Chris Chittleborough (talk | contribs) Question re AUSPIC photos |
|||
Line 846: | Line 846: | ||
Having recently added links to the APH website pages for [[Jason Wood]] and [[John Alexander Forrest]], I'd like to know if it is possible for Wikipedia to use the photographs from the APH website. They credit these photos to "AUSPIC", (email address auspic@aph.gov.au). The [http://www.aph.gov.au/legal/copyright.htm Copyright] page for the Department of Parliamentary Services permits "personal, non-commercial use or use within your organisation." Is this compatible with Wikipedia's rules? [[User:Chris Chittleborough|CWC]]<small>[[User talk:Chris Chittleborough|(talk)]]</small> 15:09, 4 March 2007 (UTC) |
Having recently added links to the APH website pages for [[Jason Wood]] and [[John Alexander Forrest]], I'd like to know if it is possible for Wikipedia to use the photographs from the APH website. They credit these photos to "AUSPIC", (email address auspic@aph.gov.au). The [http://www.aph.gov.au/legal/copyright.htm Copyright] page for the Department of Parliamentary Services permits "personal, non-commercial use or use within your organisation." Is this compatible with Wikipedia's rules? [[User:Chris Chittleborough|CWC]]<small>[[User talk:Chris Chittleborough|(talk)]]</small> 15:09, 4 March 2007 (UTC) |
||
:Wikipedia isn't personal use, nor within an organisation, and doesn't allow images with non-commercial licenses. So, no. [[User:JPD|JPD]] ([[User talk:JPD|talk]]) 15:24, 5 March 2007 (UTC) |
Revision as of 15:24, 5 March 2007
Development
Any thoughts on getting this actively going?
There's two things I'd like to do, first of all -
- remove the "of x articles, y exist" sections - we've either got articles on all topics in that category, or they're innumerable (i.e. parliamentarians)
- get a COTW going - if we can get a handful of people willing to put in a little bit of time, we could start to get decent mid-sized articles on a few people, and it shouldn't take much more than a few minutes of Googling Ambi 07:42, 19 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- Your suggestions are sensible. It does seem ridiculous to have an article counter when the number of associated articles is ever-growing. I have doubts that a COTW would be maintained (look at the Australian one!), but the article adoption programme seems reasonable. I noticed that was a scheme used at the WikiProject Melbourne. Has that been successful? Also, would priority be given to certain articles, or would the adopter just choose? A COTW would probably be more successful (in drastically expanding articles), but it would require numerous dedicated editors (like you).
- Additionally, we need to set the scope of the project and identify areas of particular need. This is something you’re going to know a lot more about than me – I’ve somewhat neglected my initial wish to edit Australian politics articles. I’ve just created an empty Open Tasks template for the Project. I’ll transfer my (related) comments to the Project talk-page, for further discussion there. After further modification of the Project page, I’ll “launch” it (place it on WikiProjects, the Wikiportal and AWNB).
- Sorry again! -- Cyberjunkie TALK 05:51, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- The article adoption idea for WikiProject Melbourne wasn't a bad idea, but it ended up being
- Sorry again! -- Cyberjunkie TALK 05:51, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)
stillborn - the project was past its prime by the time that was suggested. What I think might work, though, is crossing it with the COTW idea. Everyone interested adds an article each for the week - everyone works on that batch of articles, and at the end of the week, the list is erased and started again, with everyone who is still interested adding another one (so as to stop things becoming stagnant, as they did with Melbourne). I think it could work - if we were willing to get it started, hopefully some of others might join in.
- There's a few key things we're missing.
- articles on MPs, particularly state ministers and opposition leaders
- lists of MPs, particularly at state level, but also in the first half of the century at federal level
- most of the party articles, as well as the legislature articles, could do with a lot of expansion (see what the Canadians have done in that area)
- electorates are a serious mess, and are probably the first thing we should straighten out (we now have four different naming conventions in four states)
- There's a few key things we're missing.
- I've got a basic to-do list together, with some of the more obvious cases that I could think of, but feel free to make any changes you want. Ambi 07:00, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- Yep. That's a good start. I agree with you that the Politics of Canada articles are quite good. By and large, I think we will be able to emulate what they have achieved (vis-à-vis organisation and article layout).-- Cyberjunkie TALK 07:05, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- I've made a couple of other changes. What do you think needs doing before we start advertising this? Ambi 07:58, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- The legislation section needs to be replaced, as that is already being undertaken by WikiProject Australian law. What do you think should take its place? Government departments; Ministeries; Official buildings?-- Cyberjunkie TALK 08:06, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- I was going to leave it there, as it's somewhat relevant to both, but I see your point. How about ministries? Canada particularly has excellent articles on ministerial positions and individual ministries, but ours are nonexistent at the state level and mediocre at best at the federal level. Government departments and buildings probably need a section each of their own too - we have articles on no government departments AFAIK, and all of one state parliament house (Vic). Ambi 08:11, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- How about we title the section "Executive", with ministeries and departments falling under it. I suppose departments could also include the respective Minister and building (for important dep't like Casey for DFAT).-- Cyberjunkie TALK 08:31, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- Sounds good to me - I forgot all about public servants (Harry Evans, Peter Shergold). Ambi 09:24, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- Created new spaces for government departments (under executive) and legislative buildings. I also posted about the naming convention issue, which is now linked from the task box - anything more to do before advertising this around some? Ambi 09:35, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- Sounds good to me - I forgot all about public servants (Harry Evans, Peter Shergold). Ambi 09:24, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- I don't think so. I'll add the Project to relevant pages, and post a notice at AWNB. If you can think of other places to advertise, please feel free to do so.-- Cyberjunkie TALK 09:43, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- How about we title the section "Executive", with ministeries and departments falling under it. I suppose departments could also include the respective Minister and building (for important dep't like Casey for DFAT).-- Cyberjunkie TALK 08:31, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)
What about Australian political cartoonists? List_of_cartoonists#Political_cartoonists
- (The preceding comment was posted by anonymous IP 192.102.239.195) Cyberjunkie TALK 09:40, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- That's more of a media thing, I think. There could probably be an entire WikiProject covering that sort of thing - methinks it's stretching this one just a bit too far. Ambi 10:19, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- Agreed. They're not really within our ambit.-- Cyberjunkie TALK 10:33, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- That's more of a media thing, I think. There could probably be an entire WikiProject covering that sort of thing - methinks it's stretching this one just a bit too far. Ambi 10:19, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Missing articles
Joe Scalzi and Joan Hall, done :-) Hopefully a few people will expand on them, or do a few others! Timeshift 18:32, 15 May 2006 (UTC)
Project name
Is it too late to consider naming this project WikiProject Australian government instead of WikiProject Australian politics? Most of the scope outlined so far is about government rather than politics. --ScottDavis 00:37, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- We could, but I think it might turn a few people off. I think the focus will end up being on politics - MPs, parties and electorates, but there's a few tangentially-related things which it's still useful to cover as well (i.e. government departments). Ambi 02:29, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)
I've joined now anyway, but I was almost turned off by the "politics" title, as I have been writing article stubs on Governors of South Australia and local government areas of South Australia which are government but not really politics. I guess elections and MPs sort of fit in both spaces. Electorates, departments, governors are government. Policies are politics. Do we intend to take responsibility for {{Australia-gov-stub}} ? --ScottDavis 03:07, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- I pondered that last night. I don't think we need a new Aus politics stub, and was hoping to use the Aus gov stub in its place - unless others think it necessary. We could re-title the gov stub "politics", but I don't know if that would gain support. Don't let the word "politics" worry you; at its broadest, it may refer to government in general. -- Cyberjunkie TALK 06:42, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- How about renaming it Wikipedia:WikiProject Australian politics and government then (or something similar)? I see your point. Ambi 08:03, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)
OK. I think we should capture {{Australia-gov-stub}} as any article it's on should be in the scope of this project (and no other project owns it). The same for {{AU-politician-stub}}. Hopefully we'll capture some new participants. Do you object to me adding government-related stuff explicitly to the intro and related projects? --ScottDavis 07:32, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- Not at all. Please, go ahead with any changes you think will improve or attract more participants to the Project.-- Cyberjunkie TALK 07:42, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- I agree entirely - I think we should take over both stub categories, and feel free to do whatever necessary to attract participants. Ambi 08:03, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)
I missed your earlier comment about a longer name. That name ("Australian politics and government") seems to be the best name to cover the subject, but it's fairly long. I think I'm becoming convinced that "politics" is good enough, as long as the whole-of-government scope is expressed. I'd still support any real move to change the name to include "government", but won't push it. There's plenty of "real work" to do. --ScottDavis 11:39, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- Fine by me. I wrote my first article inspired by this, Kym Richardson, last night - hopefully there'll be many more to come. Ambi 11:43, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Elections
It would be great if we could get some more coverage of elections, especially historical ones, because they can show so much about indvidual moments in history. Also, it would be good to include some info on state elections (eg. South Australian legislative election, 2006) - Aaron Hill July 5, 2005 02:01 (UTC)
- Seconded. If anyone's interested in writing them, the 2004 election article is a damned good example - that very nearly made it to featured status (and still could with a little work); our only other major one is the 2005 Northern Territory election, which I've been working on and which is very nearly finished. I'm going to keep trying to write on state elections as they happen; I might try and cover some past ones too, particularly if others are interested. Ambi 5 July 2005 09:41 (UTC)
Divisions
We now have (short) articles on all the federal electoral divisions. Does anyone know of some good (online) resources for state and territory districts? I might get started on those once the naming conventions are sorted out. --bainer (talk) 6 July 2005 02:27 (UTC)
- Just about all of the state electoral commissions have some information on each division, though to varying levels of usefulness. The NTEC is fantastic; the NSW and SA SEOs are okay - they're the only ones that I've used so far. As far as member lists go, the NSW Parliamentary Record includes complete member lists for every current division. I'd already put together complete member lists before I started on the NT electorates; I'm not sure about the other states.
- The naming convention issue seems to pretty much settled, at least for lower house electorates (though some more feedback on Legislative Council seats would be nice), so I think it'd be pretty safe to get started. I've now nearly finished incorporating and linking the new convention from all the state lists, with only one past WA and one past Tas list still to go. Ambi 6 July 2005 06:36 (UTC)
Resources
The party colours templates (eg {{Australian politics/party colours/Democrats}}), are not listed here yet. Are there other resources such as this that could be added? In September, I added results to Marrickville by-election, 2005, using the election box templates used on the British pages, which involved making templates such as Template:Australian_Democrats/meta/color and Template:Australian_Democrats/meta/shortname, as well as some others such as Template:Election box 2pp to reflect the Australian system. This is clearly duplicating things, so I wondered what people thought? (On a separate note, I have been basing the colours on those used by the media, particularly the ABC - this seems more appropriate to me than using colours from the party logo, and changing whenever the logo is changed.) JPD (talk) 11:50, 31 October 2005 (UTC)
- I didn't know those existed. It seems we've duplicated our efforts. I created party colour templates such as {{Australian politics/party colours/Democrats}} for all federally represented parties (as well as PHON) for use in infoboxes and tables a while back. I forgot to add them here. Australian parties don't seem to have official colours, so I based them on their logos. Someone else has since changed the Greens colour to match other countries, and Democrats to match their new logo. --Cyberjunkie | Talk 12:48, 31 October 2005 (UTC)
- So what should we do? {{Election box candidate with party link}} requires a template with only the colour value in it, and only needs the party name to use the correct colour and create the right link. It seems to me we either decide not use that for Australian elections, or change the templates you created to bgcolor={{foo/meta/shortname}}. As for colours, I think we need to have a system not simply based on logos, otherwise the colours are not stable and (for example) the Nationals and the Greens are too similar.
Reorganising 'Parliaments' category
I propose to tidy up Category:Australian parliaments by creating a new sub category called - Category:Parliaments of the Australian States and Territories. This category would contain articles on the State Parliaments but not lists of previous parliaments (which have made the current Aust parliaments cat very mesy). This would allow the new category to be listed at Category:Legislatures of subnational entities in place of Category:Australian parliaments. If you would like to comment, please do so at Category_talk:Australian_parliaments Thanks. Adz 08:36, 2 November 2005 (UTC)
- I could go with this. Where would the current content go under the new system, though? Category:Lists of members of the ****? I'm having trouble thinking of a decent alternative - which is why I put them here in the first place. Ambi 00:18, 3 November 2005 (UTC)
- I was thinking along the lines of 'Previous Australian parliaments' or 'lists of previous ...', BUT, I 'm aware that it would take quite an effort in changing stubs, and I'm not sure its worth it. I think it could just stay where it is. Adz 01:07, 3 November 2005 (UTC)
- I think you're exactly right that this needs straightening out; I'm just not sure where to move the current content to. Previous parliaments works, but what happens to the current ones? Alternatively, we could create subcategories for each parliament and put the lists under that; it wouldn't completely get rid of the mess, but it'd be better than it is now. Ambi 03:33, 3 November 2005 (UTC)
- How about 'Lists of the composition of Australian Parliaments' (as a sub category of Australian Parliaments)? Parliaments of the States and Territories could then live there as well. Or you could call it 'Historical lists of Australian parliaments'. Adz 04:21, 3 November 2005 (UTC)
- I think you're exactly right that this needs straightening out; I'm just not sure where to move the current content to. Previous parliaments works, but what happens to the current ones? Alternatively, we could create subcategories for each parliament and put the lists under that; it wouldn't completely get rid of the mess, but it'd be better than it is now. Ambi 03:33, 3 November 2005 (UTC)
- I was thinking along the lines of 'Previous Australian parliaments' or 'lists of previous ...', BUT, I 'm aware that it would take quite an effort in changing stubs, and I'm not sure its worth it. I think it could just stay where it is. Adz 01:07, 3 November 2005 (UTC)
Joint Sitting of Federal Parliament
The Federal Parliament has only had one joint sitting to pass legislation, in 1974, after the reelection of the Whitlam Government. This was an historic sitting and I think needs an article on why it occurred, and with what result. I think Medibank was one of the triggering pieces of legislation, but I'm sure there were 2 or 3 more, which had been blocked by the senate in the previous parliament. Any takers?--Takver 16:35, 18 November 2005 (UTC)
Categories of politicians by State/Territory
I've recently noticed that there is a gap in Categories of politicians by state. Categories exist for ACT, QLD, WA and Tas. These appear under Category:Australian politicians. There don't appear to be categories for the other states. The various categories should also appear as subcategories under the state category, eg under Category:People of the Australian Capital Territory, or Category:Politics of Tasmania (or both). Although I don’t have much time to work on setting these categories up myself, I thought it would be worth mentioning in case others felt enthused to help set up categories and sort existing articles into them. Some useful pages include: List of Australian politicians and Category:Political office-holders in Australia. -- Adz 06:05, 8 December 2005 (UTC)
- It does need doing. Nearly a year ago, I think it was Chuq and I, hashed out a potential categorisation scheme for all of the Australian politician articles, the results of which are at User:Ambi/AusPolSandbox. I struck one night and implemented the party categories on every single relevant article, but never did get around to implementing the other sections. Feel free to take or adapt anything from there if helpful. Ambi 10:13, 8 December 2005 (UTC)
- Sorry but I'm a numpty head. Can someone tell me just how many categories a generic state politician should be in? eg, pam allan is currently in:
- Category:Living people|Allan, Pamela
- Category:Australian Labor Party politicians|Allan, Pamela
- Category:New South Wales State politicians|Allan, Pamela
- Category:Australian politicians|Allan, Pamela
- Category:People from New South Wales|Allan, Pamela
- This seems excessive, I know they aren't true hierarchical categories but surely there's no reason for BOTH: Category: Australian Politicians AND Category:New South Wales State politicians.
- Not saying I'm NOT the person who dumped all those categories there but I am looking for a guideline... Thanks!
- Garrie 05:17, 5 April 2006 (UTC)
- She should be in 1-3. 4 is a parent cat of 2 and 3, and 5 is a parent cat of 3. Ambi 05:22, 5 April 2006 (UTC)
Proposal to re-organise categories relating to Australian Parliaments
In December 2005 there was a brief discussion at WP:AWNB regarding sorting out categories relating to the various Parliaments in Australia. (See Wikipedia:Australian Wikipedians' notice board/Archive 15#MHR Category). It was agreed that these categories are currently messy and need to be sorted out.
Since then User:Ambi|Ambi, User:Snottygobble|Snottygobble and I have discussed the problem at length and formulated a proposal to overhaul and clean up the current categories. The proposal is located at Wikipedia:WikiProject Australian politics/Parliaments. If you're interested, could you please take a moment to look at the proposal and either provide comments or support on the talk page. Thanks. -- Adz|talk 01:23, 17 January 2006 (UTC)
Federal electorates template
Hey everyone. I've started a federal electorates template. User:Thebainer suggested that the way it is set up needs to be changed, so I brought it here for suggestions. I agree it's looking too big at the moment, so the ideas I have are:
- Have eight different templates (for each state and territory), like "Federal electorates in New South Wales"
- Get rid of state distinctions and list them alphabetically.
What do people think about these? I'm going to continue making it, as it will be easier to fiddle around with it once I've made the links, but I will make those changes. Braue 01:00, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
- How about having state templates, with a link to a list of all of the Electorates form all the States? -- Adz|talk 01:30, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
- I was thinking that, but what about places like Tasmania, the ACT and the Northern Territory? Part of the role of it is to link up all electorates. If the template is restructured to get rid of state distinctions, the size is cut to about 1/3 of its size, much more reasonable. Braue 01:47, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
- I can see what you mean, although I think that the names of electorates mean little to most people without knowing what state they're in. Another way of doing it might be to have one template for the two territories, one for all the states, and have a link in each template to each state, and to the complete list, in a similar way to how these Canberra suburb/district templates are linked to other canberra districts and to the complete list. (see Template:Belconnen Suburbs. - Canberra is divided into Districts, and each district contains a number of suburbs). (btw, how do we left align the this text?) -- Adz|talk 02:45, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
- Do you mean like this?
Banks | Barton | Bennelong | Berowra | Blaxland | Bradfield | Calare | Charlton | Chifley | Cook | Cowper | Cunningham | Dobell | Eden-Monaro | Farrer | Fowler | Gilmore | Grayndler | Greenway | Gwydir | Hughes | Hume | Hunter | Kingsford Smith | Lindsay | Lowe | Lyne | Macarthur | Mackellar | Macquarie | Mitchell | New England | Newcastle | North Sydney | Page | Parkes | Parramatta | Paterson | Prospect | Reid | Richmond | Riverina | Robertson | Shortland | Sydney | Throsby | Warringah | Watson | Wentworth | Werriwa Other States: Victoria | Queensland | Western Australia | South Australia | Tasmania | Territories |
Braue 02:54, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
That's the sort of thing I was thinking of. Looks good. Have you worked out how your're going to link the states at the bottom. Link them to List of House of representatives electoral districts in Victoria for example? -- Adz|talk 22:48, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
- I don't necessarily think we need the links to the other states, and if so, it might be best (not to mention easiest) just to link them to the templates for that particular state. Ambi 09:58, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
- If anyone else wants to change it, go ahead, but I didn't put links to the other states in each one. The link under "electoral divisions" takes you to a list of all electoral divisions. Braue 00:01, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
Cabinet, Ministry and Government
The page Cabinet of Australia lists the members of Cabinet and their portfolios (don't worry, I've already updated it for today's Cabinet reshuffle). However, there is no page for junior ministers or parliamentary secretaries. I can't just add them to the same page, as it is specifically about the Cabinet, but where else can it go? I don't want a separate page for Junior Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries, so maybe something like Federal Ministers of Australia? Braue 08:07, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
- You could rename (move) the page to 'Cabinet and outer ministry of Australia' or 'The Australian Federal Ministry'. Just a suggestion. Somebody may have a better idea, so maybe hold off before diving in. -- Adz|talk 09:44, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
- There are articles on each PM's ministries, eg. Fourth Howard Ministry (the current one), First Whitlam Ministry and so on. Perhaps the article Cabinet of Australia should just discuss the history of the cabinet (such as when certain portfolios were added, etc), and simply link to the current one? --bainer (talk) 11:30, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
- Okay, I'm including the Cabinet reshuffle in Fourth Howard Ministry. However, I think that this format (which lists changes to the ministry at the bottom and simply displays the original line-up following the 2004 election) is not best for showing the current ministry. I'm going to create a page called Current Federal Ministry of Australia, which will only show the current line-up. It won't show what the reshuffle means, the current pages do that fine. Braue 12:28, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
Someone has created an article caled Fifth Howard Ministry. What should be done? I'm thinking of asking for a speedy delete, but I don't know how. Braue 02:00, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
- I've deleted it. For future reference, to ask for a speedy deletion, simply use {{deletebecause|insert reason}}.--cj | talk 04:57, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
Notes on the day
- Following the McGauran defection, we have two brothers in federal Parliament belonging to different parties. This has occurred twice before. Can anyone tell us when?
- "One of Prime Minister Howard's great strengths is that he rarely makes the same mistake twice save for his appalling judgment in the women he appoints to the Ministry." ex-Senator Noel Crichton-Browne at Crikey. A very shrewd observation which only NCB would dare make.
- How can we stop this persistent problem of people editing articles to record changes which have not yet happened? (eg Gallop resignation, Hill resignation, ministerial changes). I spend half my time reverting these silly premature edits.
Adam 10:19, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
- On brothers, I count three pairs: Donald Norman Cameron (House, FT) and Cyril Cameron (Senate, Prot) were in together from 1901 to 1903; Sir Thomas Ewing (Australian politician) (House, Prot) and Norman Ewing (Senate, FT) were in together from 1901 to 1903; Thomas Brennan (Senate, UAP) and Frank Brennan (Australian politician) (House, ALP) were in together between 1934 and 1938. --bainer (talk) 12:29, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
Thebainer goes to the top of the class. I had forgotten the Ewings. Adam 15:31, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
- I don't know about the Hill resignation, but in the case of the Gallop resignation the changes weren't premature. You compared the case to Carr's resignation. However, in the case of Carr, he announced his retirement, effective ten days later. This wasn't the case with Gallop. Gallop resigned immediately, hence the references in the media to "acting Premier Eric Ripper". Andrew Refshauge didn't serve as Acting Premier during the time between Carr's retirement announcement and the election of Morris Iemma. I think it's also acceptable for people to make edits to pages in certain cases where a change hasn't taken place:
- Where the change has been announced, and the result of that change is certain (ie. when someone announces a reshuffle or a retirement)
- Where, for all practical purposes, the change has already taken place, and the formality of the change is all that remains. For example, we will list people as being elected to represent a seat before the election is formally declared by the AEC, because we know that that seat has been won by that person, and there is little or no conceivable scenario in which they would not become the member for that seat in the very near future.
- By reverting changes made in these scenarios, you're effectively leaving the Wikipedia article in a fantasyland where no change has taken place. If John Howard announces a reshuffle there has been a reshuffle. Indeed, if you read the text of his announcement of the reshuffle [1] it is clear that the reshuffle is meant to take effect immediately. To pretend that no change has been made reduces the value of Wikipedia for people to gain information. Braue 01:04, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
- No, Gallop did not resign immediately. He resigned only yesterday when Carpenter was sworn in. Ripper was Acting Premier because Gallop was on holiday when he announced his retirement. So you see your edits (or whosever edits they were) were based on ignorance. It is safer to wait until things actually happen.
- No, it isn't acceptable to make "prophetic edits." Things only happen when they happen, and cannot be reported as having happened before they have actually happened. As it turned out, for example, Ripper did not become Premier, so the "Premier of WA" box that someone added to his page was premature as misleading.
Adam 04:52, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
Articles for the Wikipedia 1.0 project
Hi, I'm a member of the Wikipedia:Version_1.0_Editorial_Team, which is looking to identify quality articles in Wikipedia for future publication on CD or paper. We recently began assessing using these criteria, and we are looking for A-Class and good B-Class articles, with no POV or copyright problems (no Chaser editors please!). Can you recommend any suitable articles on the Australian politics? I see that poor Mark Latham got delisted as an FA (will his troubles ever end?) but would this article still count as A-Class?. How about John Howard? Please post your suggestions here. Cheers, Walkerma 04:10, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
- Well, Gough Whitlam remains an FA, although I'm not sure it should (it looks in worse shape than Mark Latham). From the top of my head, some B-class articles might include Australian legislative election, 2004, Australian electoral system, Copernican federalism, Women and government in Australia, the Parliament of Australia, and the Australian Greens. All are lacking in some way, but are "usable". There are several other quality politician articles as well, but none I can cite right now.--cj | talk 05:52, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
Looking for a challenge? This article has been on my own personal (unwritten) "need to fix this someday" list, but I'm not getting to it. Partly it's that I'm not Australian or Timorese, know little about Australian or East Timor politics, and thus have trouble judging a lot of what it says. But it reads like a whole pile of POV-pushing, even if it's been moved to have "alleged" in the title. Its edit history shows that it used to be even less neutral, and has made progress through the good efforts of several editors, but I'm concerned that it just can't be really fixed as is. Should it be completely rewritten as something like Relations between East Timor and Australia, perhaps? CDC (talk) 17:36, 15 February 2006 (UTC)
- Foreign relations of Australia with East Timor perhaps, to tie in with Foreign relations of Australia. It could also be expanded to cover the whole history between the two places, I might be able to help with that. --bainer (talk) 05:21, 16 February 2006 (UTC)
Names of templates
Please see the templates: Template:Electoral districts of South Australia Template:Electoral districts of New South Wales Template:Electoral Districts of New South Wales
The second two are copies of each other and one of these needs to go. Is the South Australia one right naming convention or wrong? It was the one I copied to create the NSW one. I "assumed" it should be Electoral Districts of...
I didn't really follow the naming convetion discussion really all that well.
Garrie 00:20, 19 April 2006 (UTC)
I'd like to include something like the following, as a template, on each Tasmanian election page. I think it will make it easier to navigate through past elections. Anyone agree/disagree? Thanks -- Barrylb 04:36, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
Elections of the Tasmanian House of Assembly | File:Tasmania flag.png |
---|---|
1979 | 1982 | 1986 | 1989 | 1992 | 1996 | 1998 | 2002 | 2006 |
- Looks good to me. I hope it'll go all the way back to the first election though. Ambi 04:38, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
Elections of the Tasmanian House of Assembly | File:Tasmania flag.png |
---|---|
1909 | 1912 | 1913 | 1916 | 1919 | 1922 | 1925 | 1928 | 1931 | 1934 | 1937 | 1941 | 1946 | 1948 | 1950 | 1955 | 1956
1959 | 1964 | 1969 | 1972 | 1976 | 1979 | 1982 | 1986 | 1989 | 1992 | 1996 | 1998 | 2002 | 2006 |
Senators and house of reps by state
I've been categorising some Senators and Members of the House of Reps, and I noticed that people have started to sort these individuals by state. Rather confusingly we seem to have Category:New South Wales Federal politicians, Category:Federal politicians from Western Australia and Category:Federal politicians from Victoria, there seems to be an unwritten rule that we don't use the term federal in relation to the Commonwealth Government - so naming of these categories would seem inconsistent.
So is it important to identify these people by state above and beyond category:Person from X and category:Australian Senators? If so what is the best way to go about it? Would it be worth doing away with Category:Members of the Australian Senate and Category:Members of the Australian House of Representatives and replacing them with Category:Australian Senators from state and category:Member for electorate X? There really should be consistency in the Categorisation, especially at the federal level.--Peta 05:01, 10 May 2006 (UTC)
- Personally, I would categorise Australian politicians by the House in which they serve, and the state in which they were born. Carmen Lawrence, for example, would go in Category:Members of the Australian House of Representatives and Category:Politicians from Western Australia. Category:Federal politicians from Western Australia is probably over-categorising and can go in the bin.
- Eventually, I think it would be good to break Category:Members of the Australian House of Representatives into something like
- But this is probably overkill at the moment. Snottygobble 05:16, 10 May 2006 (UTC)
- I think that Drew is on the money with answering Peta's issue, but I'm not sure the second two categories would work - categories are already divided up by names by default, and categorising members by parliament would lead to a lot of categories for some of those that've been in office 30+ years (not to mention duplicating the relevant lists). Ambi 05:22, 10 May 2006 (UTC)
- Good point re: categorising by parliament; something similar has been adopted for American baseballers, with the exact result you've stated: long-serving baseballers end up in a ridiculous number of categories. e.g. Hank Aaron. I'll withdraw that suggestion. Snottygobble 07:09, 10 May 2006 (UTC)
- Should we roll out the by MHR by division and senator by state cats, and orphan the existing federal reps categories?--Peta 07:33, 10 May 2006 (UTC)
- Good point re: categorising by parliament; something similar has been adopted for American baseballers, with the exact result you've stated: long-serving baseballers end up in a ridiculous number of categories. e.g. Hank Aaron. I'll withdraw that suggestion. Snottygobble 07:09, 10 May 2006 (UTC)
- I think that Drew is on the money with answering Peta's issue, but I'm not sure the second two categories would work - categories are already divided up by names by default, and categorising members by parliament would lead to a lot of categories for some of those that've been in office 30+ years (not to mention duplicating the relevant lists). Ambi 05:22, 10 May 2006 (UTC)
- As a side note, the Senate and House of Reps categories aren't that big yet, but I get the feeling that is because they haven't been applied widely.--Peta 05:24, 10 May 2006 (UTC)
Peta and I have started rolling out the MHR by division and senator by state cats. Unfortunately, I've been leaving articles in their original Category:Members of the Australian House of Representatives/Category:Members of the Australian Senate cats, as I thought we should still have a category containing all members sorted by name; whereas Peta has been removing them. This is of course something we should have discussed earlier :-(. Can we get some discussion and consensus on how to handle this? Snottygobble 02:44, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
- I misread a diff; Peta hasn't been removing from their original cats. I'd still like discussion and consensus, as Donama has removed a few supercats as redundant; quite sensible, but possibly not what we want to achieve here. Snottygobble 02:48, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
- Yes, I noticed some of the senators in SA have had the Category:Members of the Australian Senate for South Australia cat. This cat is a subcat of Category:Members of the Australian Senate so I started removing the latter, being superfluous, from some of the articles it was added to, but it looks like a job for AWB. What is the issue here? Why do we want to keep including both cats? — Донама 02:53, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
- I think the MHR and Senate supercats are pretty redundant with the division and state cats. On a difference note, the MHR for division cats are taking up quite a lot of space in NSW politicans, should the Senate and MHR cats go into some sort of consistently named sypercat?--Peta 02:53, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
- Category:Australian federal politicians? — Донама 02:56, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
- I've used Category:Federal political office-holders in Western Australia, which is a subcat of Category:Political office-holders in Western Australia. Category:Politicians from Western Australia wouldn't have been appropriate, because this is for place of origin (i.e. it is a subcat of Category:People from Western Australia) rather than place of holding office. Category:New South Wales politicians probably should have a "place-of-origin" semantics too, although it obviously insn't being used that way. If you enforce a "place-of-origin" semantics on Category:New South Wales politicians, then your division cats should be taking up too much space in Category:Political office-holders in New South Wales, so why not create a Category:Federal political office-holders in New South Wales to solve your problem? Snottygobble 03:03, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
- Category:Australian federal politicians? — Донама 02:56, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
- I think the MHR and Senate supercats are pretty redundant with the division and state cats. On a difference note, the MHR for division cats are taking up quite a lot of space in NSW politicans, should the Senate and MHR cats go into some sort of consistently named sypercat?--Peta 02:53, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
- Yes, I noticed some of the senators in SA have had the Category:Members of the Australian Senate for South Australia cat. This cat is a subcat of Category:Members of the Australian Senate so I started removing the latter, being superfluous, from some of the articles it was added to, but it looks like a job for AWB. What is the issue here? Why do we want to keep including both cats? — Донама 02:53, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
On the second thoughts, I'm not sure the MHR by division categories are necessary. They seem to create a lot of small categories, and largely duplicate the articles on the divisions themselves (which should all have lists of all members for that electorate by now). Ambi 03:23, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
How about historic divisions? I included one in NSW, should we include them all?--Peta 03:41, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
- I think so; I included Coolgardie and Dampier. Snottygobble 03:43, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
Basically, in the future hopefully wikipedia will be complemented by some really cool datamining software which depends on good organisation of categories to pull out lists of articles for a certain purpose. And we probably can't fully pre-empt what sorts of paths the researchers using these tools might want to take, but ideally all would be supported. So, for politicians they would search by both, nation, state/province, historical categorisation, by gender, by nationality, by political responsibility, political level in nation, major ideologies, etc.
Sorry I'm not going to suggest anything concrete here -- just putting the idea out that we don't have try and decide on which heirarchy is best for an topic, because probably multiple heirarchies are in order. Possibly the best approach to take is to think of the categories as tags (as in Technorati tags), except we don't use both tag A and tag B if A is a superset of B -- instead we just use B. But there could be quite a few tag-B-like tags! — Донама 04:11, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
- There's an argument for making "Members" an empty parent of both "Members by name" and "Members by State/Division", which would resolve any superset issue. But I expect there would be resistance to the "Members by name" part of that proposal. I think the consensus is for the parent to be empty; and I noticed Scott removing the parent category from a few articles too. Shall we confirm this decision? Snottygobble 04:39, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
- Fine by me.--Peta 04:41, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
I've done the current MHR divisions for NSW, ACT, QLD and NT, so if anyone wants to take over, VIC and SA and the historic divisions still need to be done.--Peta 04:41, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
- I hadn't seen this conversation, but started removing Category:Members of the Australian Senate from articles also in Category:Members of the Australian Senate for South Australia until Drew was on the ball and pointed out I should look here first. I saw a discussion about 8 months ago I think about being able to view all the articles under a set of categories, but I don't recall exactly where that thread was (possibly bugzilla). I think the tool server offered a similar interim capability. Breaking down senators by state is reasonable - 8 categories. Breaking the lower house makes nearly 200 categories, most of which have less than 10 members. Since it's almost done, I won't object. I tend to use categories when I'm browsing, but "What links here" and list articles if I'm searching, so smaller categories are not a problem for failing to find something. I do not think the "...by name" subtree outlined above is required—having the same first letter of their last name does not really make two MHRs more alike than all the others.--Scott Davis Talk 05:23, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
- Do we have a consensus to empty Category:Members of the Australian Senate and Category:Members of the Australian House of Representatives into their electorate subcategories? --Scott Davis Talk 10:01, 19 May 2006 (UTC)
- I believe so. Snottygobble 11:05, 19 May 2006 (UTC)
Categorization of safe/marginal electorates
I had a discussion about what constitutes a safe/fairly safe/ marginal seat, so I thought I might copy this from Talk:Electoral district of Morialta.
- I was referring to the wiki page for Morialta where it says "created in the 1998 electoral distribution as a moderately safe seat for the Liberal Party of Australia" should this be changed in peoples opinion? Timeshift 04:33, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
- Well, in 1998 at creation it was a 6.5% buffer to the Liberal party. I took this from the ABC classification for 0-5% being marginal, 5-10% fairly safe, and 10+% being safe. I also sometimes use 20%+ to be very safe. I haven't been cautioned about whether this is appropriate, but I'll send it to the Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Australian politics to see what anybody thinks.ßlηguγΣη | Have your say!!! - review me 04:38, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_district_of_Morialta states that Morialta is a moderately safe liberal seat. With the electorate losing most of liberal-voting Magill and gaining the rest of labor-voting Paradise from Hartley at the last redistribution, and considering the 12% swing (2% higher than state average), I find a wanting for it to be rephrased but not sure how... and whether it would become a marginal seat or a moderately safe labor seat. I think classing a seat as marginal/a level of safeness is a good thing to have within the text of a wiki article. Timeshift 12:57, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
- Well, in 1998 at creation it was a 6.5% buffer to the Liberal party. I took this from the ABC classification for 0-5% being marginal, 5-10% fairly safe, and 10+% being safe. I also sometimes use 20%+ to be very safe. I haven't been cautioned about whether this is appropriate, but I'll send it to the Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Australian politics to see what anybody thinks.ßlηguγΣη | Have your say!!! - review me 04:38, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
Are these guidleines appropriate and NPOV? Regards, ßlηguγΣη | Have your say!!! - review me 04:41, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
- I think categorising electorates on "safeness" is a bad idea. It's something that should appear in the text of the article but not in a category.--Peta 04:43, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
- Oh sorry, I didn't mean I created a category, I meant this was the description criteria that I used in the text in line with the ABC. I was wondering if these descriptions were POV?ßlηguγΣη | Have your say!!! - review me 04:50, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
- The best way to avoid the POV problem is to cite exactly who said it's a safe seat, in what context, and their criteria.--Peta 04:52, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
- Ok, I should probably start doing that sometime, although I saw that Ambi just seemed to use an ABC style thing also, so I just copied that for the 10-15 SA state seats that I did.ßlηguγΣη | Have your say!!! - review me 04:59, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
- The best way to avoid the POV problem is to cite exactly who said it's a safe seat, in what context, and their criteria.--Peta 04:52, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
- Oh sorry, I didn't mean I created a category, I meant this was the description criteria that I used in the text in line with the ABC. I was wondering if these descriptions were POV?ßlηguγΣη | Have your say!!! - review me 04:50, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
Preselection
This is probably not an Australian issue, but I know not where else to turn. I am shocked, shocked!, that preselection is a red link. I would have thought there'd be heaps to write about it. Is there another term it should be redirected to? Snottygobble 02:27, 12 May 2006 (UTC)
- We have Primary election for the US equivalent, but nothing concerning our version. An Australia-specific article (as with the Italian primaries article) might make sense here, so as to avoid having to try and generalise across a whole variety of systems. Rebecca 04:41, 12 May 2006 (UTC)
- Yeah, I noticed primary election, but I didn't think a redirect would work because the US primaries are decided by a jurisdiction rather than a party. Snottygobble 04:49, 12 May 2006 (UTC)
- I think its definately an article worth writing - you might want to call it electoral preselection in Australia -or something - so it's bias is obvious from the title - unlike the primary election article which should have a limited scope tag stuck on it.--Peta 04:54, 12 May 2006 (UTC)
- Not me; I lack the knowledge of internal party politics to do this one justice. Perhaps we should ask DarrenRay. ;) Snottygobble 05:01, 12 May 2006 (UTC)
- I think its definately an article worth writing - you might want to call it electoral preselection in Australia -or something - so it's bias is obvious from the title - unlike the primary election article which should have a limited scope tag stuck on it.--Peta 04:54, 12 May 2006 (UTC)
- Yeah, I noticed primary election, but I didn't think a redirect would work because the US primaries are decided by a jurisdiction rather than a party. Snottygobble 04:49, 12 May 2006 (UTC)
2004 Division Results
I just added the 2004 results to the Division of Lalorpage, but I had problems trying to get party colours on the graph. So, should I keep doing this to the other division pages or not?144.137.44.115 00:21, 27 May 2006 (UTC)
- The particular template you have used does not support party colours. You will need to use a different template to achieve what you want. -- Barrylb 13:18, 27 May 2006 (UTC)
There's now a lot of groundwork there for the 1993 and onward elections. It just needs padding out with additional text now... anyone up to the task? :-) Timeshift 18:05, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
Fight Dem Back
Contributors here may be familiar with an anti-fascist group called Fight Dem Back. An article on that topic hase been nominated for AfD. Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Fight Dem Back. -Will Beback 20:26, 25 July 2006 (UTC)
Liaison?
Anyone here willing to be a liason with WP Biography? We've reorganized and are re-energized and we'd like to collaborate more with related Projects. Thought it might be good to have some one from here a member with us too so that we can collaborate on political biographies... Also wanted to invite you guys over to where we are currently voting on implementation of task forces, one of which is Politicians. If you'd like to see it get its own task force, vote now :-) plange 02:45, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
Created Australian anarchists category
Part of a series of Anarchists by nationality Category:Australian anarchists & found a number fairly quickly in a search Paul foord 13:43, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
2006-7 Queensland Election
I think we need to upgrade the Queensland election article as a matter of some urgency because of the fact that the election might only be a month away. Aussie King Pin 01:55, 12 August 2006 (UTC)
Joining WikiProject Australian politics
Hi guys Would like to join WikiProject Australian politics How do I do it? CatonB 09:51, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
- Add your name to the list at Wikipedia:WikiProject Australian politics#Participants (optional).
- Have this page on your watchlist (optional).
- Make insightful and articulate contributions to articles related to Australian politics.
- Snottygobble 12:04, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
Politics of Australia template
There is a discussion at Template talk:Politics of Australia on whether or not state/territory elections should be included on Template:Politics of Australia and more broadly its general formatting. Does anyone have an opinion they'd like to express? --ThirdEdition 04:18, 31 August 2006 (UTC)
Getting 2006 SA election up to Featured Article status
Help would be appreciated in reviewing South Australian legislative election, 2006 and Talk:South Australian legislative election, 2006 - in trying to get the article to FA status, please make changes or suggestions as appropriate. Any help is appreciated. Timeshift 18:47, 8 September 2006 (UTC)
Suggestion for article Australian Conservatism
Hello, I'm American so wouldn't know how to write such an article. I'm doing Disambiguation link repair - You can help!, and keep running into the term "conservative." There doesn't seem to be a Conservative party per se, and I can seldom (given the context) link to "The Coalition." I just link to the default -- Conservatism. Perhaps y'all should write something along the lines of American Conservatism and Canadian Conservatism, to give it the Australian context. Just a thought. --Ling.Nut 16:24, 16 September 2006 (UTC)
- My oh my. I can't imagine the amount of opinion that would be put in to that. It would be good if done properly... Timeshift 16:27, 16 September 2006 (UTC)
- Dangerous, given the different nature of major parties in Australia - ie. whilst the Liberals/Nationals are nominally 'the conservatives' - the distinctions between the ALP and those parties ideologically are very blurred (save, I suppose, for issues of workers' rights.)
If done as a historical article, maybe. But as a political one - not so sure. Blackjack4124 11:00, 26 October 2006 (UTC)
Election Results for Ryan Federal Electorate
G'day, added the election results for the last federal election 2004 for the Division of Ryan LW77 08:15, 4 October 2006 (UTC)
Easton affair, et al
This is to advise wikipedians with an interest WA politics that I tried to change the Carmen Lawrence biog. article from a unverified Easton afffair rant. For example List of Australian political scandals contained [[Carmen Lawrence#Penny Easton affair|Penny Easton affair]] with more libel at Richard Court etc. But I am new here so criticism of my approach would be welcome.--Fred.e 00:15, 12 October 2006 (UTC)
- I remember when this material was first added a year or two ago. I remember thinking it was POV and there was way too much of it, but I didn't know anything about the subject, and back then we didn't have a WP:LIVING policy, so I left it alone. If I recall correctly, it read more like the work of a grieving relative of Easton than a smear by one of Lawrence's opponents, but either way it was inappropriate. Thanks Fred.e. Snottygobble 02:22, 12 October 2006 (UTC)
Election Results for Blair and Dickson Federal Electorate
Just added the election results for the last federal election 2004 for Division of Blair and Division of Dickson LW77 15:12, 13 October 2006 (UTC)
- Division of Bonner, Division of Brisbane, Division of Bowman and Division of Capricornia also completed LW77 22:22, 15 October 2006 (UTC)
Proposal to change Election boxes
I have a proposal to change the style of election boxes we use from the current one being used above to one that is very similar to the boxes one the British consituecncy pages. The boxes we are currently using are very cluncy to make and edit and they also look unprofessional on the actual pages. By contrast the British election boxes look professional and they are much easier to edit. I know the british style election boxes need to have 2pp results build into them but I am confindent that one of the editiors in the project could make such an edit to them.
PS I am currently aparting the british boxes to the Victorian electorates pages in roughly alaphbetical order. Aussie King Pin 11:38, 18 October 2006 (UTC)
PPS The current boxes as also way to big to be able to but historical results on the pages like they do for the British articles. Aussie King Pin 11:40, 18 October 2006 (UTC)
- An election box including the 2 party preferred results,etc, and using the colours templates from this WikiProject can be seen at Marrickville by-election, 2005. JPD (talk) 11:56, 18 October 2006 (UTC)
- To be honest I don't think that including only a two party preferred result is a good idea. The other template I've used isn't to bad to edit. I would actually like to put a sub-page on each Division page with previous results. This will take some time, and whenever i get bored with writing my thesis I'll get around to doing more historical results. I think regardless of what template you used, putting more than the most recent election result would make the page look crappy. LW77 13:27, 18 October 2006 (UTC)
- Besides the election box I have been using is consistant with the federal election boxes used on Results of the Australian legislative election, 2004. LW77 01:16, 19 October 2006 (UTC)
- LW77 I know the election box you are using for the electorates at the moment is consistent with the election summary boxes but I am not aruging that the summary boxes should changed, only the electorate boxes; and yes I do find your election box find not hard to edit diffiently hard to make.--Aussie King Pin 07:45, 19 October 2006 (UTC)
- OIC, umm well i actually think they look better. How about I get all the Qld ones done and then go onto the historical elections as a sub-page. I want to expand each electorate with alot more info. I think historical elections could be liked as sub-page/s LW77 08:20, 19 October 2006 (UTC)
- LW77's boxes are actually too consistent with the summaries at the 2004 results page for my liking. The summary boxes have been (well) designed for that purpose, and at the very least need a bit more adapting for use with individual electorates. I do actually think the {{Election box}} style looks better, as well as being consistent with British and Canadian (and others?) election boxes, but it would be good to have some more opinions. As for ease of editing, creating, if we do decide to go ahead with the style LW77 is using, they could could made into actual Wikimedia templates. JPD (talk) 10:38, 19 October 2006 (UTC)
- Well if we can get a better box going I'll change the other ones I've put up. Making a new template would be good. Its just that some of the summary ones I have seen don't use party colours. I also don't like summary boxes which don't list all the people seeking election. Including only the parties which are contesting an election would reduce the completness of the election. Especially if a sitting member has been unseated. I won't add anymore electorates results until we can get a consesus. I will just have to find another way to procrastinate while writing up my thesis. LW77 11:11, 19 October 2006 (UTC)
So far, I see the options to compare as the one at Marrickville by-election, 2005,something based on Division of Blair (at the very least, the last column should go), or the much smaller style at Electoral district of Bragg. Aussie King Pin's boxes at Electoral district of Altona were made before that style was set up to have all the colours. I haven't seen any boxes that don't list all the candidates. JPD (talk) 11:52, 19 October 2006 (UTC)
- Ok deleted last column in Division of Blair results so it looks better. LW77 12:01, 19 October 2006 (UTC)
- Electoral district of Bragg while listing party affiliation it doesn't list the names of candidates. Sorry that what I mean't by not listing candidates LW77 12:16, 19 October 2006 (UTC)
- What about a summary box on the divison page then on a sub-page give a complete result with historical elections as well. I'd like to get all the elections as far back as possible fro each divison somewhere on wiki LW77 18:21, 19 October 2006 (UTC)
Project directory
Hello. The WikiProject Council has recently updated the Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Directory. This new directory includes a variety of categories and subcategories which will, with luck, potentially draw new members to the projects who are interested in those specific subjects. Please review the directory and make any changes to the entries for your project that you see fit. There is also a directory of portals, at User:B2T2/Portal, listing all the existing portals. Feel free to add any of them to the portals or comments section of your entries in the directory. The three columns regarding assessment, peer review, and collaboration are included in the directory for both the use of the projects themselves and for that of others. Having such departments will allow a project to more quickly and easily identify its most important articles and its articles in greatest need of improvement. If you have not already done so, please consider whether your project would benefit from having departments which deal in these matters. It is my hope that all the changes to the directory can be finished by the first of next month. Please feel free to make any changes you see fit to the entries for your project before then. If you should have any questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you. B2T2 16:24, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
Politician photos deleted
I notice that a fair few of the photos from the Federal politicians' pages have been deleted by Quadell, possibly as copyright violations? I know these are fair use, but I was of the understanding that we had permission from the Government to put these on Wikipedia. Is this correct, and if so, can we reupload them? JROBBO 05:51, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
- Permission is irrelevant these days, as we can no longer use photos if we only have permission to use them on Wikipedia. We may, however, be able to make legit fair use claims on them, which may let us keep them around. Rebecca 09:49, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
- Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_talk:Peter_Beattie.jpg - what a load of crap. Can I please get some assistance with replying to this unreasonable user? Timeshift 14:21, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
- Thanks Rebecca. I actually meant that with fair use AND permission that should be alright - is that so? It's actually very hard to get politicians' photos in Australia - as unlike in the US, photos taken for Government websites are not freely accessible. I have read somewhere that Adam Carr got permission from the Government and uploaded them as fair use as well - surely that would have been ok? As for Timeshift's problem I think this is why all our photos are being deleted - I think someone needs to explain the difficulties of getting politicians' photos. JROBBO 21:55, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
- I think the fundamental problem here is that by going on about having gotten permission, we're muddying the waters. We need to focus on making sure we have justifiable fair use claims for each and every politician image we did not take, and ignore anything about having gotten permission, since it's irrelevant. I think we also need to stress just how hard it is to get a free alternative in the rationales, to avoid stupid situations like that at Peter Beattie. Rebecca 02:28, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
- I thought the rationale used on Image talk: Peter Beattie.jpg was pretty good... Timeshift 04:38, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
- ...if someone isn't being an unreasonable git. Rebecca 04:49, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
- Me or him? Timeshift 10:23, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
- It appears that the fair use image police aren't budging... Image talk:Peter Beattie.jpg Timeshift 01:05, 1 November 2006 (UTC)
- I have a pic of big pete I took in person a few months ago if you would like me to up load it LW77 11:45, 1 November 2006 (UTC)
- Awesome! Upload it and let's have a looksee! Timeshift 11:53, 1 November 2006 (UTC)
- Here you go.. Have a Butchers LW77 14:52, 1 November 2006 (UTC)
- I was going to ask you to crop the image, but I just came across http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_talk:Springborg.jpg - fan bloody tastic. The image police are out in force. Thanks very much for your efforts but one picture without the other is back to square one :-( Timeshift 16:44, 1 November 2006 (UTC)
- Well i cropped alot of the image out. Didn't want to have a pic of me running around on wikki.. although big pete is a nice guy LW77 18:32, 1 November 2006 (UTC)
- What I mean is, it's more horizontal than vertical. Have a look at Queensland legislative election, 2006 and you'll see what I mean. Timeshift 19:39, 1 November 2006 (UTC)
- Ah yeah.. doesn't conform to the golden ratio. I'll see what other pics I have from that night LW77 08:09, 2 November 2006 (UTC)
- hows this version? LW77 08:17, 2 November 2006 (UTC)
- I blame the overzealous wikipedia image police. Timeshift 12:04, 2 November 2006 (UTC)
Electorate categories
See Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Australian politics/Electorates#Electorate categories.
Userboxes
Is there a userbox for being a contributer to WikiProject Australian politics? Timeshift 12:38, 3 November 2006 (UTC)
Australian Politics article that needs great expansion.
The US Australia relations article needs to be greatly expanded. I have done some work on it already, but as I don't know much about US-Australia relations to begin with.... Sharkface217 05:10, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
Stablepedia
Beginning cross-post.
- See Wikipedia talk:Version 1.0 Editorial Team#Stablepedia. If you wish to comment, please comment there. ★MESSEDROCKER★ 03:19, 26 November 2006 (UTC)
End cross-post. Please do not comment more in this section.
Where is everybody?
Have you seen the recent Kevin Rudd labour party leadership challenge? I was angry to see little to none written on the kevin Rudd page and nothing on the Julia Gillard page. Isnt this serious enough to consider doing something about? Culverin? Talk 08:39, 1 December 2006 (UTC)
Father of the House
The listing of the longest-serving members of the Australian House of Representatives is pretty comprehensive and most MPs to have filled that role have a page. To better manage the succession boxes for many of these people, it would be good to use the subheading templates developed for these boxes.
My question is what sort of office is the title of Father of the House. A cursory look around other pages seems to indicate a lack of consensus. Is it an honorary title, a government office or a parliamentary office?
Any thoughts? - Kiwifruitboi 07:29, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
- It is a title, not an office. It is honorary in the sense that it has no obligations and is unpaid. And it is parliamentary, not governmental or party political. Hesperian 10:18, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
Is there any chance that any members of this WikiProject could take a look at this nomation and offer comments or votes? It is the first article on an election to be nominated for FA status and an Australian one at that. Thank you in advance. michael talk 14:43, 14 December 2006 (UTC)
LGAs
Hi Wikipedians, a discussion has been started at Wikipedia:Australian_Wikipedians'_notice_board#LGAs about Local Government Areas/Authorities, your contribution would be appreciated. Thanks, Alec 08:09, 28 December 2006 (UTC)
Wikipedia Day Awards
Hello, all. It was initially my hope to try to have this done as part of Esperanza's proposal for an appreciation week to end on Wikipedia Day, January 15. However, several people have once again proposed the entirety of Esperanza for deletion, so that might not work. It was the intention of the Appreciation Week proposal to set aside a given time when the various individuals who have made significant, valuable contributions to the encyclopedia would be recognized and honored. I believe that, with some effort, this could still be done. My proposal is to, with luck, try to organize the various WikiProjects and other entities of wikipedia to take part in a larger celebrartion of its contributors to take place in January, probably beginning January 15, 2007. I have created yet another new subpage for myself (a weakness of mine, I'm afraid) at User talk:Badbilltucker/Appreciation Week where I would greatly appreciate any indications from the members of this project as to whether and how they might be willing and/or able to assist in recognizing the contributions of our editors. Thank you for your attention. Badbilltucker 20:06, 29 December 2006 (UTC)
Hi Wikipedians, as you probably already know the Palm Island article has become the new Collaboration of the Fortnight, this article is in a very poor condition and yet is at the centre of many important Aust. governance and political issues. In 2006 Palm became a restricted zone for alcohol and has been at the centre of the latest controversy in Queensland politics where a Coroner and the Queensland Director of Public Prosecutions have come to opposite conclusions as to how an aboriginal died in custody in 2004. There has been widespread commentary referring back to the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody twenty years ago and how statistics, policies and procedures have not changed in response to the supposed implementation of its recommendations. Lately the local Federal Member of Parliament for Palm Island said that the best solution for issues with Palm would be to shut it down and forcibly move everyone to the mainland! It will be a very interesting project to get involved in and watch it (with your help!) change dramatically over the next two weeks. Hope to see you at Palm! Alec -(answering machine) 10:34, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
Major party leader boxes
File:NSWParliament crest.gif | ||||
New South Wales Legislative Assembly 2007 election | ||||
Party | Hold | Gain | Lose | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
■ Labor | 55 | – | – | – |
■ Liberal | 19 | – | – | – |
■ National | 12 | – | – | – |
■ Independents | 7 | – | – | – |
I note that some elections pages feature a red and blue infobox with photos and personal details for the MPs vying to become premier. This template has a couple of problems, so I've replaced it on the NSW election pages. The reasons:
- voters don't vote for premier candidates, they vote for local MPs
- the personal particulars of premiers and opposition leaders do not speak to the elections process
- the key elections process is the changing seats total between parties in the state's lower house
- black text on a blue background (on the Liberal side) is poor design
- there are more than two parties
I'd say that the table is too "American" in that it assumes a presidential-style contest, but even American election articles lack this sort of thing. Examples, some not filled in yet, can be found here:
- New South Wales legislative election, 1991
- New South Wales legislative election, 1995
- New South Wales legislative election, 1999
- New South Wales legislative election, 2003
- New South Wales legislative election, 2007
Suggestions for improvements appreciated. Joestella 16:23, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
- Please read Talk:New South Wales legislative election, 2007 - Joestella is insisting on deviating from the standard Major Party Leader table which is the standard for all federal and state wikipedia pages. I do not want to have to get in to an edit war with this user, it is not worth anyone's time. My response was
- I think people are being too politically correct here. It is widely known that it's either going to be one leader or the other that will be representing the state after the elections, and it is also widely known that people vote for the party's ideology or their leader, seldom the candidate; it's simply how Australian politics works. Technically people vote for their local MP, which is why more detail should be put in to the body of the article (see 06 SA election which is a Featured Article for a good basis on a state election page), but overwhelmingly swinging voters decide on the party's leader. You do get some exceptions for some sitting members who build up a base of personal support over time, but certainly most seats do not have this or very little of it. In Tasmania, the Greens hold major party status with 4 lower house seats, and as such have a place in the MPL table on their page. In regards to the colour issue, fixed. Unless there is mass support for changing the MPL tables as the standard throughout the WikiProject Australian politics community for all state and federal elections, please do not change the table. Thankyou. Timeshift 15:39, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
- But this user insists on making his changes which are already represented in the article, he is simply placing redundant information there. Timeshift 16:30, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
- (I was invited to join in by Timeshift9)
- I encourage you both to sit back and look from a distance.
- The table is smaller and neater, but rather boring for the top of an article. It is easier to read than the text or pendulum in the "prospects" section, and should be included somewhere (I haven't read the whole article yet).
- The leader box is bright and garish. I don't know about New South Wales elections, but both national and my state, the party leaders do most of the talking and get quoted on television, radio and print media. They do their best not to let individual candidates comment on anything more serious than the weather in their local electorate.
- For example, the article says that "The government is campaigning on the basis of its plan to secure Sydney's dwindling water supply..." but doesn't say if this is the leader's voice, or the minister for water resources. If it's the leaders "debating" in public, that would be an argument for the leader box. If it's the Minister vs the Liberal spokesman for Water, or each candidate speaking about water in their own electorate, being responded to by their own local opponent, that's an argument that NSW is different and doesn't need the leader box. --Scott Davis Talk 21:31, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
- (Disclosure: (1) Timeshift9 invited me to offer an opinion; (2) I am a Family First member). I'm not a big fan of the red/blue infoboxes. They imply a presidential-style election. While it is true that the people are in effect choosing between the Labor and Liberal leaders as PM or premier, they are also choosing an upper house (in most states), and in some cases choosing independents also. The "two infoboxes" summary neglects this. OTOH, I think it's important to have some picture at the top of the article, so in the absence of a better idea they might as well stay. Kind of a "least worst" option. BTW I think having 3 infoboxes for the Tasmanian election is the worst of both worlds: not only does it neglect the Tasmanian minor parties, but it gives the impression that the Greens leader has some chance of becoming Premier, which she does not. Rocksong 02:42, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
- It was decided to leave the Greens there due to a) their unique electoral system allowing more Green representation and b) holding four seats which qualifies their status as a major party in the Tasmanian electoral system. If they lost a seat, they would have lost their status as a major party and would lose financial resources, offices and support staff. It is the fact that they are a major party that it was decided they would be left in the major party table. In regards to the MPL table looking garish, I did provide an alternative if you want to take a squiz at this revision. Timeshift 05:32, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
The point about making it look nice is well taken - photos, at least, would be more visually engaging. However, a still from a particularly noteworthy election ad or even just a photo of the incumbent could work just as well. A picture of the chamber would work. Or even (as above) the state parliament's logo. Joestella 06:51, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
- Then put it in the page - but for as long as there is no majority support to remove the MPL table from state and federal election pages, I will ensure the status quo is maintained for as long as it takes. Timeshift 07:13, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
- I'd encourage both of you to refrain from editing any election article whilst this dispute is ongoing; edit warring is never constructive. On the dispute itself, I'm inclined to agree with Joestella that the appropriateness of the 'MPL boxes' is not certain, both in terms of design and accurateness. I'm glad to see that some of the design issues have already been addressed, but the box remains fairly obtrusive. One significant issue that needs to be addressed is the use of copyright photographs; this use, by my understanding, does not meet fair use criteria as it is currently enforced. Ultimately, however, æsthetic issues are irrelevant if the purpose of the box is incorrect; no matter how much mass media may like to portray elections solely as leadership battles, they are not such, and it is inappropriate for an encyclopædia to perpetuate this inaccuracy. I consequently would support a new infobox along the lines of the one proposed above, perhaps one utilising graphic renditions of house compositions (such as this) to satisfy requests for depiction. The argument made against that box is that it is redundant; however, this criticism is misguided, when one considers that infoboxes are intended to summarise essential facts from the article prose, and in election articles, there is no more essential data then the results. --cj | talk 13:24, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
- It is true that Australian elections are in practice treated more like leadership elections than they actually are in theory, and so (free) pictures of the leaders are not an inappropriate illustration for the top of an election article. However, the additional information about the individuals, such as time in parliament and electoral district, is minimally relevant to the election as a whole, and makes the table look like an infobox about a two-person battle, which does not give an accurate picture. While I don't object to using the leader's pictures (where available) in some way, I do feel it would be better to move to an infobox giving key facts about the election, which as Cyberjunkie says definitely include the results. JPD (talk) 13:57, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
Another user has suggested using the state flag above the table. I prefer the parliament's crest, but I have no strong feelings. Joestella 14:22, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
Legislative..?
At what point was it decided that we hold "legislative" elections in the six states and federally? Legislative is a term normally applied to US elections. In Australia, they are referred to as "Parliamentary" or "General" elections. After all, we don't hold executive and judicial branch elections. I'm all for redirects to help our US-based readers, but if the United Kingdom can keep its local naming conventions, why can't we? Joestella 16:27, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
- Ooooh dear, we could be in for a lot of renaming. I think you might be right. Rocksong 05:48, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
I'm going to compile a list of "legislative" elections to be renamed "general" elections. I have checked the websites of each of the nine elections authorities, all use the term "general election" as one of or the sole official name for elections of all lower house seats. Needless to say, not one calls them "legislative" elections. I suggest that "general" be used in preference to "parliamentary", "state", "legislative" etc, since these terms would encompass by-elections.
Let me know soon if you have objections. Joestella 14:47, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
- Done. Joestella 19:52, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
- While I appreciate your efforts, this was a big change and I wished you'd waited for more discussion. I don't like "general" either. The SA electoral comission calls it a "State election". For the federal case, surely the most usual nomenclature is "Federal Election". Let's discuss this and get it right. Rocksong 02:35, 2 February 2007 (UTC)
- There are only four kinds of elections: general, by, local government and constitutional convention elections. The terminology we use should differentiate between the four. "State" could refer to any of them.
- Although we refer to "state" and "federal" elections in conversation, this is because any given citizen has only one state. Wikipedia deals with all six. According to the research I did before moving the pages, the formal terminology for an election for all seats in the lower house is "general election" - that includes South Australia.
- There are no broken links as a result of the moves, but since every page needs to be revised as part of standardisation, that would be the time to check for links to the old "legislative" pages.
Perhaps I have acted in haste, but an editor isn't required to ask permission before editing Wikipedia. To demonstrate my good faith, should discussion come down in favour of another word besides "general", I'll make the changes myself. Joestella 06:01, 2 February 2007 (UTC)
- Don't worry, I realise it was all well intentioned. But now let's spend a few days discussing this and reaching a consensus, since it affects a lot if articles.
- While "general election" is technically correct, it is hardly ever used in discussion. Do news items ever refer to the "2007 Federal general election"? Not to my knowledge. "General election" is only needed to disinguish from "by-election". But "by-election" is always used for by-elections anyway, plus there is no such thing as a "Victorian by-election" or a "Federal by-election", so I would contend that "general" is not necessary.
- So my preferred format would be of the form "Victorian state election, 2006" for the state elections, and "Australian federal election, 2007" for the federal elections. Because that is what people, amd the media, usually call them. (Actually even better IMHO would be to put the year first, as in "2007 Australian federal election", but that doesn't seem to be the WP way of doing things). Rocksong 11:03, 2 February 2007 (UTC)
"General election", a term used in legislation, is technically correct. "State election" is in common use, yes, but means something different to "statewide" election: even a by-election concerns the state level of government. At a national level, "general" distinguishes from the old half-Senate elections (both are "federal").
It should also be noted that Westminster democracies Britain and New Zealand use "general" on Wikipedia (though Canada uses "federal"). Joestella 15:26, 3 February 2007 (UTC)
- The usual terms for these others are "federal by-election", "state by-election" and "federal half senate election". I still would contend that the term "general election" is rarely used so we shouldn't use it either. As for UK and NZ: I think (a) UK and NZ are not federations (so do not have "state" elections), and (b) "general election" is the popular term in UK and NZ (unlike here), so is appropriate there but not here.
- Anyway, there's Joestella on one side and me on the other. This affects the naming of a lot of articles and I'd like to hear some other opinions. Rocksong 03:36, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
Back to the infoboxes...
- I don't mind if the page names are changed. As for the 3RR rule, it takes two to tango (or in this case revert) to which I feel I am on the stronger footing. The Major Party Leader table is used for state and federal elections and has been for quite some time now. By placing a table of lower house stats, you're simply reproducing redundant data further down the page. I notice that you uploaded the picture of Debnam "something smells rotten" yet you feel you must take Iemma off the page. The MPL table is the standard used in WikiProject Australian Politics to clearly show the leaders of the major parties, whom are often crucial to deciding which party obtains government. I notice your Debnam picture has, at best, a pretty light fair use rationale, as opposed to the Iemma and Debnam rationales. There have been no direct wishes for them to be removed, aside from a few aesthetic comments, which I had also provided to you as a means of consensus a solution but this also does not rest with you. Aesthetics is no longer the issue, you simply do not believe that either realistic premier after the election or his contender should be featured. I am simply maintaining the status quo, rather than allowing a redundant table to be placed there instead which is simply pointless. Timeshift 15:15, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
- Timeshift, if you wish to discuss the leaders table, instead of claiming that it is some sort of standard for this WikiProject, why don't you join the discussion about it in the section above, where you will see quite a few different views on the issue. Please also try to stick to constructive discussion, rather than personal comments about Joestella. He hasn't actually broken the 3RR, and you have, so you have no "stronger footing" - let's jsut leave the edit warring and discuss it properly. To get back to the issue in this section, I don't object to the proposed renaming. 16:02, 1 February 2007 (UTC) (sorry for the extra tilde - JPD (talk))
- Firstly you might wish to sign your name correctly with four tilde symbols. Secondly I have participated in the above discussion, the NSW 2006 election discussion, and his and my talk pages in length. He is pushing for a change from the status quo for the MPL tables used on all Australian elections so the onus is on him to show there is support for his changes which there is not. I've provided solutions (such as a solution) for the only issues raised, being aesthetics, which has been addressed through the solution, but he insists on showing redundant information. I do not see anyone agreeing that the MPL tables should be removed, so until there is support he should maintain the status quo. Timeshift 16:19, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
"Timeshift9" says they do not "see anyone agreeing that the MPL tables should be removed". A number of users have made supportive comments.
- Rocksong: I'm not a big fan of the red/blue infoboxes. They imply a presidential-style election.
- JPD: I do feel it would be better to move to an infobox giving key facts about the election, which as Cyberjunkie says definitely include the results
- CJ: I'm inclined to agree with Joestella that the appropriateness of the 'MPL boxes' is not certain ... I consequently would support a new infobox
- ChampagneComedy: it isn't a presedential election at all
- Flakeloaf: The four-party infobox is compact and clearly shows what's going on, whereas the two-party one does make things look like a strictly bipartisan contest
- Athænara: the Legislative Assembly table gives a clearer focus on the process itself
Of course, some of these had caveats, newcomers to the debate should read the comments themselves in full. Crucially, no user has yet backed the MPL tables in their current form. Joestella 16:50, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
Compromise for the 2007 NSW election
New South Wales legislative election, 2007 in it's current revision holds a far more aesthetically pleasing table of the leaders of the parties who more often than not are responsible for the polling the party receives on election day, as well as the redundant lower house table. This is a compromise where both hold a place and does not look heavy on colour nor are there any other disadvantages I can see.Timeshift 17:30, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
- I thank you for you attempt at a compromise, but I think it fails to meet some of the concerns raised in sections above. My primary concern is not with the aesthetics of the 'MPL boxes', but with their appropriateness. I feel they present an inaccurate view of the election and do not fulfil the fundamental aim of an infobox, which is to summarise essential facts from the article prose. Now these facts will obviously differ between articles on past and upcoming elections, but I see summarising results or house compositions as being the best basis for an election infobox (should one be necessary at all).--cj | talk 17:47, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
- A compromise has been reached. Timeshift 17:50, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
- Indeed. The leaders are now displayed prominently under the first subheading. The seats table is in an infobox. Joestella 17:58, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
- I personally want the SA election page to stay as it is, after all it was approved as FA with the MPL table. Timeshift 18:16, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
- (edit conflict)So it is that actual table that you like, not just having a standard? FAs are not set in stone. I do think it would be a good opportunity to work on a standard infobox. I do find both the state flag and the parliamentary logo not particularly good illustrations, both to look at and since they don't reflect the particular election, and am surprising myself by leaning towards using pictures of leaders. It would be good to think of what information other than lower house seat numbers would be worth including - the date, for example. JPD (talk) 18:37, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
- I'd prefer it to stay as it has for the past year or so, yes, i'm happy for NSW to be a one off. The WA, NT and ACT don't have them, NSW was added to that list. But now the whole standard is being scrapped which I'm not very happy about as I think it worked well. Timeshift 18:59, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
- I don't think anyone else has advocated NSW being a one off. We are trying to talk about what it would be good to have as a standard. The objections Joestella has to the table in the NSW article apply equally to other states and the federal elections. It is actually a good thing to stop and reach an active consensus on what would work best, rather than just copying that model without talking about it. JPD (talk) 19:10, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
I find it interesting that after a year of having the table, and articles successfully going through the FA process with it, why it's suddenly become an issue in the first place. I fail to see what's changed. Timeshift 19:14, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
- It shouldn't matter. Valid arguments have been put, so now let's just work together to address them. In reply to JPD's comment about illustrations, I suggest again a graphic like that present at the beginning of Canadian federal election, 2006.--cj | talk 19:31, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
I'm really hesitant to enter this discussion because I haven't done any work at election sites other than my local electorates, so feel free to tell me to pull my head in, however I would like to make this point, I recently had a edit of mine reverted because my edit did not leave the page in a state where the article read as though it was finished. That's fine, but it made me think about this proposed info box.
To me the info box makes the article look unfinished, as if the info box has been put there in anticipation of the results being added, but at this moment in time the article should read about the future event and current campaign, not be designed in anticipation of it becoming a past event.
How the election will operate, who is competing in the election, how the campaign is playing out, and so on, are the subject matter of this article. The way the infobox is structured it's like an unfinished article about the results of an event rather than an info box about a future event, in fact that infobox really belongs in New South Wales Legislative Assembly.
I'm not sure what you would put instead, an illustration of the previous structure of the parliament, as suggested, using the Canadian model doesn't seem right to me either, because while the previous electoral makeup is extremely relevant to the article, it is not a summery or representation of the subject topic. The only thing I can think of which summarises the subject matter of the article is to return it to how it was before except with the following changes:
Get rid of the details about the leaders other than their names (the article isn't about the party leaders) add some info about the parties, for example:
photo of leader
Party logo(s) (same width as leader's picture)
Coalition-Liberal Party & National Party (title line)
Leader: Peter Debnam
Current Assembly: 19 Liberal 12 National
Current Council: -- Liberal -- National
financial warchest: Est $------
seats contesting: -- Liberal -- National
do the same thing for Labor to the left of it (as the current Gov)
Then I think do the same thing for each of the minor parties all in a row below the major two except without the leader pics and with reduced sized logos (unless there is more than four or five, in which case go to two rows).
Then below that; a row listing the wiki-linked names of the independent members of parliament.
I think this brings the focus back to the fact that this is an article about a political campaign where the two major parties are the focal point, however it recognises in the info box, the important part that the minor parties and independents play in the process and also how the numbers stacked up in the previous parliament. It also avoids the main visual focus of the article looking like a technical legislative process as apposed to the lively political campaign that is the subject matter. Alec -(answering machine) 11:35, 2 February 2007 (UTC)
- I think this style of infobox is being put forward as an infobox for election articles in general, which will usually be past elections. We do need to consider how the box will be different for forthcoming elections, but not only that. Both the technical process and the campaigning are the subject matter of the article, so it is a matter of getting the balance right, but keep in mind that the campaigning is all about gaining actual election results. I personally don't think party logos really illustrate the election. The Canadian-style graphic is good for past elections, but not so good for upcoming ones, as Alec says, although being "unfinished" when it is clearly because the event hasn't happened yet isn't really a problem.
- For future elections, I'm not too sure about the suggestion below. I don't think it's right to select one set of polling figures to put in an infobox, let alone declare it "too close to call"/etc. JPD (talk) 13:10, 2 February 2007 (UTC)
Tasmanian general election, 2020 |
To be held 1 March |
You're probably right about declaring it "too close to call" or anything else, even if that is a quote from a reputable source. Joestella 13:20, 2 February 2007 (UTC)
- Point taken about my suggestion for future elections, I'll move my comment to the 2007 NSW and Federal Election talk pages. I'm against putting opinion polls in the info box, I think an info box should reflect the article's content and polling info is just a small part of the article, although they would be great in the section about polling info so the most recent results are highlighted. Alec -(answering machine) 13:28, 2 February 2007 (UTC)
Elections infobox
Legislative Assembly election, 1992 | ||||
Party | Vote % | Seats | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Labor | 39.9 | ↑17.1 | 8 | ↑3 |
Liberal | 29.0 | ↑14.1 | 6 | ↑2 |
Moore Ind. | 5.6 | 2 | ↑2 | |
Abolish Self-Govt | 7.1 | ↓0.4 | 1 | 0 |
Others | 0 | ↓7 | ||
Hung parliament |
I have implemented a new infobox (example at right) on some election articles that summarises the two key pieces of information in an election (share of Assembly first-preference votes and number of Assembly seats won), plus the change since the last election, for independents and parties winning Assembly seats.
- Category:Elections in the Australian Capital Territory
- Category:Elections in New South Wales
- Category:Elections in the Northern Territory
- Category:Elections in Tasmania
The table starts with the jurisdiction's flag. The table header makes clear that the scope of the data is limited to the Assembly (ie, not the upper house, if any). Parties are shown in order of assembly seats won, except for a winning junior coalition partner, which follows its senior partner. Odd-numbered rows have a light blue background to improve readability.
Party groups are colour coded. Dark colours are used to improve contrast. No effort has been made to match the corporate colours of any party. Although some Wikipedia editors allocate more colours (Democrats yellow, ONP orange, Greens green, etc) this produces garish pages. The purpose of highlighting the three main parties as a courtesy to readers is defeated if the tables are multicoloured throughout.
- The Australian Labor Party is shown in red #600
- The National Party of Australia is shown in green #060
- The National Country Party is shown in green #060
- The Country Party is shown in green #060
- The Liberal Party of Australia is shown in blue #006
- The Country Liberal Party is shown in blue #006
- All other parties, and independents, are shown in grey #333
Where parties or independents lose representation in the assembly, the last line of table data has the party name "Others" and notes how many seats all others have lost since the last election. This is to prevent the "win/loss" figures from summing to a nonzero amount.
Note that no percentage figure is given for independent candidates. Although the total independent vote for the election is sometimes available, to speak of statewide support for "independents", let alone statewide swings to or from the "independents", is to misrepresent the nature of an independent candidacy. An elected independent, after all, does not speak for all voters who voted "independent".
Parties with no representation in parliament are not shown in the list to keep it clear and relevant. Full results, including all parties, should be placed in a larger table in the body of the article.
The result figure is shown (to one decimal place for percentages) at text size 150%. The change figure (to one decimal place for percentages) is shown at text size 90%. Upward and downward movements are shown using the ↑ and ↓ symbols. No change is shown with a zero. If the party is newly registered, the percentage change figure is blank. If the assembly is newly established, the seats change figure is blank. The % symbol is not used next to the figures themselves.
The last table row contains the name of the election winner, if any. If the Coalition secures a majority in its own right, the text is "Liberal/National win" or similar, depending on the names, and relative size of the coalition partners. The background is blue #006, except in Queensland, where it is green #060. If Labor secures a majority in its own right, the text is Labor win and the background is red #600. If neither the Coalition nor Labor secures a majority in their own right, or if the Coalition was not in force prior to the election, the result is a "Hung parliament" and the background is grey #333.
(Yes, this means that the party that forms government is not always shown in the table. However, the election and the process of forming a government are technically separate processes. In any case, the article text will explain who formed government and with whose support.)
If no results data is available, a modified form of the table, showing only the result, could be used. Most election results are, however, available from electoral authority websites or elections.uwa.edu.au.
- u didn't give us much time to object, Joestella! however this all seems good... very detailed though! who will police? ChampagneComedy 03:06, 7 February 2007 (UTC)
- Is there any reason why such dark colours have been chosen? Surely making them as differentiable as possible no matter what one's eyesight or monitor type should be a goal here. By mucking around I found that C00 / 0C0 / 00C was the darkest clearly differentiable on a 19" LCD monitor. Orderinchaos78 18:46, 24 February 2007 (UTC)
Hare Clark elections
How do the proposed boxes cope with the Hare-Clark system employed for Tasmanian and ACT elections? Orderinchaos78 19:14, 2 February 2007 (UTC)
- The Tasmanian and ACT multi-member electorate systems are not so different that the tables above do not convey an accurate picture. Voters vote (shown in percentage terms), and by various methods, those votes are translated into seats. The number of seats and majority party (if any) is the key piece of information in a parliamentary election no matter what the voting system. Joestella 19:52, 2 February 2007 (UTC)
Election campaign articles
Election campaign, 2007 | ||||
Government | Opposition | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Labor | Coalition | ||
Leader | Morris Iemma | Peter Debnam | ||
Leader since | 2005 | 2005 | ||
Leader rating[1] | 20% | 80% | ||
2PP rating[2] | 55% | 45% | ||
Majority | 17 | — | ||
Seats needed | 0 | 19 | ||
Marginals held | 5 | 13 | ||
Marginals avail. | 11 | 4 |
The problem of mountains of poll data was raised in relation to the forthcoming NSW election. Perhaps the solution is this: an election article and a campaign article for each election.
- [Jurisdiction] general election, [yyyy] would contain results, an explanation of the electoral system, and detail on any factors (redistributions, legislative changes) that impacted on that result. The page would also contain a brief (1-2 paragraph summary) of the campaign issues and messages considered to be most relevant. I think we should aim to create such a page for every general election held since 1901, at the very least.
- [Jurisdiction] general election campaign, [yyyy] would only be created for future and recent elections, or past elections for which there is a great deal of available information. (No sense getting bogged down creating List of Alfred Deakin campaign gaffes and suchlike.) The campaign page would include leader bios, a summary of campaign materials, a summary of the main parties' platforms, polling results, who 'won' the leader debate and so on.
Roughly speaking, the first page is for psephology, the second for political science. Joestella 22:09, 3 February 2007 (UTC)
- One thing about opinion polls: the level of detail reported by the pollsters is in some cases excessive for the purposes of an encyclopaedia entry. We don't need to know that if an election were held in April 2006, Roy Morgan Research reckons 0.5% of NSW voters would support the Christian Democrats. I'm not proposing a hard-and-fast rule here—and we should certainly make sure that the raw data is in some way accessible, perhaps on the talk page—but I think we can afford to be a little more selective in our reporting of data. Joestella 22:09, 3 February 2007 (UTC)
- Above, I've come up with an idea for a campaign article infobox. At the end of the campaign, we could tack on a "Labor win" or similar result row. Joestella 22:44, 3 February 2007 (UTC)
Splitting the election article into "election" and "campaign" as a rule is overkill. It might need it if there is such a huge amount of info on the campaign that it spills over (as happened with the 2006 Victorian election), but otherwise I really see no point in doing so. Rebecca 06:22, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
- [Jurisdiction] general election campaign, [yyyy] would only be created for future and recent elections, or past elections for which there is a great deal of available information. That's what I said. A great deal of detail will be available to us for all future national, state and territory elections: such as month-by-month polls and party-issued campaign documents. Joestella 09:16, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
Joh Bjelke-Petersen
Can a few editors from this project take a look at the discussion Talk:Joh Bjelke-Petersen in regards to the 'Popular Culture' section. I am taking no further part as I have hit a wall. Rimmeraj 00:04, 5 February 2007 (UTC)
Redistributions
Does anyone know where one would find historical boundary redistributions, in particular for SA? This is our current map, the previous maps can be found here, but for the 1992 redistribution they do not seem to be around. Timeshift 10:57, 9 February 2007 (UTC)
- Probably the State Library. I would try the Government Gazette for 1992 - often they have a file or a separate "Maps" section either at the back of the relevant volume, or as a separate volume entitled "Maps". Failing that, librarians should be able to get it for you off the serials or map stack. I usually keep my digital camera (with flash off, of course) handy for such occasions. Orderinchaos78 18:36, 24 February 2007 (UTC)
Question re AUSPIC photos
Having recently added links to the APH website pages for Jason Wood and John Alexander Forrest, I'd like to know if it is possible for Wikipedia to use the photographs from the APH website. They credit these photos to "AUSPIC", (email address auspic@aph.gov.au). The Copyright page for the Department of Parliamentary Services permits "personal, non-commercial use or use within your organisation." Is this compatible with Wikipedia's rules? CWC(talk) 15:09, 4 March 2007 (UTC)