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We begin with one of the enduring oddities of the Australian electoral system - preferential voting. Vaunted by mathematicians and theorists as a fairer way of voting. Adopted, uniquely, by Australia in 1918.

In the early days, Parliament House hosted an all-male conclave of politicians and newspapermen, sharing a cramped environment and a complex code of conventions and mutual dependency. But the age of disruption has arrived.

Democracies operate according to rules, but they also change. Sometimes at the hands of visionary or power-hungry leaders, sometimes in response to external forces, and sometimes as a result of people power.