Politics nerds rejoice/cry, for federal parliament is back. After a two month break our politicians have again descended upon Canberra for another year of incoherent yelling, citizenship clusterfucks and bipartisan torturing of refugees. It’s enough to turn even the deepest cynic into a proud patriot.

This year is set to be a big one. We’ve already had our first political resignation and defection, and the Prime Minister has big plans to turn Australia into a leading exporter of killing machines. There’s going to be a lot of politics happening in 2018, so we’ve put together this handy guide to help you stay abreast of it all.

By-Election After By-Election

First thing’s first: there’s going to be plenty of elections this year.

First up we have a by-election for the inner-city Melbourne seat of Batman, caused by the resignation of Labor MP David Feeney. Feeney lost the citizenship papers that apparently proved he wasn’t a UK citizen, and rather than waiting for the High Court to rule against him he fell on his sword, setting up a showdown between the Greens and Labor for the seat.

Labor has preselected the president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Ged Kearney, while the Greens are running Alex Bhathal, who came within 1 percent of winning the seat in 2016. The by-election has already led to Labor reconsidering its support for the controversial Adani coal mine. The Greens are running hard on Adani, and Labor knows that to maximise its chances of holding the seat it needs to take a more critical stance on the mine.

It’s an interesting example of how a political battle in Melbourne’s inner-city could end up shaping policy on a coal mine in Queensland.

Batman isn’t the only by-election on the cards for this year. The government is pressuring Labor MP Susan Lamb to quit over suggestions she is also a British dual-citizen. That would set up a contest in the Queensland seat of Longman, which Labor holds by less than 1 percent.

So far Lamb is holding out, but the government has threatened to use its majority in the House of Representatives to refer her to the High Court, potentially forcing her out of parliament. That means we could be looking at two by-elections in the lower house, triggered by citizenship drama, in the next couple of months.

Tasmania Is Heading To The Polls

The Tasmanian state election is less than a month away and is scheduled to be held on March 3.  Labor looks set to make some big inroads, potentially threatening the current Liberal majority government.

One of the big political fault lines in Tassie at the moment is over pokies. The Labor opposition has developed a policy to eradicate poker machines from pubs and clubs by 2023, but the Liberals are campaigning against the plan.

Even if the government loses its majority, Labor is unlikely to have the numbers to govern in its own right, setting up another potential coalition with the Greens. A Labor-Greens coalition governed Tasmania after the 2010 state election.

South Australia Is Also Up For Grabs

In one of the more interesting electoral contests on the agenda, the South Australian state election is set to be held on March 17. The sitting Labor government has been in power for a record 16 years and is facing a challenge from both the state Liberals and Nick Xenophon’s party, SA Best.

The Xenophon factor is what has turned a run of the mill election into something much more fascinating. The former senator quit federal parliament last year and announced his intention to run as a candidate for state parliament. His party is now polling more than 20 percent, throwing the whole race wide open.

SA Best is likely to pick up a few seats in their own right, but their preferences will also be crucial in deciding whether Labor or the Liberals get up in a raft of electorates. One poll even had SA Best receiving more of the vote than the Labor party, which would send shockwaves across the political sphere if it eventuated on election day. It’s definitely one to watch.

Don’t Forget About Victoria!

The last state up for grabs this year is Victoria. Their state election will be held on November 24 and it pits Daniel Andrews’ Labor government against the Liberal opposition headed up by Matthew Guy.

The biggest political issue in the state this year has been the entirely confected “debate” around supposed African gang crime. The Liberals clearly think that creating mass outrage about a problem that doesn’t really exist, and throwing in a hefty dose of racism on the side, is their ticket into government.

The polls show a pretty close race, but one thing worth paying attention to is whether the Greens can continue their march across Labor’s former heartland in the inner-city. Last year they won the seat of Northcote off Labor in a by-election and this election they’ll be hoping to win Brunswick and Richmond as well.

What’s Happening In Canberra?

The cool thing about Australian politics is that we literally talk about the same issues again and again, like we’re trapped in some kind of awful infinity loop of doom where are our only escape is praying that future-PM Barnaby Joyce somehow ends up woke.

By that I mean Australian politics in 2018 is going to look a lot like Australian politics in 2017.

We’ve already got citizenship drama, a senator sharing racist propaganda on Facebook and Labor being confused about its stance on the Adani coal mine. Good times all round.

There’s a slim chance we might have a federal election later this year, but it’s looking increasingly like the Liberals will hold on as long as possible. That’s because the polls show they’re almost certainly going to lose, so they’re probably going to hold on to power for as long as possible.

But who knows! Peter Dutton might roll Malcolm Turnbull and go to an early election on a platform of somehow being even crueller to refugees than we can currently imagine, wrong footing Bill Shorten and win in a landslide. If that sounds farfetched let me remind you that this is the country that elected Tony Abbott.

Enough said.