Friday 29th November 2024, 09:15–09:30 (Australia/Melbourne), Cullen Room
This talk explores shifts in the party structure within Australian parliamentary networks from 1947 to 2019 using graph theory, focusing on the career backgrounds of Members of Parliament (MPs). We analyzed two sets of graphs: one representing MPs and the other capturing their career backgrounds. For the MP graphs, we compute key metrics such as average maximal flow and transitivity to investigate both the local and global connectivity. We then generate two sets of random graphs for statistical comparison.
In the career background graphs, we utilize betweenness centrality to identify influential nodes and detect bouquet structures. This comprehensive analysis reveals structural changes in political networks over time, providing deeper insights into the evolving dynamics of party structures.
I am a final-year PhD candidate in mathematics and a post-doctorate research fellow in political science from Australian National University. My main field of interest is applied topology and graph theory with applications in mathematical physics and social sciences. I also like to develope or contribute to packages for research purposes. I have publications on the simulation of topological insulators and positron scattering in liquids. I am preparing a paper on the network analysis of the career backgrounds of MPs in Australia. I have also briefly worked on machine learning approaches in harmonising questionnaires. I am currently the developer for a Hansard scraping program that automatically collects, parses, and collates data from the Australian Hansard.