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On Saturday, Australians will finally go to the polls to decide who will lead the country after one of the longest election campaigns in recent history.

But no matter which major party wins government, they look set to be sharing power – particularly in the Senate – with a range of new faces from the likes of Nick Xenophon’s and Jacqui Lambie’s political parties.

So, which seats should we be following with interest on election night? And how have the major parties gone at selling their policies?

University of Western Australia political analyst Natalie Mast sits down again with “Poll Bludger” William Bowe to talk about how the campaign has played out and what the polls are telling us about the likely result.

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Natalie Mast is the Chair of The Conversation's Editorial Board.

In May 2015 the mayor of the City of Blacktown, Stephen Bali, denounced the SBS documentary series Struggle Street – produced in the Blacktown suburb of Mount Druitt – labelling it as “public funded poverty porn” and staging a creative protest which saw a dozen garbage trucks blockade the broadcaster’s head offices. The second series of Struggle Street will be filmed in Queensland and Victoria in 2016, and there has already been significant backlash to the announced plans.

While poverty porn is a term used to describe media that appears to exploit impoverished communities and individuals for entertainment, supporters of shows such as Struggle Street argue that the genre can generate sympathy, engagement and ultimately have a positive effect on the community.

Dallas Rogers spoke with Deb Warr, Associate Professor from the McCaughey Centre for Community Wellbeing at the University of Melbourne, about the role the media plays in creating narratives around poverty and the importance of varied methods of engagement with impoverished communities.

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Dallas Rogers receives funding from the Community Broadcasting Foundation to produce short academic interviews for SoundMinds Radio (http://www.soundminds.com.au/author/dallas/). Segments of this interview were played on community radio in January 2016

In this podcast, University of Western Australia political analyst Natalie Mast speaks with “Poll Bludger” William Bowe about the election campaign so far. The conversation focuses on the latest polling and whether there is evidence of a nationwide swing large enough to unseat the Coalition government.

They touch on the possible impact state issues – particularly in Western Australia and South Australia – will have on the election.

William also speaks about his recent modelling of possible outcomes for the Senate. The upper house is not only facing a double-dissolution election but a new method of voting.

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Natalie Mast is chair of The Conversation's editorial board.

Do we actually know what works when it comes to improving the quality of education in schools?

A new four-part ABC documentary series, Revolution School, looks at what the research tells us about what works in education – and what doesn’t. It tells the story of how a typical suburban high school in Victoria, Kambrya College, managed to turn around from rock bottom to being in the top 25% of study scores in the state.

Smaller class sizes, private schooling, homework and discipline do not make a difference to the quality of education, explains education expert John Hattie – “what really matters is interaction with teachers, clinical teaching, constantly measuring each student’s knowledge and responding to their individual needs”.

Maxine McKew speaks with John Hattie about what we need to be doing to improve the quality of education in Australian schools – and the kind of debates we really should be having.

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Maxine McKew does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

The writs have been issued, the stage has been set: Australians are about to go to an election. You can almost smell the sausages sizzling at local primary schools and scout halls, and it’s only a matter of time until the how-to-vote cards start to make their way into our hands and letterboxes.

When we talk about the fundamental elements of representative democracy, we tend to defer to grand themes such as accessibility, representation, prevention against corruption, and equality. But democracy in Australia (and in other parts of the world) is as much about where we vote, when we vote and how long we have to vote as those more lofty concepts.

And what about that humble sausage in bread?

William Isdale speaks with professor Graeme Orr about the festival of elections, the heritage of voting in Australia and what might be lost in the culture of our democracy if we are all able to vote securely from our mobile phones at some stage in the near future.

Orr’s book, Ritual and Rhythm in Electoral Systems, is out now.

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William Isdale does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.