Below the Line

George Christensen, the maverick Liberal-National Party member from far north Queensland, dropped the pre-Easter bombshell that he is no longer heading for retirement but joining One Nation. Today, the Below the Line podcast team unpack what this means for the major parties’ prospects in that seat and for the election result.

Joining our host, award-winning broadcaster Jon Faine, is Anika Guaja who says the defection is a big win for One Nation, whose leader Pauline Hanson says they will field candidates in every Australian electorate.

Meanwhile, Andrea Carson finds that One Nation is getting more public interactions (likes, shares and comments) on Facebook for political posts than any other party or politician including the Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Carson says this shows One Nation’s mastery in reaching voters with their conversational style of messaging on social media.

Simon Jackman notes that even before the media publicly shamed Anthony Albanese with front page headlines for failing to recall the unemployment rate on the first day of campaigning, Labor’s vote lead was already narrowing according to different pollsters.

With early voting opening on May 9, ahead of polling day on May 21, our panel looks at what this means for media messaging, polls and political strategies. Added to this is the Australian Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers’ unprecedented announcement that COVID-19 affected voters will be able to lodge their vote by telephone on election day. This has never happened in a federal Australian election before. This raises all sorts of questions about how the vote will be recorded and counted, especially for those of you who choose to vote “below the line” on the Senate ballot.

Listen to our expert panel’s latest election insights, and thank you for tuning in and propelling Below the Line into the top 20 Australian news podcasts on Spotify this week after just two episodes. Keep listening, we’ll have more to come right up until election day.

Image: Darren England/AAP

When will Prime Minister Scott Morrison call the election? And could this be the long-awaited campaign when women take the driver’s seat?

In the second episode of our new election podcast, Below the Line, our expert panel delve into the High Court’s involvement in the election’s timing and its likely impact on the Coalition vote. After we finished recording, the High Court confirmed the dismissal of the New South Wales Liberals’ challenge to Morrison’s hand-picked candidates.

Then, picking up on the PM’s claim this week that he overrode the local preselection process to “get more good women into parliament”, we take a deep dive into what role gender will play in the campaign.

Jointly hosting the episode are award-winning broadcaster and Vice Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Melbourne, Jon Faine, and University of Sydney’s Professor Simon Jackman. Joining them to talk about gender and politics is an all-female line-up of political scientists including regular panellists Associate Professor Andrea Carson from La Trobe University, Sydney University’s Professor Anika Gauja and special guest Dr Jill Sheppard, a gender expert from the Australian National University.

They look at why Australia is ranked just 50th in the world for female political representation, a drastic fall from 1999 when Australia was ranked 15th. After the March4Justice movement and with increasing numbers of female independent candidates campaigning, could we turn things around in 2022? Don’t hold your breathe, said Jill Sheppard, who reminded us that voters might care more about petrol prices than gender parity.

Below the Line is brought to you by The Conversation and La Trobe University twice weekly until polling day. It is produced by Courtney Carthy and Benjamin Clark.

Image credit: Diego Fedele/AAP

From the polls to party spin to election promises, Below the Line is a limited-edition podcast unpacking party lines and policies during the 2022 Australian federal election campaign.

Hosting the conversation is award-winning broadcaster and former ABC Melbourne mornings presenter, Jon Faine, now a Vice Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Melbourne. He’ll be joined by political scientists Anika Gauja and Simon Jackman from the University of Sydney and La Trobe University’s Andrea Carson, to talk about the issues that matter to you.

Below the Line is brought to you by The Conversation and La Trobe University twice weekly until polling day.

Listen to the first episode, in which our panel discusses personalities and pre-selections, when the election will likely be called, and the most probable election

Produced by Courtney Carthy and Benjamin Clark.

Image credit: Sarah Rhodes/AAP