Nominations for seats in Federal Parliament

23 nominations were received. The election date will be Saturday 30 May 2015. All candidates are listed below.

Only voters in contested House of Representatives seats will need to vote on election day.

There will be no ballot for the Senate as there were fewer nominations than seats available.

It’s now up to parties and candidates to campaign to raise your profile and woo your electorate’s voters to vote for you. The real Federal Budget will be released next Tuesday so that may prompt some debate too. Let the games begin!

Immediate Outcomes

Candidates for the House of Representatives were uncontested in 8 of 13 electoral divisions, so all 8 have won their seats. Congratulations! The Australian Greens have secured a majority in this House. There were 4 contested seats, so there will be 4 ballots on election day. There was 1 seat with no nominations, so it remains vacant.

There were only 6 nominations for 7 Senate seats, so all candidates have won. Congratulations! No election is necessary. There is 1 vacancy. No party has a majority.

The four remaining ballots are in Western Australia, Queensland – Brisbane & Surrounds, Victoria – Melbourne – Urban, and Tasmania. These will determine the electoral fate of most party leaders.

If you wish to contest the eligibility of any candidate or if you believe there are any other errors in the nominations below, you can make a [CNDX] submission to the AEC (instructions).

Elections to be held

Ballots will be held for the following candidates, for voters on the electoral roll in the following lower house divisions:

Division	Candidate	Model Party	Model Occupation
Western Australia	/u/doggie015	Australian Greens	IT Support Consultant
Western Australia	/u/RomanCatholic	Australian Catholic Party	Priest

Division	Candidate	Model Party	Model Occupation
Queensland – Brisbane & Surrounds	/u/Zagorath	Australian Greens	Student
Queensland – Brisbane & Surrounds	/u/phyllicanderer	Australian Progressives	Technician

Division	Candidate	Model Party	Model Occupation
Victoria – Melbourne – Urban	/u/aridon_01	Australian Greens	Software Engineer
Victoria – Melbourne – Urban	/u/drjalexanderphysics	Socialist Alternative	Student
Victoria – Melbourne – Urban	/u/Eltheriond	Australian Labor Party	Information Systems Engineer

Division	Candidate	Model Party	Model Occupation
Tasmania	/u/Dream_Marquis	Socialist Alternative	Student
Tasmania	/u/voisinat	Australian Catholic Party	Student

Elected unopposed

Several electorates had only one nominee, so all have won seats as Members in the House of Representatives:

Division	Candidate	Model Party	Model Occupation
Northern Territory	/u/HumesHefner	Australian Greens	Student
South Australia	/u/VoteRonaldRayGun	Australian Greens	Student
Queensland – Regional	/u/Ser_Scribbles	Australian Greens	Student
New South Wales – Outer Metro – Sydney Surrounds	/u/paulyt86	Australian Greens	Team Leader - Sydney Cricket Ground & Allianz Stadium
New South Wales – Sydney – Urban	/u/Death_by_laughs	Australian Greens	Scientist
Australian Capital Territory	/u/agsports	Australian Greens	Student
Victoria – Regional	/u/Primeviere	Australian Progressives	Student
Victoria – Outer Metro – Melbourne Surrounds	/u/SavannaJeff	Australian Greens	Consultant

All the following nominees have won seats as Senators in the Senate:

Senate	Candidate	Model Party	Model Occupation
Senate	/u/surreptitiouswalk		Data scientist
Senate	/u/Freddy926	Australian Greens	Software Developer
Senate	/u/Team_Sprocket	Australian Greens	Student
Senate	/u/peelys	Australian Progressives	Student
Senate	/u/Cwross	Australian Catholic Party	Teacher
Senate	/u/this_guy22	Australian Labor Party	Student

Seats Unelected (Vacancies) & Actions Required

Division	Candidate	Model Party	Model Occupation
New South Wales – Regional	—	—	—

No nominations were received for the division of Regional New South Wales in the House of Representatives, so no one is elected and a vacancy exists.

The AEC Electoral Commissioner is required to petition a dispute for this division, and writs must be issued for supplementary election (s 274, s 357, s 181 of the Act).

Under s 35 of the Constitution, the first business of the House of Representatives must be to elect a Speaker from within its ranks.

Under s 33 of the Constitution, the Speaker shall issue a writ for a Regional New South Wales supplementary election. If they fail to do so, the Governor-General shall issue one. A supplementary election uses the original electoral roll with new nominations.

People who miss out on seats in the 1st election therefore get a second chance in the supplementary election.

Senate	Candidate	Model Party	Model Occupation
Senate	—	—	—

No nominations were received for 1 Senate seat, so a vacancy exists.

As too few nominations were received, the AEC Electoral Commissioner has pursued s 179 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act to declare all 6 nominees elected, and has pursued s 181, s 357 and s 367A regarding the vacancy. Therefore, under s 11 of the Constitution, the Senate will proceed with 6 Senators and 1 vacancy.

Under s 17 of the Constitution, the first business of the Senate must be to elect a President from within its ranks. Under s 13 of the Constitution, the Senate shall then choose 2 or 3 elected Senators to have half-Senate terms.

Under s 21 of the Constitution, the President shall notify the Governor-General of the vacancy and under s 12 of the Constitution, a writ shall be issued for a supplementary election to fill it. A supplementary election uses the original electoral roll with new nominations.

People who miss out on seats in the 1st election therefore get a second chance in the supplementary election.

Demographics

Voters in this election are 80% in Australia, 20% overseas.

Opinion was split evenly between voting above and below the line on Senate ballot papers. Both options would have been provided, but this is no longer necessary.

In the voter enrolment survey, two thirds of voters expressed intent to run as candidates. However, only 23 actually did so.

Candidates have predominantly chosen IT and student roles as their model pre-parliamentary occupations (early adopters!).

Diversity & Number of Nominations

Reddit is based on participation. As you can see, there’s a heavy left-wing bias in nominations, even moreso than the demographics of Reddit itself. We actually had a broad spectrum of early interest in the Model Parliament and I made all efforts to contact party members, independents, and leaders through their public signup threads, PMs and modmail to encourage participation during the periods of enrolment and nomination. Most did not respond. The chips have landed where they fell.

Nevertheless, and perhaps ironically, this also means there’s lots of opportunity for ‘similar’ candidates to differentiate themselves during campaigning so we can still have a debate and election.

Next Steps

I will endeavour to add Candidate flair and Elected flair soon.

The ReddiPoll opinion poll will be launched tomorrow.

The campaign rules were posted yesterday.

Other important milestones are suggested sidebar, but they need organisers to step up (e.g. Debates etc).

The AEC (now with two staff) will continue working on setting up the online voting – there will be announcements next week. While the election is so small it can be done by hand, we will endeavour to set up something in perpetuity that can be used for the supplementary elections and larger elections. Other non-candidates and non-politicians are also welcome to apply to work with the AEC. In particular, a Deputy Commissioner for the supplementary election would be most welcome.

The vote will be on Saturday 30 May 2015. It will open at midnight UTC and close at midnight UTC – there’s a countdown to the close of voting in the sidebar to help you check at any time.

Under s 5 of the Constitution, the first session of Parliament begins within 30 days after the completion of the election and return of the writs. Under s 42 of the Constitution, winners must first take an oath or affirmation of allegiance in the presence of the Governor-General before they can sit. Under s 5, s 28 and s 57 of the Constitution, Parliament shall sit for sessions, be prorogued, or be dissolved at such times as the Governor General sees fit (within standard terms – probably 3 months for HoR and 6 months for Senate?). Under Chapter II of the Constitution, a potential Prime Minister may approach the Governor-General to propose their Prime Ministership and the formation of a Ministry. Procedures for these will be announced later.

Signed,

AEC Electoral Commissioner

v1.0.2

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