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

Dylan Leigh — Sat, 26 Jul 2025 19:55:50 GMT

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 — Wed, 18 Dec 2019 01:14:48 GMT

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.

DylanLeigh.net (Posts about politics)

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

Non-Monotonicity in Australian Preference Voting