House of Representatives located in the northeastern suburbs of Adelaide. The 130 km² seat covers an area from Little Para River and Gould Creek in the north-east to Grand Junction Road in the south and Port Wakefield Road in the west, including the suburbs of Banksia Park, Fairview Park, Golden Grove, Greenwith, Gulfview Heights, Ingle Farm, Mawson Lakes, Modbury, Para Hills, Para Vista, Pooraka, Redwood Park, Ridgehaven, Salisbury East, Salisbury Heights, St Agnes, Surrey Downs, Tea Tree Gully, Valley View, Vista, Walkley Heights, Wynn Vale, Yatala Vale, and parts of Gepps Cross and Hope Valley.

2006 Queensland state election

An election was held in the Australian state of Queensland on 9 September 2006 to elect the 89 members of the state's Legislative Assembly, after being announced by Premier Peter Beattie on 15 August 2006.

The term swing refers to the extent of change in voter support, typically from one election or opinion poll to another, expressed as a positive or negative percentage point. For the Australian House of Representatives and the lower houses of the parliaments of all the states and territories except Tasmania and the ACT, Australia employs preferential voting in single-member constituencies. Under the full-preference instant-runoff voting system, in each seat the candidate with the lowest vote is eliminated and their preferences are distributed, which is repeated until only two candidates remain. While every seat has a two-candidate preferred (TCP) result, seats where the major parties have come first and second are commonly referred to as having a two-party-preferred (TPP) result. The concept of "swing" in Australian elections is not simply a function of the difference between the votes of the two leading candidates, as it is in Britain. To know the majority of any seat, and therefore the swing necessary for it to change hands, it is necessary to know the preferences of all the voters, regardless of their first preference votes. It is not uncommon in Australia for candidates who have comfortable leads on the first count to fail to win the seat, because "preference flows" go against them.

Two-party-preferred vote Result of election after distribution of preferences

In Australian politics, the two-party-preferred vote is the result of an election or opinion poll after preferences have been distributed to the highest two candidates, who in some cases can be independents. For the purposes of TPP, the Liberal/National Coalition is usually considered a single party, with Labor being the other major party. Typically the TPP is expressed as the percentages of votes attracted by each of the two major parties, e.g. "Coalition 50%, Labor 50%", where the values include both primary votes and preferences. The TPP is an indicator of how much swing has been attained/is required to change the result, taking into consideration preferences, which may have a significant effect on the result.

The following pendulum is known as the Mackerras pendulum, invented by psephologist Malcolm Mackerras. Designed for the outcome of the 2007 federal election, the pendulum works by lining up all of the seats held in Parliament, 83 Labor, 55 Liberal, 10 National, and 2 independent, according to the percentage point margin on a two candidate preferred basis, as elected in 2007. The two candidate result is also known as the swing required for the seat to change hands. Given a uniform swing to the opposition or government parties in an election, the number of seats that change hands can be predicted. Swing is never uniform, but in practice variations of swing among the Australian states usually tend to cancel each other out. Seats are arranged in safeness categories according to the Australian Electoral Commission's classification of safeness. "Safe" seats require a swing of over 10 per cent to change, "fairly safe" seats require a swing of between 6 and 10 per cent, while "marginal" seats require a swing of less than 6 per cent.

The following pendulum is known as the Mackerras pendulum, invented by psephologist Malcolm Mackerras. Designed for the outcome of the 2010 federal election, the pendulum works by lining up all of the seats held in Parliament, 72 Labor, 72 Coalition, 1 Nationals WA, 1 Green and 4 independent, according to the percentage point margin on a two candidate preferred basis. The two party result is also known as the swing required for the seat to change hands. Given a uniform swing to the opposition or government parties in an election, the number of seats that change hands can be predicted. Swing is never uniform, but in practice variations of swing among the Australian states usually tend to cancel each other out. Seats are arranged in safeness categories according to the Australian Electoral Commission's classification of safeness. "Safe" seats require a swing of over 10 per cent to change, "fairly safe" seats require a swing of between 6 and 10 per cent, while "marginal" seats require a swing of less than 6 per cent.

2012 Northern Territory general election

The Northern Territory general election was held on Saturday 25 August 2012, which elected all 25 members of the Legislative Assembly in the unicameral Northern Territory Parliament. The 11-year Labor Party government led by Chief Minister Paul Henderson was defeated in their attempt to win a fourth term against the opposition Country Liberal Party led by opposition leader Terry Mills with a swing of four seats, losing the normally safe Labor remote seats of Arafura, Arnhem, Daly and Stuart, whilst retaining their urban seats picked up at the 2001 election.

The following pendulum is known as the Mackerras pendulum, invented by psephologist Malcolm Mackerras. Designed for the outcome of the 2010 Victorian state election, the pendulum works by lining up all of the seats held in Parliament, according to the percentage point margin on a two candidate preferred basis. The two party result is also known as the swing required for the seat to change hands. Given a uniform swing to the opposition or government parties in an election, the number of seats that change hands can be predicted. Swing is never uniform, but in practice variations of swings usually tend to cancel each other out. "Safe" seats require a swing of over 10 per cent to change, "fairly safe" seats require a swing of between 6 and 10 per cent, while "marginal" seats require a swing of less than 6 per cent.

The following is a pendulum based on the outcome of the 2010 federal election and changes since, including the redistributions of seats in South Australia and Victoria. It is a Mackerras pendulum, invented by psephologist Malcolm Mackerras, which works by lining up all of the seats held in Parliament according to the percentage point margin on a two-candidate-preferred basis. The two-party result is also known as the swing required for the seat to change hands. Given a uniform swing to the opposition or government parties in an election, the number of seats that change hands can be predicted. Swings are never uniform, but in practice variations of swing among the Australian states usually tend to cancel each other out. Seats are arranged in safeness categories according to the Australian Electoral Commission's (AEC) classification of safeness. "Safe" seats require a swing of over 10 per cent to change, "fairly safe" seats require a swing of between 6 and 10 per cent, while "marginal" seats require a swing of less than 6 per cent. The swings for South Australian and Victorian seats are notional, based on calculations by the AEC.

At the 2016 federal election of the 150 House of Representatives seats the Liberal/National Coalition won 76, a one-seat majority, Labor won 69 seats and crossbenchers won the remaining five. A redistribution in 2017/18 changed the representation entitlements. For the next election, the number of seats in the House will increase to 151, South Australia will lose a seat, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) will gain one seat each.

2017 Western Australian state election State general election for Western Australia

The 2017 Western Australian state election was held on Saturday 11 March 2017 to elect members to the Parliament of Western Australia, including all 59 seats in the Legislative Assembly and all 36 seats in the Legislative Council. The eight-and-a-half-year two-term incumbent Liberal–WA National government, led by Premier Colin Barnett, was defeated in a landslide by the Labor opposition, led by Opposition Leader Mark McGowan.

The following pendulum is known as the Mackerras pendulum, invented by psephologist Malcolm Mackerras. Based upon the outcome of the 2007 federal election and changes before the 2010 election, the pendulum works by lining up all of the seats held in Parliament, 83 Labor, 55 Liberal, 9 National, and 3 independent, according to the percentage point margin on a two party preferred basis.

The following is a Mackerras pendulum for the 2014 Victorian state election.

The Coalition won the 2013 federal election with 90 of 150 lower house seats on a current 17-seat, 3.65-point two-party swing, defeating the 6-year Labor government. Labor holds 55 seats while crossbenchers hold the remaining five. The Division of Fairfax was the last seat to be declared.

This is a Mackerras pendulum for the 2016 Australian federal election.

The Coalition won the 2016 federal election with a one-seat majority 76 of 150 lower house seats. Labor holds 69 seats while crossbenchers hold the remaining five.

The Labor party won the 2018 state election by winning 55 of the 88 lower house seats. The coalition won 27 seats while the Greens and independents won 3 each.

The Coalition won the 2019 federal election with a three-seat majority of 77 of 151 lower house seats. Labor holds 68 seats, and crossbenchers hold the remaining six.

The Mackerras pendulum was devised by the Australian psephologist Malcolm Mackerras as a way of predicting the outcome of an election contested between two major parties in a Westminster style lower house legislature such as the Australian House of Representatives, which is composed of single-member electorates and which uses a preferential voting system such as a Condorcet method or IRV.

References

  1. Division Classifications, Virtual Tally Room 2016, Australian Electoral Commission. Retrieved 21 August 2016.
  2. Green, Antony (2 August 2021). "2022 Federal Electoral Pendulum". Antony Green's Election. Archived from the original on 3 August 2021. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
  3. "Pendulum". Australian Broadcasting Corporation News. Retrieved 7 May 2022.