The Australian Voter' launched

The new Centre for the Study of Australian Politics at ANU hosted The State of Voting Studies in Australia conference last Friday. Centre Director Professor John Uhr convened the event to mark the publication of ‘The Australian Voter’, a UNSW Press book by leading specialist in Australian politics, Professor Ian McAllister.

Invited experts in the field of voting studies attended from the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada. The conference used Professor McAllister’s book as the point of departure to assess the achievements of voting studies in Australia compared with the best international studies. One theme to emerge was that the Australian Research Council-funded Australian Election Study is highly regarded internationally and makes a significant  contribution not only to the understanding of Australian politics but also to electoral politics internationally.

Speakers at the conference included academics from the School of Politics and International Relations - Ian McAllister and Juliet Pietsch - with contributions also from John Warhurst and Maria Maley. International speakers included Professor Rachel Gibson from Manchester University, Professor Jeffrey Karp from Exeter University, and Professor Anthony Sayers from the University of Calgary. Speakers from other Australian universities included Professor Murray Goot from Macquarie University, Associate Professor Haydon Manning from Flinders University, Associate Professor Ariadne Vromen from the University of Sydney, Professor Peter Van Onselen from UWA, Professor Clive Bean from QUT, and Professor Brian Costar from Swinburne University.