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System design — tracking architecture

Summary of the Australian Politics Intelligence System blueprint. Full text: documents/specifications/australian_politics_tracking_system.md.

← Primer · Gaps & layers → · Home

What this system is

A living Political Intelligence System for federal, state, territory, and (selectively) local politics. It is meant to be:

  • Modular — start small, expand as capacity allows
  • Durable — survives reshuffles, elections, and leadership changes
  • Actionable — surfaces signals and patterns, not a passive archive

Three layers

Layer Question it answers
Mechanics How do parliaments, elections, and constitutions work?
Players Who holds power, who is rising, which factions do they represent?
Engine How do we organise and update information on a sustainable cadence?

The primer covers mechanics and scale. This site’s Tracker section is the engine in operation.

Core content types

Jurisdiction hubs (9)

One hub per federal + state/territory jurisdiction: government, opposition, next election, stability, links to parties and key figures. The dashboard matrix is the quick view.

Politician dossiers

YAML frontmatter for querying (trajectory, party, jurisdiction, media_profile, etc.). Sections: quick facts, signature issues, event log, links.

Cadence: monthly for active figures; quarterly for others; major events only in the weekly event log.

Party profiles

Federal parties in depth; state shells for ALP/Liberal/Nationals/Greens (and jurisdiction-specific parties such as LNP QLD, CLP NT).

Policy register

Tier-1 federal issues (housing, energy, AUKUS, cost of living, immigration, NDIS, integrity, First Nations, …) plus state-specific starters. Each entry: positions, internal tension, legislative status, salience.

Electoral / pendulums

Post-election 2PP (or Hare-Clark summaries) per jurisdiction — see Electoral glossary. Federal pendulum uses AEC 2025 data with links to HoR dossiers. Index: seats.

Gap layers (see gaps analysis)

Finance, media ecosystem, cross-jurisdictional tensions, history baselines, relationship networks, archive, and applications (“so what” for your own domain).

Maintenance cadence

Frequency Work
Weekly (30–45 min) Event log only — leadership, preselections, scandals, crossbench deals
Monthly 2–3 dossier trajectory updates; policy tweaks; polling row where used
Quarterly Jurisdiction hubs, networks, media map review
Post-election Pendulums, party profiles, archive major results

Folder architecture (tracker)

docs/
├── jurisdictions/     # 9 hubs
├── politicians/       # federal, senate, state/territory
├── parties/
├── policies/
├── seats/             # pendulums
├── finance/
├── media/
├── history/
├── networks/
├── cross-jurisdictional/
├── councils/          # filtered local (~12 nationally)
├── archive/
├── applications/
├── events/            # log.md
└── doc-templates/     # copy-paste patterns

Technical stack

  • MkDocs + Material — markdown in Git, local mkdocs serve, optional static hosting
  • Scripts — regenerate pendulums and bulk dossiers from AEC/EC data (scripts/)
  • Query — python scripts/query_politicians.py --trajectory "Rising Star"

Local government

Not comprehensive. A filter identifies councils that matter for state/federal pipelines (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Fremantle, Joondalup, inner Adelaide, …). See councils index.

Signal index (when to drop everything)

Examples from the specification: ICAC referral of a premier, leadership spill, unexpected resignation, Senate blocking supply, redistribution calling a safe seat marginal, Teal/Climate 200 endorsement in a new seat.