At Internetrix, we like to see major events and wonder how the internet fits in. So this month, we thought we’d look at how the Federal Election is being played out in the online arena.

Official Coverage

There isn’t a more official place for coverage of the election than the Australian Electoral Commission, which can be found at www.aec.gov.au. The Electoral Commission’s website contains a fair amount of information – more than your average punter would need, but less than a political strategist is probably looking for – and is forecast to be one of the main places on the internet to get coverage of results as they come in after polls close on October 9th.

Unfortunately, from an official perspective, Australia is well behind other nations, like the United States, in the moves towards electronic voting. Some people might see this as a good thing – the US electronic voting machines have been called into serious question and have been the subject of various lawsuits. Having said that, I’d really prefer to be able to vote online if I had the choice – hopefully there’ll be something happening in this field in another 4 years.

Media Coverage

There’s nothing like an election (other than a war perhaps) to get the media into a frenzy of coverage from “every possible angle”. Most media outlets have created special election coverage sections to their sites, and we’ve listed a few below.

• ABC: www.abc.net.au/elections/
• Sydney Morning Herald: www.smh.com.au/specials/election2004/
• Seven: www.seven.com.au/fedelection04

Some of these sites include video feeds and other interactive content – as some would say, making a dull subject a little more exciting.

Party Coverage

If you want websites that take their self-belief of excitement to new levels, you can’t go past the official party websites. Many members standing for election also have their own websites – some party sites create links to these sites, others would prefer they didn’t exist, so you’ll have to rely on Google.

• ALP: www.alp.org.au – a pretty rough looking site, but it does support news feeds if you are so inclined.
• Liberals: www.liberal.org.au – again, a rough looking site, but it does look like it gets new features added to it almost daily.
• Nationals: www.nationals.org.au – does not appear to be updated too regularly – less news focused than the other sites.
• Greens: www.greens.org.au – the Greens site is heavy with news feed information, but pretty light on news, with the last entry in the Media Centre dated 7th of September.
• Democrats: campaign.democrats.org.au – while they’re performance over the last few years has not done them much good electorally, their website is actually pretty good. Check out the Flash movies!
• Family First: www.familyfirst.org.au – these guys aren’t a “serious party” with sitting members, but with policies like an internet tax to pay for the fantasy perfect filtering technology, they’re worth watching.

Activist Coverage

For the really entertain parts of this election campaign, you’ve got to go to the activists. While there are thousands of lobbyists and other fringe dwellers, we’ve listed a few below because they’re really funny (intentionally or otherwise… you decide).

• The Chaser Decides: www.abc.net.au/tv/chaser/ - part media, part activist, this is the website which supports the weekly ABC program of the same name. They’ve got their stand-alone website at www.chaser.com.au.
• Crikey: www.crikey.com.au – while the Crikey team report on anything they don’t like, the Election has a special place in their hearts.
• Green Left Weekly: www.greenleft.org.au – if you’ve ever wandered down the mall and been accosted, and wondered what those newspapers are all about; here you are.
• Socialist Alliance: www.socialist-alliance.org – team-mates for Green Left; if you want to get involved in a noisy rally, this is your team – click on the placards on the left.