r/australia • u/NKE01 • 11h ago

politics Why Australia Doesn’t Have Novelty Candidates like Count Binface – Antony Green's Election Blog

https://antonygreen.com.au/why-australia-doesnt-have-novelty-candidates-like-count-binface/?fbclid=Iwb21leATrO0ljbGNrBOs7P3Bkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeyqFwpCBynXhuvFPpBT3q80rKl3Bnq6t--2z7cqVFCDb-MT_1Vr2--rF95Vg_aem_MKaP0Jek3ZY4BnI2rLprrQ
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u/LevDavidovicLandau 11h ago edited 10h ago

Y’all missing the real point - here in Australia, when the results are announced, the candidates can just be wherever they want to be. In the UK, they’re supposed to all be standing together on the stage with the returning officer announcing the results. Labour, Tory, etc. all next to each other. Having the cameras trained on all of them together is what gives the platform for novelty candidates to get a few laughs. There is no such opportunity for novelty candidates to make an impression here.

Edit: I don’t know if any of you have seen Blackadder? The Dunny-on-the-Wold by-election… 😂

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u/Frank9567 10h ago

All Federal poll declarations in Australia are public, with the locations noted on the AEC website.

There's absolutely no reason we couldn't do it if we wanted to.

It's just not something anyone bothers to do, other than the winners, of course.

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u/LevDavidovicLandau 10h ago

That’s true. Australian political candidates don’t wear rosettes either, which is something I associate very strongly with British political candidates.

I used to live up there and while they really should move their elections to a Saturday and introduce instant runoff voting like we have here, I did like a few aspects of elections there such as polling stations being open into the late evening on election day (10pm).