all quiet on the election

Not a lot has really happened in the election campaign. That should change over the next few days now that the preference allocations are known. Anthony Green has published his Senate prediction. It's also worth looking at how preferences changed the 2001 election.

The two party preferred vote is more or less tied. Neither of the major party leaders has landed a knockout blow on the other. National security is not nearly as solid an issue for the Coalition as the Man of Steel expected. The Great Debate was largely a washout, although the consensus is that Latham won. Latham is campaigning rather better than expected and the gaffes so far have all been on the government's side. The surplus (althought it ignores the Commonwealth's superannuation liabilities) has largely neutralsied economic scare tactics.

Neither side has really given us a vision for what Australia should or might become.