Former MP Kathryn Hay given suspended prison term for abuse of former husband

Dylan Leigh

2025-07-27 05:55

From the ABC news article - excerpts from the victim impact statement:

“The abuse has had long-lasting effects on my mental health,” he wrote.

“I struggle to maintain existing relationships, let alone form new ones.”

Mr Richardson said he had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and described “overwhelming” panic attacks.

“The trauma continues to affect my daily functioning,”

The court also heard Hay was previously convicted of assaulting Mr Richardson, after a member of the public reportedly witnessed Hay slap her then-husband in a carpark and called the police.

Non-Monotonicity in Australian Preference Voting

Dylan Leigh

2019-12-18 12:14

There are several methods of voting which allow voters to rank candidates in order of their preference, rather than just selecting a single desired candidate and then doing a single count (Plurality or “First Past the Post” voting). The system specifically used in Australian elections is “Instant-Runoff Voting” (IRV).

IRV is intended to allow for a variety of political parties of various sizes to flourish (unlike the famously two-party-dominated politics of the USA) as citizens who vote for a minor party as their first preference don’t “waste” their vote; if their first preference is too obscure to get in, their vote goes to their second preference, and so on.

However, it is still possible for “vote-splitting” to have a negative effect on minor parties - in some cases, giving a candidate a higher preference can paradoxically cause them to lose, as they can be eliminated earlier.