Australian Election 2007
It's just over a month until the 2007 Australian federal election. This year Google is showing an interest by providing a useful election site, from which you can reach their handy election maps. These are Google maps with Australian election information overlayed. It's handy to see which electorate you reside in, and where party strongholds reside.
If you don't know who to vote for, or want to check if your views still match those of your party of choice, then try out the Oz Politics test. After answering a few multiple-choice questions it'll indicate how close a match you are to the various parties.
Whilst the test was accurate for me, its analysis page states that the party predicted by the test only matches the respondent's nominated party 5% of the time. For example, of the people who indicated they were Labor inclined, only 17% held views that most closely matched Labor party policy, whereas 38% of them were closest to the Democrats. Perhaps this is because the test is based on parties' policies, rather than what parties actually do, whereas people may base their votes more on the latter. Still, it's a fun way of prying into the minds of your friends and colleagues.
Happily we have preferential voting in Australia, so we can vote for minor party candidates without worrying that our votes will not count.
I've updated the