For those who don’t know me, I was the Chief Election Analyst with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) for three decades. In that time I was the face of television election coverages in Australia. I retired from the ABC and broadcasting after the 2025 Federal election.
However, that doesn’t mean I’ve retired from covering politics and elections. Leaving the ABC just gives me more time to write on electoral matters for this blog.
I first joined the ABC in 1989, hired for six months as an election researcher. But as so often happens after getting your first foot in the door, I managed to turn opportunity into a career. Having worked previously in the computer industry as a data analyst and programmer, the task I was given after the 1990 Federal election was to design a new election analysis system for the ABC. From there I moved up to appearing on election panels where I was able to combine my knowledge of politics, history and seats with accurate analysis using the computer system I designed.
(I should give credit here to Dr Ross Cunningham who produced the first statistical models for predicting election night results. Everyone who covers elections owes a debt of gratitude to his work.)
I worked on around 90 federal, state and territory elections between 1989 and 2025 including 13 Federal elections. I’ve also been involved in reporting results for local government elections, numerous by-elections, and I have covered elections in the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Canada.
I studied at the University of Sydney and was awarded a Bachelor of Science in Pure Mathematics and Computer Science, and a Bachelor of Economics with Honours in politics. I was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of Sydney in 2014 and appointed an Adjunct Professor in the University of Sydney’s Department of Government and International Relations in 2015.
In the 2017 Queen’s birthday honours list I was appointed an Officer in the Order of Australia. The citation was “for distinguished service to the broadcast media as an analyst and commentator for state and federal elections, and to the community as a key interpreter of Australian democracy”.
Born in Warrington, Lancashire, in 1960, I migrated to Australia as a four-year old with my parents. We initially lived on the Dundas Migrant Hostel and I grew up around Parramatta, attended Oatlands Primary School and James Ruse Agricultural High School.
My expertise is in electoral systems, voter behaviour and election night result modelling. I have prepared an array of publications on election results and redistributions for parliamentary libraries, written book chapters and contributed to parliamentary inquiries on electoral procedure in Australia.
I’ve been a keen bike rider most of my life and hope to have some good years left to enjoy my late in life passion for overseas bike touring. Up market touring that is, not slumming it carrying my bags on the bike or sleeping in tents. I spend too much time on YouTube watching 60s and 70s music clips and endless obscure history documentaries.
Last Updated: 1 January 2026