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Perth Now
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Perth Now
Election day: Where to claim your nearest democracy sausage
From Antarctica to Alkimos, Nairobi to Newman — the anticipation of snagging a democracy sausage on Federal election day has Aussie citizens across the world licking their lips. While it feels like just yesterday WA was lining up for their bite of history, the 'sausagelytics' saints at have once again come to the aid of peckish voters with their thorough list of sizzling polling booths. Founded in WA in 2013, spokesman Alex Dawson said that his team's virtual snag map was used by as many as 2.5 million voters in 2022's Federal election, which might return similar numbers in 2025. However, the registry has taken a slight hit in numbers since the State election, with some booths pulling out as a result of a lower pool of volunteers after March's big day. But that could change as we creep closer. Sausages will be in hot demand come election day. Credit: Getty 'When you consider how many people vote in Australia, that represents potentially up to 25 per cent of Australia's population using a website to determine where to vote, which is an enormous responsibility that has fallen on our shoulders,' Mr Dawson told PerthNow. 'But it's one that as a group, we are happy to carry in order to help Australians get their election day sausage sizzles, or if they're after it — a cake stand, halal options, vegetarian options or whatever else is on offer at their local voting place.' Mr Dawson said his predominantly Perth-based team of six operate with a budget of $1600 over the course of each election. 'But we don't make any money from it,' he said. How many Aussies are expected to attend polling booths? Despite up to 40 per cent of people getting their vote in early or by mail, Mr Dawson said we may see fewer people as a percentage attending polling booths this weekend. But numbers will still be strong. He says inner city or large metropolitan area polling booths typically expect around '1500 to 2000 or 3000 people' across the election day. Bill Shorten bites into the middle of a bun in 2016. Credit: 7NEWS Australia How many sausages will Aussie voters chomp through? 'For the 2022 (Federal) election, we estimate that the stalls across Australia made about $4.1 to $4.2 million, which translates to probably two and a half million sausages sold,' Mr Dawson said. 'And you know, 600,000 kilos of onions and goodness knows how many litres of tomato sauce and loads of bread or packets of buns. It is a massive undertaking.' A rough map of registered sausage sizzle locations in Australia on Federal election day. Credit: So succinct is his team's national sausage breakdown, heavy retail hitters have come knocking for a heads-up on demand. 'We have actually had one of the supermarket chains reach out to us and say, 'Hey, can we have a list of where the sausage sizzles are so that we can have a look at who's ordered sausages and how many we've got in each area?'' he revealed. How much profit do sausage sizzles typically make? Surveying their list of registered stalls, Mr Dawson has unveiled what volunteer groups, schools or independent operations stand to make on the day. 'The baseline that we look at is between $1200-1500 profit, depending on how you manage your cost of goods that go into it,' he said. 'We have seen some outliers at $600 at a low level and $3600 at a high level in terms of actual profit from it.' Will there be other food offerings available across the State? According to 77 booths have registered their offering of bacon and eggs, with 22 slated to serve a halal alternative. Vegetarians across WA will find 28 stations tailored to satisfy them (as at 12pm May 2). If you'd rather snack than snag, 165 cake stands are expected, with 50 coffee stands registered. Maddison Kidd from Sweet Creations taking the democracy sausage sizzle stall to the next level at Calista Primary School Picture during the State election in March. Credit: Daniel Wilkins / The West Australian How does WA compare to the rest of Australia? Of the *2089 sausage sizzles being hosted nationally on election day, WA makes up 249, or 12 per cent of the total. NSW will be hosting the most BBQs with 730, with Victoria next at 513. Sadly for Northern Territory voters, only six polling booths will be serving democracy on a plate ... or napkin. By far the most densely populated democracy sausage region is Australia's pollie centre — the ACT — with 69 registered locations to feed a population of roughly 480,000 (inclusive of under 18s). Peter Dutton joined an informal Easter Sunday BBQ in Ipswich in the electorate of Blair hosted by LNP candidate Carl Mutzelburg. Credit: News Corp Australia Where is WA's most remote polling day BBQ? The most isolated voting centre in WA hosting a sausage sizzle is believed Newman Primary School in the Pilbara — more than 500km from the next polling booth. 'Newman is a long way from the next polling station with a sausage sizzle, which is Karratha Primary School,' Mr Dawson said. 'And then Broome has got a number of offerings at the Cable Beach Primary School,' with bacon and egg rolls in the morning, a cake stalled during the day, as well as sausage sizzles. Broome Primary School is also planning to fire up the hotplate. Newman could be the most remote polling booth offering a sausage sizzle in WA. Credit: Google Maps Fortunately, most of WA is covered. 'Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie both have sausage sizzles,' Mr Dawson said. 'And then there's another one down at Norseman. 'But then if you're heading towards Perth, Bruce rock would be the next one along before you hit the scarp on the way down to Albany. 'We've got them at East Narrogin, as well as at Tambellup and then we've got a couple in Albany as well, and then one or two in the Bunbury area, and then one at Busselton Primary School.' For any Rotto holidaymakers, there will not be a polling booth on the island so plan accordingly. Residents of Christmas Island, and Cocos and Keeling Islands will also need to prepare their snags at home with no registered BBQ's on voting day. Which electorate will host the most sausage sizzles? No one living in the Perth metro area will be 'more than 5km' from a cooked snag at any time on election day. However, voters lining up in the electorate of Curtin will have the most choices. The Division of Curtin includes City of Nedlands, City of Subaico, Shire of Peppermint Grove, Town of Cambridge, Town of Claremont, Town of Cottesloe, Town of Mosman Park, part of the City of Stirling, and part of the City of Vincent. Curtin electorate map. Credit: Australian Electoral Commission But what if you're based outside of mainland Australia? Despite voting not being mandatory for those residing outside of the country, there's still hope to experience the sacred taste of democracy. Several embassies and high commissions worldwide offer Aussies the opportunity to fill their bellies from afar. 'I haven't double checked, but we've seen at least 20 going on in places such as Nairobi, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, New York, San Francisco, Geneva,' Mr Dawson said. A map of the world's Federal election day sasuage sizzle locations. Credit: 'We found out about one in Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia, as well as Japan, Samoa, Fiji. All of these places are offering sausage sizzles, either for people who vote early, as some of the Austrade and other locations will do, or on the day, some of them are offering phone voting to Australia, and so their sausage sizzles will also be on May 3.' They've even located what could be the coldest hot dog anywhere on Earth on Saturday. 'We've also received notice that the Australian Antarctic station, in Casey, in the Antarctic region, is doing a sausage sizzle on election day,' Mr Dawson said. 'So that will be quite something to warm people up in the global reaches of Antarctica.' For reference, the Casey research station is 3880 km from Perth. If based overseas and unsure what's cooking in your neighbourhood, check with your local expat group. Find your nearest Federal election sausage sizzle here. *All figures correct as at 12pm May 2.
West Australian
02-05-2025
- Politics
- West Australian
Federal election 2025: Where to claim your democracy sausage and how WA fares vs Aus in the snag stakes
From Antarctica to Alkimos, Nairobi to Newman — the anticipation of snagging a democracy sausage on Federal election day has Aussie citizens across the world licking their lips. While it feels like just yesterday WA was lining up for their bite of history, the 'sausagelytics' saints at have once again come to the aid of peckish voters with their thorough list of sizzling polling booths. Founded in WA in 2013, spokesman Alex Dawson said that his team's virtual snag map was used by as many as 2.5 million voters in 2022's Federal election, which might return similar numbers in 2025. However, the registry has taken a slight hit in numbers since the State election, with some booths pulling out as a result of a lower pool of volunteers after March's big day. But that could change as we creep closer. 'When you consider how many people vote in Australia, that represents potentially up to 25 per cent of Australia's population using a website to determine where to vote, which is an enormous responsibility that has fallen on our shoulders,' Mr Dawson told PerthNow. 'But it's one that as a group, we are happy to carry in order to help Australians get their election day sausage sizzles, or if they're after it — a cake stand, halal options, vegetarian options or whatever else is on offer at their local voting place.' Mr Dawson said his predominantly Perth-based team of six operate with a budget of $1600 over the course of each election. 'But we don't make any money from it,' he said. How many Aussies are expected to attend polling booths? Despite up to 40 per cent of people getting their vote in early or by mail, Mr Dawson said we may see fewer people as a percentage attending polling booths this weekend. But numbers will still be strong. He says inner city or large metropolitan area polling booths typically expect around '1500 to 2000 or 3000 people' across the election day. How many sausages will Aussie voters chomp through? 'For the 2022 (Federal) election, we estimate that the stalls across Australia made about $4.1 to $4.2 million, which translates to probably two and a half million sausages sold,' Mr Dawson said. 'And you know, 600,000 kilos of onions and goodness knows how many litres of tomato sauce and loads of bread or packets of buns. It is a massive undertaking.' So succinct is his team's national sausage breakdown, heavy retail hitters have come knocking for a heads-up on demand. 'We have actually had one of the supermarket chains reach out to us and say, 'Hey, can we have a list of where the sausage sizzles are so that we can have a look at who's ordered sausages and how many we've got in each area?'' he revealed. How much profit do sausage sizzles typically make? Surveying their list of registered stalls, Mr Dawson has unveiled what volunteer groups, schools or independent operations stand to make on the day. 'The baseline that we look at is between $1200-1500 profit, depending on how you manage your cost of goods that go into it,' he said. 'We have seen some outliers at $600 at a low level and $3600 at a high level in terms of actual profit from it.' Will there be other food offerings available across the State? According to 77 booths have registered their offering of bacon and eggs, with 22 slated to serve a halal alternative. Vegetarians across WA will find 28 stations tailored to satisfy them (as at 12pm May 2). For the snackers among us, 165 cake stands are expected, with 50 coffee stands registered. How does WA compare to the rest of Australia? Of the *2089 sausage sizzles being hosted nationally on election day, WA makes up 249, or 12 per cent of the total. NSW will be hosting the most BBQs with 730, with Victoria next at 513. Sadly for Northern Territory voters, only six polling booths will be serving democracy on a plate ... or napkin. By far the most densely populated democracy sausage region is Australia's pollie centre — the ACT — with 69 registered locations to feed a population of roughly 480,000 (inclusive of under 18s). Where is WA's most remote polling day BBQ? The most isolated voting centre in WA hosting a sausage sizzle is believed Newman Primary School in the Pilbara — more than 500km from the next polling booth. 'Newman is a long way from the next polling station with a sausage sizzle, which is Karratha Primary School,' Mr Dawson said. 'And then Broome has got a number of offerings at the Cable Beach Primary School,' with bacon and egg rolls in the morning, a cake stalled during the day, as well as sausage sizzles. Broome Primary School is also planning to fire up the hotplate. Fortunately, most of WA is covered. 'Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie both have sausage sizzles,' Mr Dawson said. 'And then there's another one down at Norseman. 'But then if you're heading towards Perth, Bruce rock would be the next one along before you hit the scarp on the way down to Albany. 'We've got them at East Narrogin, as well as at Tambellup and then we've got a couple in Albany as well, and then one or two in the Bunbury area, and then one at Busselton Primary School.' For any Rotto holidaymakers, there will not be a polling booth on the island so plan accordingly. Residents of Christmas Island, and Cocos and Keeling Islands will also need to prepare their snags at home with no registered BBQ's on voting day. Which electorate will host the most sausage sizzles? No one living in the Perth metro area will be 'more than 5km' from a cooked snag at any time on election day. However, voters lining up in the electorate of Curtin will have the most choices. The Division of Curtin includes City of Nedlands, City of Subaico, Shire of Peppermint Grove, Town of Cambridge, Town of Claremont, Town of Cottesloe, Town of Mosman Park, part of the City of Stirling, and part of the City of Vincent. But what if you're based outside of mainland Australia? Despite voting not being mandatory for those residing outside of the country, there's still hope to experience the sacred taste of democracy. Several embassies and high commissions worldwide offer Aussies the opportunity to fill their bellies from afar. 'I haven't double checked, but we've seen at least 20 going on in places such as Nairobi, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, New York, San Francisco, Geneva,' Mr Dawson said. 'We found out about one in Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia, as well as Japan, Samoa, Fiji. All of these places are offering sausage sizzles, either for people who vote early, as some of the Austrade and other locations will do, or on the day, some of them are offering phone voting to Australia, and so their sausage sizzles will also be on May 3.' They've even located what could be the coldest hot dog anywhere on Earth on Saturday. 'We've also received notice that the Australian Antarctic station, in Casey, in the Antarctic region, is doing a sausage sizzle on election day,' Mr Dawson said. 'So that will be quite something to warm people up in the global reaches of Antarctica.' For reference, the Casey research station is 3880 km from Perth. If based overseas and unsure what's cooking in your neighbourhood, check with your local expat group. Find your nearest Federal election sausage sizzle here . *All figures correct as at 12pm May 2.
News.com.au
26-04-2025
- Politics
- News.com.au
Democracy sausage: Huge question ahead of Election Day
As Australians prepare to cast their ballots and sausage sizzles fire up nationwide, a bigger debate could overshadow the election – do onions go over or under the democracy sausage? Surprisingly, one in three Aussies have voted in favour of a new sausage sizzle policy: onions first, sausage second, according to new research from Australian Onions. Before voters head to the polling booth, those lucky Melburnians among us will be given a chance to vote with their tastebuds first at a free sausage sizzle hosted at a location that is to be announced. In the meantime – some democracy sausage experts have weighed in on where the delicious flavour and the sweet aroma of caramelised onions fits in – layered on top or soaking into the bread beneath. Alex Dawson, from helps to run Australia's go-to site for tracking down local sausage sizzles on election day. As an official snag expert, Mr Dawson has revealed where he stands in the debate. 'Australia's democracy is powered by barbecues and the great onions debate transcends party lines,' he told NewsWire. 'Everyone has their own views, but I have to admit, I'm partial to onions underneath – they build a flavourful foundation and leave room for more sauce. 'Let's see how it sits with the millions of Aussies who will cast their vote on election day'. Mr Dawson said the democracy sausage is 'practically part of the constitution!' 'People associate ideas and memories with sights and sounds, and there's no better sight than seeing Aussie voters helping community groups while smelling delicious sausages and onions on a BBQ,' he said. The website had more than 2 million visitors in the 2022 election, and are already showing similar numbers this pre-election as voters flock to booths which have a sizzle nearby. Whether over, or under, Mr Dawson said onions are a major part of the equation to a good sausage sizzle. 'A sausage sizzle without onions would be un-Australian – the smell of the onions cooking and caramelising adds to the atmosphere and the taste in a way that just adding sauces can't.' TV Presenter, Recipe Developer, and Food Writer Jane de Graff agreed that onions are 'one hundred per cent' needed. 'Onions have a transformative power that really creates layers of flavour,' she told NewsWire. 'You might think of the sausage first, or even argue over the type of bread … But a BBQ isn't a BBQ until those onions hit the grill and that fragrance gets your mouth watering. 'If you could bottle that smell, it would be marketed as 'eau de barbecue' and we'd all love it.' Ms de Graff said that although food can be controversial, she is all about being 'no Judgement' when it comes to how other people enjoy their meals. 'There's no right or wrong,' she began. 'Food is how we express our individuality, our tastes, and how we connect with others. The great Democracy Sausage debate – onions over or under – has its pros and cons on both sides, but that's what makes it so much fun. 'At the end of the day, it's all about what makes your bite more delicious! Despite the debate, Ms de Graff said 'there is no question that it's (the democracy sausage) an iconic part of Aussie culture.' 'I've tried to explain it to friends from overseas, but they're mostly a bit puzzled about it,' she said. 'It's pretty interesting to have such a specific food ritual tied to voting like we do. 'But the democracy sausage is more than just a snack – it's a tradition that brings people together and it perfectly captures the Aussie spirit: community, connection, and a great feed while having your say.'
Perth Now
26-04-2025
- Politics
- Perth Now
Huge debate over Aussie tradition
As Australians prepare to cast their ballots and sausage sizzles fire up nationwide, a bigger debate could overshadow the election – do onions go over or under the democracy sausage? Surprisingly, one in three Aussies have voted in favour of a new sausage sizzle policy: onions first, sausage second, according to new research from Australian Onions. Before voters head to the polling booth, those lucky Melburnians among us will be given a chance to vote with their tastebuds first at a free sausage sizzle hosted at a location that is to be announced. In the meantime – some democracy sausage experts have weighed in on where the delicious flavour and the sweet aroma of caramelised onions fits in – layered on top or soaking into the bread beneath. Biggest debate on election day, do your onions go over or under? NCA NewsWire / Morgan Sette Credit: News Corp Australia Alex Dawson, from helps to run Australia's go-to site for tracking down local sausage sizzles on election day. As an official snag expert, Mr Dawson has revealed where he stands in the debate. 'Australia's democracy is powered by barbecues and the great onions debate transcends party lines,' he told NewsWire. 'Everyone has their own views, but I have to admit, I'm partial to onions underneath – they build a flavourful foundation and leave room for more sauce. 'Let's see how it sits with the millions of Aussies who will cast their vote on election day'. Mr Dawson said the democracy sausage is 'practically part of the constitution!' 'People associate ideas and memories with sights and sounds, and there's no better sight than seeing Aussie voters helping community groups while smelling delicious sausages and onions on a BBQ,' he said. Locals enjoy a sausage and bread. Credit: News Corp Australia The website had more than 2 million visitors in the 2022 election, and are already showing similar numbers this pre-election as voters flock to booths which have a sizzle nearby. Whether over, or under, Mr Dawson said onions are a major part of the equation to a good sausage sizzle. 'A sausage sizzle without onions would be un-Australian – the smell of the onions cooking and caramelising adds to the atmosphere and the taste in a way that just adding sauces can't.' TV Presenter, Recipe Developer, and Food Writer Jane de Graff agreed that onions are 'one hundred per cent' needed. 'Onions have a transformative power that really creates layers of flavour,' she told NewsWire. 'You might think of the sausage first, or even argue over the type of bread … But a BBQ isn't a BBQ until those onions hit the grill and that fragrance gets your mouth watering. 'If you could bottle that smell, it would be marketed as 'eau de barbecue' and we'd all love it.' Celebrity chef Jane de Graff says onions are a key part of a good sausage sizzle sandwich, whether over or under. Credit: Supplied Ms de Graff said that although food can be controversial, she is all about being 'no Judgement' when it comes to how other people enjoy their meals. 'There's no right or wrong,' she began. 'Food is how we express our individuality, our tastes, and how we connect with others. The great Democracy Sausage debate – onions over or under – has its pros and cons on both sides, but that's what makes it so much fun. Ms de Graff said no one should be judged for their food choices, as that is people express themselves. Credit: Supplied 'At the end of the day, it's all about what makes your bite more delicious! Despite the debate, Ms de Graff said 'there is no question that it's (the democracy sausage) an iconic part of Aussie culture.' 'I've tried to explain it to friends from overseas, but they're mostly a bit puzzled about it,' she said. 'It's pretty interesting to have such a specific food ritual tied to voting like we do. 'But the democracy sausage is more than just a snack – it's a tradition that brings people together and it perfectly captures the Aussie spirit: community, connection, and a great feed while having your say.'
