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Updated 30/05/2025

The outer-Melbourne electorate of Calwell was named “Australia’s most unpredictable seat” by The Age after the election and was – aside from those going to a recount – the last seat to be called. The AEC labelled the counting process for the seat “likely the most complex in Australia’s history”.

The count is complicated because, while Labor led on primary votes, the Liberals, Greens, and three independents each had a significant share of the vote. The AEC had no idea which candidate would make it to the final two alongside Labor, and then if any of them could win from there. In a very rare case, the AEC had to conduct a full count of the seat to an estimate of the final result, which still hasn’t finished (though Labor now seems assured of victory).

Calwell is extra interesting, because it is diverse. It’s one of the handful of electorates in Australia where most people speak a language other than English at home, as well as having one of the largest Muslim populations. Two independents and the Greens candidate made Labor’s response to the genocide in Gaza a significant issue in their campaign.

125 billion worth of liquefied natural gas (LNG) has been shipped out of Gladstone, but 9 out of 10 companies involved in Queensland gas exports have paid zero company tax in this time, according to the latest data from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

Despite the huge volume of gas being extracted, domestic gas prices have increased significantly, pushed up by excessive gas exports.

Key points:

• $125 billion in LNG has been sold out of Queensland over the last ten years, by companies that reported $330 billion in total Australian revenue to the ATO.
• The only company involved in Queensland LNG exports to have paid tax in the last ten years is Australia’s Origin Energy, which paid a total of $966 million, not all of which relates to LNG.
• None of the foreign-owned companies involved have paid company tax on Queensland LNG exports.

“The gas industry’s annual conference is in Brisbane this week and they will be at pains to avoid talking about tax,” said Greg Jericho, Chief Economist at The Australia Institute.

“None of the foreign-owned giant gas corporations like ConocoPhillips or Total, that export gas out of Queensland, have paid a cent in company tax.

“The burning of gas and other fossil fuels is driving disasters like the floods in NSW.

“Gas companies are cashing in while Australian communities are picking up the costs.

A new report purports to provide a roadmap for accountability at the Oregon Department of Transportation.  In short, its a work of conflicted consultants, with a long history of cost overruns and excessive spending, offering slightly recycled versions of measures that have failed to control costs for the past decade.

Oregon’s highway department has a problem with chronic cost overruns.  The report from AtkinsRéalis-Horrocks purports to address this problem, but actually offers more the same.  These consultants have failed to clearly diagnose the underlying problem, have significant conflicts of interest, have their own long history of cost overruns and excessive spending, and are offering slightly recycled versions of measures that have failed to control costs for the past decade.

The authors of the management review—two senior sales executives at consulting firms hoping to expand in Oregon—have conflicts of interest that are not disclosed or addressed.

In their time working in the Utah and Colorado, their respective state highway departments racked up massive cost overruns on major highway projects (Utah), and were found to have spent excessively on consultants and violated state laws regarding contract bidding (Colorado).

While Australia’s electoral institutions are among the best in the world – like an independent electoral commission, Saturday voting, full preferential voting and compulsory voting – they are not perfect.

Lies in advertising and text spamming are among six key problems identified by The Australia Institute from the campaign, which suggests reforms to fix these areas of concern to safeguard Australia’s democracy.

A poll of 1500 voters was conducted by YouGov in the final week of the election campaign, asking Australians whether they’d seen misleading advertisements.

On this episode of After America, Dr Emma Shortis and Angus Blackman discuss Trump’s false claims about ‘white genocide’, the administration’s war on Harvard University, Kamala Harris on the Goldie, and whether Anthony Albanese’s talk about “progressive patriotism” will be backed up with real action.

This discussion was recorded on Monday 26 May 2025 and things may have changed since recording.

Order After America: Australia and the new world order or become a foundation subscriber to Vantage Point at australiainstitute.org.au/store.

Host: Emma Shortis, Director, International & Security Affairs, the Australia Institute // @emmashortis

Host: Angus Blackman, Producer, the Australia Institute // @AngusRB

Photo: GovernmentZA/Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)

Theme music: Blue Dot Sessions