Images and issues : the Queensland state elections of 1963 and 1966

Abstract

This is the fullest account of electoral politics in an Australian State yet available. It provides detailed accounts of State parties and party leaders and of campaigning and candidates at the grass roots level throughout the sprawling State of Queensland. Queensland politics have a number of unique features: the predominance within the governing coalition of the Country Party; the long periods of Labor rule; the heavy weighting of rural electorates; the importance of local 'development' as a political issue. The account of the two campaigns in 1963 and 1966 is reinforced with a survey of 350 Brisbane voters in 1963, 200 of whom were re-interviewed in 1966. Thus, for the first time, we have a study of attitude change over a long period of time based on a sample of Australian voters. The book provides answers to basic questions about the apathy, the partisanship, and the amount of political knowledge possessed by Australian voters. It is essential reading for all politicians and political parties, and will be of value to journalists and psychologists, political scientists and historians, as well as to general readers interested in politics.