The Federal Election 2013

The Federal Election
On the 14th of September 2013 members will be elected for the 44th Parliament of Australia. At this point in time the leaders of the two main parties going up against each other will be Julia Gillard (Labor) and Tony Abbot (Liberal). There are also other smaller parties that have different leaders. There are many issues involving the election such as new laws and what their policies are if they get re-elected into Parliament. There are also many debates that happen and the tensions rise between the leaders of the parties. In this document I will first discuss how the voting for election works.
In Australia they have a voting system called Preferential voting. When you go to vote you are given a voting ballot which as all the names of the parties on their and a box next to that you then vote by putting a 1 next to your preferred party then a 2 to the next preferred and so on. Then when all the voting is done then they count all the votes with the one next to them and to win you need to get 50% +1 of the votes for that seat then you take that seat and the party with the most seats in the Parliament of Australia takes power. If a party has not won after all the 1 votes are counted then the party with the least votes and all the people they gave them 1 next to them the number 2 votes are then counted and added on to the other total for the original count and so on until they get 50% +1 of the votes. In 2010 the most recent election was held and was contested between the same to leaders and the election was so close that they did not decide a winner straight away and this is called a hung parliament. This is when a party has not won 50% +1 seat so they cannot take power until they have power. When this happens then the independent have to join one of the parties which will take it to the number of seats needed to gain power.
The federal election affects the country in a big way people deciding who to vote for and what leader will be the best for them and benefit them the most. When it gets closer to the election they will start doing question and answer interviews and will tour Australia I a hope to get peoples votes. Each Leader will announce laws and policies that if they get elected they will supposably try and pass though government. In Past times many of those policies are listened to, taken in and then are voted in to government and then they do not follow through with that policy or promise. For example when in the election of 2010 Julia Gillard said if labour were to take power there not be a Carbon Tax but then the year after that the Carbon Tax was brought in. This shows that there is a big deal when deciding who to vote for and if they will follow through with their policies and does the right thing for our country.
In the news a lot is who the preferred prime minister is and who the favourite to win the election is. For the last 6 months on a two party preferred basis Tony Abbot has been the favourite and on the 26th of March 2013 6 months before the election Tony Abbot is up 52% to 48% over the Current Prime Minister Julia Gillard . But in the Labour Party a Article that can be read on the 3AW website on from the 15th of April says “Kevin Rudd remains Australia's preferred Prime Minister as a new opinion poll shows Labor's popularity has slumped to its lowest level in a year.” And “The Nielsen poll shows Labor's primary vote has dropped to 29 per cent, its lowest level since May last year. The Coalition remains in a commanding election winning lead.” Earlier this year people were speculating a leadership challenge by Kevin Rudd after news saying that he was preferred over Julia Gillard. After one of Julia Gillard front benches Simon Crean told her that if there was a leadership challenge that he would back Kevin Rudd. So Julia Gillard sacked him from his role and held a leadership challenge that no one even contested not even Kevin Rudd. This shows