The Internet's role in the 2007 Federal Election

We've been covering some of these topics on e-democracy and e-citizenship, so I thought we'd briefly reflect on the role the Internet has played in the recent change of government in Australia.

Just before the election, the Howard government launched its campaign to improve Internet safety.

Well, firstly there was the campaigns.  There were fancy Web 2.0 sites, like the impressive Labor campaign website (Kevin07.com.au) and The Australian Greens (greens.org.au) and even the typically conservative Liberals website (liberal.org.au) all employing just about every e-marketing trick imaginable from petitions to video and e-news and RSS to keep political supporters involved.  Social networking played a part, with MySpace profiles and Facebook groups for the politicians showing their armies of friends and followers. 

Then there was YouTube, an Internet battleground which emerged for both Rudd and Howard.  There was the Virtual Tally Room on the Australian Electoral Commission website, providing voters with unprecedented access to the raw statistics with only a 15 minute delay.  Then there were the media sites.  No online voting yet, but it probably won't be too far away.

And there was the promises.  Labor pitched a $4.7 billion fibre-to-the-node broadband network. 

Whether broadband was a popular issue or not and whether the web stuff helped Rudd's team get over the line probably doesn't matter in the end. 

But one thing is for sure in the wake of the dramatic change of government - the Internet is emerging in Australia as an e-democracy force.  In terms of strategy, the Internet was integral to the campaigns of all the major parties.

This is not just the case at the Federal level either, although it is the area which attracts the most attention.  Local and State government has seen this trend emerge earlier, but all levels and their constituents are to benefit from improvements to e-citizenship over the coming years.