State elections are often considered as barometers of the national political mood. Latest polls still show Labor winning this week's Victorian state election. Will Victoria's poll be decided on the Abbott government's economic policies? Guest Brian Costar, Professor of Political Science, Swinburne University Credits Presenter, Phillip Adams Producer, Stan Correy

READING Australian newspapers, watching TV, listening to the radio or browsing news sites online, the message is the same. Elections are decided by voters’ feelings about the leaders of the big parties. “Preferred prime minister” is the poll result to watch; voters’ liking for a leader will surely shape their votes.

WHILE we might softly applaud this week’s call by Richard Vines, a former director of the Victorian Labor Party’s fundraising arm, Progressive Business, for greater transparency in campaign donations, his proffered reforms are wholly inadequate. In fact, the United States – hardly a bastion of electoral innovation – has something to teach us about transparency...

A major constitutional crisis was narrowly avoided in Victoria, but its cause hasn't gone away, write Alistair Harkness and Brian Costar.

ONCE a year, on the first day of February, the Australian Electoral Commission publishes, verbatim, the political finance disclosures of the political parties and of some donors and third party or lobby groups. The timeliness of this annual data dump – the figures relate to the previous financial year, making the information up to a...