Practitioner Course
Empowering Practitioners
ERRN’s 2-day course on The Regulation of Australian Elections, hosted at Melbourne Law School, equips practitioners through knowledge exchange and network-building among experts and peers. Co-designed by ERRN scholars and electoral commissions, it reflects the Network’s central focus on blending academic rigour with practical knowledge.
Facilitating discussion, forging connections
Offered biennially (alternating with the Electoral Regulation Forum), the course provides a tailored suite of sessions led by facilitators from academia, as well as panel discussions with practitioners from electoral commissions and other relevant sectors (e.g. media). As well as providing electoral commission staff with an introduction to research on the regulation of Australian elections, the course serves as a forum to connect and share insights.
Topics Covered
Topics covered by the course include:
Australia’s constitutional framework for elections
Voting rights
Compulsory voting
Forms of voting
Political finance
Media in elections
Australian party system
Experiments in election research
Electoral commissions
2025 Course
The 2025 Course took place in the Woodward Conference Centre at Melbourne Law School on 29-30 September.
Participants
The course convened over 70 participants from the electoral commissions of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, and Victoria.
Speakers
Speakers included a range of electoral commission leaders, ERRN Convenors and Editors, and media experts: Mr Sven Bluemmel (Electoral Commissioner for Victoria); Mr Peter Hukins (NSW Electoral Commission); Professor Lisa Hill (University of Adelaide); Professor Ferran Martinez i Coma (Griffith University); Professor Sarah Murray (University of Western Australia); Professor Andrea Carson (La Trobe University); Mr David King (The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald); Ms Karen Kissane (Melbourne Law School); Dr Narelle Miragliotta; and Professor Tom Daly (Melbourne Law School and ERRN Director).
2023 Course
The 2023 course fostered rich discussion of key issues including mis- and dis-information, the ‘ticks and crosses’ debate that surrounded referendum voting, as well as diversity, inclusion, and the integrity of the electoral process in Australia and overseas.
Participant feedback indicated that the course was highly relevant to the work conducted by electoral commission staff. Our post-course survey received an aggregate score of 4.6 out of 5.
We are sincerely thankful to our ERRN Convenors, Editors, and guest lecturers, who ran the sessions over the 2 days: Professor Sarah Murray (University of Western Australia), Professor Graeme Orr (University of Queensland), Professor Lisa Hill (University of Adelaide), Dr Ferran Martinez i Coma (Griffith University), Associate Professor Yee-Fui Ng (Monash University), Professor Andrea Carson (La Trobe University), Dr Narelle Miragliotta (Monash University), Associate Professor Aaron Martin (University of Melbourne) and Mr Michael Maley (independent election expert).
