Abbott's WA nightmare comes true

It's happened. Abbott's Western Australia nightmare has come to full fruition. WA is going back to the polls for another senate vote, as the Australian Electoral Commission went to the High Court over 1,300 missing ballot papers. The High Court has declared the WA senate vote void.

The High Court ruled today that WA will go back to the polls for a new Senate election, after September's result was declared void.

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) had petitioned the court asking for the Senate results to be discounted after 1,370 votes could not be found for a recount. more

It's now up to Abbott to declare another election date for WA. 

It is understood Prime Minister Tony Abbott will have responsibility for setting the election date.

With the Constitution setting a minimum 33 days for an election campaign, March 29 looms as the earliest date Mr Abbott could call the poll.

Complicating the choice of dates is the need to avoid a clash with the Easter school holidays, which run from April 12 to April 27.

Delaying the election to May would also put the campaign period into the run up to the Federal Budget, when the Government is expected to make a raft of swingeing and unpopular cuts. more

Given Abbott's performance since last Sept, I'd guess it's highly likely the Lieberal senators won't be doing quite so well as they did then. This is from a few weeks back:

VOTER support for Tony Abbott's Coalition has slumped in Western Australia since the election and a dramatic rise for Labor and independents will threaten the Liberal hold on three Senate seats and the ability to repeal the carbon tax if the High Court orders a new Senate election in the state next year. 

According to the latest Newspoll analysis of state-by-state and demographic voting support in the past three months, conducted exclusively for The Weekend Australian, the Abbott government's first 100 days have ended with a drop in Western Australia of 10 percentage points from its election primary vote of 51.2 per cent to 41 per cent. 

Labor's primary vote support in the state has risen from 28.8 per cent at the election to 36 per cent and support for "others" has gone from 10.3 per cent to 13 per cent. more

July is when the new senate takes over and it was looking like it was going to be a more Lieberal friendly senate and easier for Abbott to get his legislation through. Now that's all up in the air as Abbott faces his first federal poll test since becoming PM.

Shark cull anyone?