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John Black

November

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Demographics means private school fees are destined to rise

Next year, the world’s two population megatrends are coming to a non-government school near you. And it’s going to cost you more.

October

A Senate quota is a shade above 14 percent, so this vote would easily return Barnaby Joyce to the Senate from NSW, along with an additional three One Nation Senators from Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania.

What’s the betting for One Nation winning a Nats seat next election?

If the One Nation protest vote holds, Barnaby Joyce could win a NSW Senate seat. But the odds the party wins traditional electorates after that look daunting.

September

Sussan Ley, centre, Gurmeet Singh Tuli, President of Little India Australia, and shadow immigration minister Paul Scarr try some local cuisine during a tour of Little India in Harris Park on 7 September 2025.

Why politicians are obsessing about the Indian vote

The new generation of Indo-Pacific migrants tends to be aspirational and transactional and hence more right-wing in the choices they make concerning private education and health insurance.

August

Lots and lots of swinging voters, including the Aspirational Left Indo-Pacific migrants now making up 80 percent of our population growth.

Labor’s intergenerational fairness could be lucky break for the Libs

The Liberal Party would presumably be delighted to defend its former voters in the richest seats from any move to ratchet up taxes.

July

The Greens are at risk of losing their oldest and newest supporters.

Why the Greens are in real trouble

Warning signs are flashing for a party that has lost many of its older, more affluent supporters and is struggling to attract new backers.

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May

Liberal leader Sussan Ley will call the Liberal party room together again on Friday.

Why Sussan Ley should say no deal to the Nats

Unless the Liberal Party regains the support of professional women, it is difficult to see how it, with or without the National Party, can form government.

How a likely Coalition win turned into a Labor landslide

Anthony Albanese just grew in confidence as the campaign progressed – and more voters than just the party faithful responded.

Max Chandler-Mather.

How the Greens’ disastrous strategy will help Albo win

The party’s embrace of dubious housing policies, the corrupt CFMEU and “genocide” claims has alienated its base. John Black explains.

April

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at his Batemans Bay press conference – and once again making use of his Medicare card.

Albanese’s lucky streak is getting real

The prime minister is hoping his luck holds out until May 3. He’s probably only going to get one Peter Dutton in this life.

March

Dutton doesn’t seem to realise yet that Donald Trump and Elon DOGE Musk are political kryptonite for him.

Albanese wins anti-Trump vibe, but Dutton in front seat by seat

According to the punters, a more conservative crossbench of 11, minus a couple of teals and Greens, would be willing to support a Coalition government.

 Whichever of the two major party leaders winds up Prime Minister, they will have been elected grudgingly.

The election will be about who the mob distrusts the least

Whichever of the two major party leaders winds up prime minister, they will have been elected grudgingly.

February

Opinion polls this week, including the Resolve Political Monitor poll in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age,  had Labor heading for a big defeat.

Tips for reading the polling on who will win the election

In terms of measuring how the primary vote stands for the major parties at the moment, the Resolve poll could be right, after all.

The Victorian state ALP primary vote was tracking down the latest January Resolve poll in a bad sign for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s chances in the federal election.

Victoria byelection results could be terminal for Albanese

If state Labor and the Greens can’t hold state seats such as Werribee and Prahran in Victoria, things are looking terminal for the Albanese government.

December 2024

It’s starting to look like Albo could be getting some new neighbours at Copacabana come next winter.

It looks like Albo might need that beach house in 2025

There is a disconnect between the prime minister’s regime and its senior ministers, which is starting to trigger bad memories for me of the Whitlam government.

October 2024

David Crisafulli gives his victory speech.

Labor can take no comfort from Queensland election

ALP candidates won over many traditional Green voters on Saturday, but there is little sign of the party picking up federal seats in early 2025.

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Greens leader Adam Bandt at a press conference in Perth on Thursday.

Queensland vote a pivotal moment for Greens

Unlike in the 2022 federal election, the Coalition is preferencing Labor ahead of the Greens for this weekend’s state election.

Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton ahead of the 2024 Queensland election.

Labor’s chance of holding on to power was slim. Now it’s wafer thin

Anthony Albanese’s chances of holding an angry caucus together at the next election were already low, now they have withered to almost nothing.

September 2024

 Peter Dutton is still on the nose with female professionals. But the blokes don’t mind him. Dutton is now running level pegging with Albanese for preferred Prime Minister.

Both sides have a chance of forming minority government

My current estimates are that the Coalition will comfortably win more seats in the House of Representatives than Labor next year.

July 2024

The Muslim vote was a disaster for Starmer and could be for Albanese

An analysis of the 23 seats in the UK where Muslim Vote candidates opposed Labour, resulted in an unmitigated disaster for the party. Repeated here, it would be a wipeout for Labor in western Sydney.

March 2024

How migrants are changing the face of Australian politics

Aspirational migrants and their families will be the fastest growing demographic chunk of suburban Australia for at least the next two decades.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/by/john-black-p53670