Dr Martin Drum, who addressed us in mid-March about the then forthcoming Federal Election, came back to give us a post mortem on the results, and what an interesting summary it was. There was a noticeable move away from the major Parties, and unlike on most occasions in the past, WA proved to be crucial to the outcome. Overall there was a 5.7% swing away from the Coalition, but in WA it was 9.9% with four seats going to Labor and one to an Independent. The smallest swing occurred in Tasmania, probably because of the popularity of the State Liberal Government following the close-down of the borders early in the Covid pandemic. Ironically the State Labor Government in WA also closed our borders and this probably contributed to the swing from Liberal to Labor in this State. Dr Drum explained the preference voting system which he thinks is appropriate for National and State elections but not for local government elections because party politics are not desirable in that context. However he thinks that preferences should be chosen by the voter and not be prescribed by Parties, and ideally preference voting should be optional i.e. there should be no obligation to fill in all the boxes. The Liberal brand in WA is at an all-time low, and it was illuminating to see the geographical voting outcomes in the seat of Curtin where most of our Members live. In the Senate Labor plus Greens are close to a majority and Dr Drum feels that the new Federal Government must look after WA or they will face a backlash in future polls.