From the National Library of Australia:
It is clear now that the 2007 federal election can safely be adjudged as the first in which the Internet became not just the repository for information, but also a tool both to communicate policies with the public and to allow potential voters to in return interact in multiple ways with the parties and their candidates. It is impossible to say what effect this may have had on the electoral outcome, and assuredly as in previous elections not every voter would have visited an election website. However, the Internet is now and remains the only medium in which all those involved in elections are present. It is the only place that the general public can examine political parties’ policies as the days of the printed manifesto or policy brochure are long gone. It is also therefore the place of record and as such needs to be preserved. Democracy requires the political process to be open and accountable, maintaining an archive of online election documentation, media statements and policies therefore is a vital component of that process.
PANDORA Australia’s web archive (http://pandora.nla.gov.au) has been preserving websites since 1996. Every election since that date has been archived; the early ones on a basic level (for technological reasons) the later ones more comprehensively. Contributing content to PANDORA is the National Library of Australia, all mainland state libraries and the Northern Territory Library.
The 2007 federal election collection was the biggest thus far attempted. The National Library is responsible for archiving all national resources to do with the election, including party websites, lobby groups, some candidate’s sites, blogs, videos and media websites. The state libraries are responsible for collecting the candidate and party and local media websites in their respective states. Most of the sites named in this article were archived, except for Facebook, which whilst it may be seen to be a campaign tool, is also an essentially private networking and communication site and as such does not fall within the parameters of PANDORA selection criteria.