Political Organisations and Participation Research Group

Indigenous political candidates face less voter bias than parties might think: new research A world-first study involving 4,000 Australian adults shows political parties shouldn’t assume Indigenous candidates will face voter rejection.

In @aunz.theconversation.com today, @jholloway.bsky.social, Michelle Evans, & I discuss the key findings from our recent @poppublicsphere.bsky.social article on prospective Indigenous candidates:

theconversation.com/indigenous-p...

As the home ownership dream fades, Australians may be open to a frank conversation about house prices One of the most basic axioms in Australian politics is that voters support rising house prices. John Howard expressed this axiom when he infamously remarked that no one had ever told him “I'm angry wi...

Great piece from my colleague @alistairsisson.bsky.social exploring the implications of our voter data on the ##HousingCrisis
johnmenadue.com/post/2025/10...

Fairness and Belonging: Public Attitudes Towards Migration and Symbolic Boundaries In Australia, ideals of fairness, merit, and inclusion are said to be reflected in national identity through the concept of the fair go. While the fair go embodies the right to fair opportunities for....

It's thrilled city population me today because Juliet Pietsch, @cosmohoward.bsky.social & I's latest Fair Go work is out now. Interested in what Aussies think Fair Go means & whether those beliefs explain attitudes to the inclusion of migrants? Check it out!

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Very excited to announce our ECPR Joint Sessions workshop on Symbolic politics & policy, that I am co-directing with the inimitable Florence Faucher of Sciences Po
Please submit a paper and come join us for a great few days of discussion!

This is such a lovely post on mentors in academia - they are there at the start, and many stay important all the way through your career. As a sounding board, or writing yet another reference for you!
I’ve been lucky to have three people I consider great mentors & who helped me pay it forward too

Democracy Sausage Episode: Safety nets below and a roof above Political scientists Mark Riboldi and Pandanus Petter join Democracy Sausage to discuss housing policy, safety nets and the fair go. How do politicians talk about housing, and does it impact policy? W...

How do politicians talk about housing, and does it impact policy?

#ICYMI Political scientists @markriboldi.bsky.social & @pandanuspetter.bsky.social join @marijataflaga.bsky.social to discuss housing policy, safety nets and the fair go.

#AUListen 🎧 #DemocracySausage ausi.anu.edu.au/news/democra...

Democracy Sausage: Safety nets below and a roof above Political scientists Mark Riboldi and Pandanus Petter join Democracy Sausage to discuss housing policy, safety nets and the fair go.

@marijataflaga.bsky.social @markriboldi.bsky.social and I have a chat about UBIs & crisis thinking in housing and social welfare policy. I haven't listened, so if I say anything regrettable just know I've grown and changed since back then (yesterday). 😱🏠💰🗣️

reporter.anu.edu.au/all-stories/...

The Greens’ expulsion of a co-founder is unlikely to jeopardise the party’s future The expulsion of co-founder Drew Hutton shows transgender rights and safety are not negotiable for the party.

The latest from me in @aunz.theconversation.com theconversation.com/the-greens-e...

Just so infuriating everything

Should Australia lower the voting age to 16 like the UK? We asked 5 experts The UK wants to allow 16 and 17-year-olds to vote in the next general election in 2029. 5 experts give their verdicts on if Australia should do the same.

Should we lower the voting age to 16, and if so should we make it compulsory? The gang (@jillesheppard.bsky.social, @powercleanpolitics.bsky.social @blairwilliams26.bsky.social Faith Gordon) and I weigh in. Check it out!
theconversation.com/should-austr...

Good idea. Australia's R&D investment is abysmal, and Australian big business in particular ride on the coattails of everyone else.

Call for Papers: APSA T&L Group Workshop: AI and Digital Literacy in Teaching Political Studies – 11 and 12 September 2025

auspsa.org.au/job-alert/latest/apsa-tl-group-workshop-ai-and-digital-literacy-in-teaching-political-studies-11-and-12-september-2025/

A New Australian Politics: Rupture or Realignment Please join us on at the University of Technology Sydney on Tuesday 23 September 2025, for a public event on the future of Australian democracy. Is Australia entering a new political era? With a record majority off a near record low primary vote, the new parliament continues the rise of new electoral coalitions, unsettling our assumptions about class, gender, race, and power. Our stellar panellists George Megalogenis, Frank Bongiorno, Elizabeth Humphrys, Ben Spies-Butcher, and Emily Foley will be engaged in a wide-ranging discussion exploring whether we’re witnessing a rupture or a realignment in Australian politics, and what it means for political life today. The conversation will explore how the traditional party duopoly is being eroded under pressure from shifting demographics, growing economic inequality, and increasing political disillusionment. What happens when the working class no longer feels represented, and when younger, more diverse voters no longer see themselves in the major parties? Tuesday 23 September — UTS Green Lecture Theatre Building 7 — Room 025 (full location details below) Register here: https://events.humanitix.com/a-new-australian-politics-rupture-or-realignment Speakers George Megalogenis is an author and journalist with over thirty years’ experience in the media, including over a decade in the federal parliamentary press gallery. His latest Quarterly Essay, Minority Report, explores the strategies and secret understandings of a political culture under pressure. Frank Bongiorno is based at the Australian National University and author of several works of Australian history, including The Eighties: The Decade That Transformed Australia (2015) and Dreamers and Schemers: A Political History of Australia (2022). He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and the Australian Academy of Humanities. Elizabeth Humphrys is the Head of Discipline of Social and Political Scie…

Hello Sydneysiders! On Tuesday 23rd Sep join Frank Bongiorno, George Megalogenis, @bspiesbutcher.bsky.social, @lizhumphrys.bsky.social & me for our public event A New Australian Politics: Rupture or Realignment. Registration is free & we'd love to see you there! events.humanitix.com/a-new-austra...

Right-wing political group Advance is in the headlines. What is it and what does it stand for? The husband of antisemitism special envoy Jillian Segal has donated to Advance. Here’s what the group’s all about.

"Part of a worldwide trend towards right-wing populism, Advance will likely continue to be at the centre of conservative politics in Australia."

Me writing for @theconversation.com on conservative campaign group Advance.

theconversation.com/right-wing-p...

New paper from my colleagues. But also love that the staff-led campaign against ANU budget cuts gets tag here

Thank you for the incredibly engaged review of our book Story Tech! - currently available free online 📚

How seats changed relative to Australia in 2025 I’ve previously posted a number of times before about the dataset I have compiled of election results since 2004, adjusted for 2025 electoral boundaries. Most recently, prior to the election,…

Today's blog post uses my dataset of election results adjusted to modern boundaries dating back to 2025 to look at how each seat's position *relative to other seats* has changed over that time, and since 2022. The article focuses solely on 2PP for simplicity's sake #ausvotes

Join Us. 👇
As president of @auspsa.bsky.social we have sent a letter to Macquarie Uni @macqpac.bsky.social expressing our deep concern at proposed cuts to politics teaching and jobs. auspsa.org.au/job-alert/ap...

Thrilled that my article on women's activism in PRR parties has been published open access today in @cpsjournal.bsky.social 💫

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

This is my favourite article from my PhD thesis. I love the topic, its findings, and the literature it draws on.

A quick 🧵:

What British Parties Could Learn From Australia’s Election - Emily Foley, Zareh Ghazarian, Rob Manwaring, Ben Wellings, 2025

We're in @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social's Political Insight this week unpacking a bit about what British parties could learn from Australia’s election journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

We'll be kicking off the Seoul IPSA Conference on Sunday 13 July with a panel on "The Supply & Demand of Right-Wing Populism in the 2020s"

Featuring papers by @ammassarisofia.bsky.social, @dafnoukos.bsky.social, @benstanley.eu, @rheinisch.bsky.social, & me.

If you're not at church, do come along!

A really fascinating article which has come along just as I'm thinking about political place-making, representations of self and Bob Katter...

We had the pleasure of hosting the @auspsa.bsky.social @popgroupaus.bsky.social Workshop, where scholars from around Australia discussed timely topics.
Thank you to organisers, Dr Jordan McSwiney and @friedelm1.bsky.social, and to Faculty of BGL Dean, Prof Uwe Dulleck, for his warm opening remarks.

ABSTRACT Research on how oil companies have misled the public and deflected responsibility for climate change suggests that, since the mid-2000s, the oil industry has shifted from traditional to new denialism regimes, including greenwashing and framing climate change as consumer-driven. I argue that a more profound transformation is underway: the oil industry is embedding itself within climate leadership not merely to circumvent the barriers posed by climate change to fossil capital accumulation but to remove them by reshaping reality through simulation. Drawing on Baudrillard, I show how this simulation reframes climate change as a techno-capitalist challenge and socio-economic opportunity, recasting the oil industry from main culprit to ultimate saviour. Prompted by Al Jaber’s controversial appointment as COP28 president, I examine how, in this neoliberal simulated reality, the existential question of climate change is ‘dissolved’ and ‘resurrected’ within a market-driven logic that advances fossil capitalism no longer despite but through climate change.

New article!

‘With great power comes great responsibility’: climate change and the politics of simulation of the oil industry by Luca Mavelli.

Welcome to the desert of the real and the politics of simulation of the oil industry!

doi.org/10.1080/0964...

What went wrong for the Greens in the Australian election? The Greens lost three seats and a leader at the 2025 federal election. Here’s how it happened

Excellent piece from the data journos at @australia.theguardian.com explaining the mechanics of why the Greens lost seats - widely dispersed votes, redistribution, three-cornered contests and yes, going backwards in the vote.

Open letter: Staff call on the ANU executive to stop these unnecessary cuts Fact sheet on 'Renew ANU so far': https://shorturl.at/iYVjc Open Letter PDF for print with QR codes to sign: https://shorturl.at/5KYs3 For updates: Subscribe to OurANU Substack: https://substack.com...

Hello ANU staff members.

We are once again asking for you to read and consider signing this latest open letter to our executive, requesting that they reconsider the path that they are taking (cutting further than they need to).

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

The Macquarie PhD scholarship on our new Climate Economy project is now open - working with me, @garethbryant.bsky.social Sophie Weber, @clairerhiannon.bsky.social & Svenja Keele. We'll explore how climate change remakes our political economy. Topic negotiable.

www.mq.edu.au/research/phd...

Powerful statement by the most influential and well known political scientists - worth reading in full

Dr. Riboldi: State Capture by Big Business Is a Core Threat to Australian Democracy—As Elsewhere - ECPS In this incisive interview with the European Center for Populism Studies (ECPS), Dr. Mark Riboldi—a lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney and

"...revolving-door pathways from student politics to Parliament and then private sector boardrooms bypass real work experience and meaningful community engagement.”

I chatted to the European Centre for Populism Studies for this "incisive" interview:

www.populismstudies.org/dr-riboldi-s...

My dear friend @emilyrosefoley.bsky.social has been on a roll lately - if you’re interested in social democratic parties, you should check out her work on the Australian Labor Party!