Template talk:Politics of Australia

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since this template has become more general, i suggest it be moved to template:Politics australia. clarkk 11:45, 20 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Contents 1 please make this a footer! 2 Progressive Alliance 3 Elections 4 Layout 5 State/Territory elections

[edit] please make this a footer!

please don't make this into a sidebar, it just doesn't work at the bottom of the page and conflicts with the various sideboxes if it's used at the side, it works much better as a footer, i'm going to revert it back. clarkk 05:03, 21 Jan 2005 (UTC)

you'll also notice that this template is included at the bottom of most pages it's linked on, since it was designed as a footer and looks very strange as a floating sidebar at the end of every article. clarkk 05:14, 21 Jan 2005 (UTC)

This template is now out of whack with all the others Template:Politics of the United States, Template:Politics of the United Kingdom, Template: Politics of New Zealand, Template:Politics of Canada, Template:Politics of South Africa, etc. etc. Can we either restore this one to something like what it was, or retitle it? Slac speak up! 11:16, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I am going to change it back to a sidebar. It's just too inconsistent with every other "politics of" template as a bottom-dweller, and it adds to template creep at the bottom of articles. As for appearing in every article it links to: well, we could make it a bit more austere. My suggestion is: Queen of Australia, Governor-General, Senate, House of Representatives, Constitution, Elections, Political parties in Australia, and State and Territory governments. For other uses, we can develop more specific templates. Slac speak up! 07:56, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

please don't change it to a sidebar! it makes it impossible if an article already has an sidebar infobox already. at least at the bottom they stack, plus it gets it out of the way of more relevant material. also the sidebar in the template:politics of the United Kingdom is not included on all the pages it is linked to such as Scottish Parliament for just the reason i described, because it clashes with the scottish parliament template. clarkk 09:41, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

My idea is to reduce the number of pages where the template actually appears, so as to diminish that problem, at least. Slac speak up! 10:44, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Progressive Alliance

Should the Progressive Alliance be mentioned in this template? It hasn't won a seat under its banner, and isn't expected to, which would put it on the same level as Australia First Party or Franca Arena Child Safety Alliance (NSW, not federal though). Andjam 05:16, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

I've removed it along with PHON. They had already been removed from {{Australian political parties}}. I'm pretty sure APA's defunct anyways.--cj | talk 06:10, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Elections

Shouldn't all federal elections be included in this footer (or a special election footer be made if it would be messy otherwise)? I know there are no pages on any of the elections between 1901 and 1993, but surely adding them to this footer would draw peoples' attentions to empty articles and they might start writing them? 129.67.53.94 18:45, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Layout

This template was changed to give it the same layout as all the other politics of boxes and moved to the upper right of the articles. Compare User:Electionworld/country_templates. If the template doesn't fit well in an article, one could use template:Politics of Australia (bottom) Electionworld = Wilfried (talk 23:35, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

Quite frankly, when Australian politics articles have by and large been formatted with the footer in mind, with their right-hand sides occupied by images and tables and so on, it is upon you to make sure that it does fit properly - which in almost every instance, it does not. What's more is that many Australian politics articles are considerably shorter than the side-box itself. I don't see any need for this template to be consistent with the others, although I have no problem with the format when it works - hence Template:Politics of Australia (side). The point is, however, it is terribly large and causes severe format distortion when placed where it doesn't fit. --cj | talk 00:09, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Might a satisfactory compromise for consistency be to use this template (template:Politics of Australia ) on all the politics articles, but display a smaller series template at the top? This would make Australian articles look like those of other countries and alert the reader instantly to the fact that the article is part of a series without too much clutter. --ThirdEdition 02:55, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] State/Territory elections

I thought it was important that the relevant election to each state also be placed in the politics template. If anyone disagrees or thinks something should be re-worded please let me know. Timeshift 12:54, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

I don't think that state elections belong on this template. Previously, there was just one line for the states, which I think was right. If someone wants to know about state elections they can follow the links to the states. Also, it is inconsistent with other politics templates, including the US, Canada and Germany, which have federal systems. Although, this template isn't really consistent with others anyway. --ThirdEdition 03:46, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

I beg to differ, state elections are fully to do with politics of Australia. I will redesign it however, please let me know what you think - because at the moment, it is hard to find/navigate for information on all of the state elections. I'm not sure when you last looked... Timeshift 08:33, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

In my opinion, the best way to find election information for the states would be to follow a link from this template to a 'Government of ...' article with a template for that state. South Australia and Victoria already have these. State elections are part of the politics of Australia, but I think the expectation with these templates is that they link the articles at the highest level of government. If there was to be a place with all of the elections it might be in Parliaments of the Australian states and territories. --ThirdEdition 03:46, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

I agree with ThirdEdition on that point.--cj | talk 03:55, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

If you can knock up something that is easy to understand and navigate for newcomers, i'd be happy to see it :-) Timeshift 07:20, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

Here's a knock-up mock-up. The formatting might not be to people's liking, but this template links to the main federal government articles (except Government of Australia, which should be fixed) and to the top state government articles, including Parliaments of the Australian states and territories.

I don't see that there's a problem in finding state elections if all the state government articles have templates like this 'Government of South Australia' one, which links to the elections. If I was interested in the SA election I would click on the SA government link in 'Politics of Australia' and it would take me to this.

If Parliaments of the Australian states and territories was to be a place with all of the elections, it could have a template like this on it. This is based on the 'premiers' template on Premiers of the Australian states.

Latest elections in the States and territories of Australia
ACT	NSW	NT	QLD	SA	TAS	VIC	WA
2004	2007	2005	2006	2006	2006	2006	2005

--ThirdEdition 04:59, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Not all states have their own government of {state} template. Infact I believe only two do. How about something like this?

Where legislative elections is a link to a list of recent state elections? I still think the way you have planned it is cumbersome. It might be easy for you to navigate because a) you're used to wikipedia and b) you designed it, but to someone who googles something and comes to one of the politics pages and isn't familiar, I do think they could quite easily miss it - and remember not everything people take an interest in reading, they meant to read. Often, people simply stumble across something that is interesting reading that they otherwise would not have known/come across. Timeshift 05:32, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

If there was an article on the 'Legislative elections' of the states, then I would see no problem in linking it to this template. Whether or not there should be such an article is another question, but I'm not against it.

Indeed only two states have their own template, but I am proposing that they all should. I can see that there would possibly be a problem in the case of the ACT, which doesn't have a 'Government of ...' article. Maybe a 'Politics/Government of the Australian states' template might be more appropriate.

Perhaps you're right and I'm not seeing this from the point of view of someone unfamiliar with wikipedia. Serendipitous discoveries are an important part of wikipedia and indeed any encyclopedia, but there is a limit to the number of links you should provide. For example, it would be wrong to link to every premier directly from this template, even though they are part of the politics of Australia. --ThirdEdition 02:44, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Is there a way to get a concensus on this? Us alone don't constitute the opinion of wikipedia editors and would be good to see what changes or lack of may be recommended by others. I suspect this talk page is pretty secluded... Timeshift 03:11, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Posting something on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Australian politics would bring this to the attention of a wider Australian audience. It's the obvious next step. I think all the Australian politics templates need looking at. This might encourage people to look at how all the articles are linked. --ThirdEdition 08:03, 29 August 2006 (UTC)