Before voting day I would like to know who the candidates are in my electorate.
Where can I find that information? I've looked at the AEC (Australian Electoral Commission) website but cannot find information on the candidates.
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1 Answer
The first step is finding out which division/electorate you are in, which you can do through the page you linked to, by entering your suburb or postcode (in some divisions it can depend on what street you live on or even whether your house is on the odd or even side of the street, in which case the search will guide you).
After that, you need to go to the Candidates page and enter your division.
You'll be given a list of House of Representatives candidates for your division (the green paper), and a list of Senate candidates for your state or territory (the white paper).
In terms of learning more about each of these candidates, as the AEC is apolitical they won't tell you who to vote for or why. However, a quick Google on each of the names of your candidates will usually turn up their personal/party website, which will in most cases tell you who they are and what they stand for.
If you want to work out everything before the day, you'll want to decide how to number each of the House of Representatives candidates in the order of your preference, and how to number either 1 to 6 for the parties on the Senate paper (known as voting 'above the line'), or 1 to 12 for the individual candidates (voting 'below the line').