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Australia
At Stake: Parliament
Background
Prime minister John Howard has headed the federal administration in Australia since March 1996, assembling a coalition encompassing his Liberal Party (LP) and the National Party (NP). Immigration and security were the key issues in the 2001 parliamentary ballot, held eight weeks after the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington.
In 2003, support for the ruling Liberals/Nationals decreased after opposition lawmakers alleged that the government directly participated in the jailing of Pauline Hanson, founder of the One Nation party. Industrial relations minister Tony Abbott admitted to setting up a slush fund to finance legal action. Hanson was sentenced to three years in prison for electoral fraud on Aug. 20, 2003, but was released on Nov. 7 after the conviction was overturned.
In 2004, Howard counted on an impressive economic record—highlighted by a 5.6 per cent unemployment rate—to remain in government.
Mark Latham became the new leader of the opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP) in December 2003. Latham has proposed holding a new nationwide plebiscite on whether the country should have a directly elected head of state. A 1999 nationwide referendum resulted in a victory for the pro-monarchy side with 55 per cent of all cast ballots.
Under Australia's preferential voting system, electors indicate an order of predilection for each contender, and the ballots from smaller parties are re-distributed. In order to form the next government, Labor would have to pick up 13 new seats in the House of Representatives.
On May 11, treasurer Peter Costello presented the government's annual budget. The document called for tax breaks totalling $10.2 billion U.S., and forecast an economic growth of 3.5 per cent in 2004.
The war in Iraq was also a point of debate. Australia originally committed 2,000 soldiers to the coalition effort, but had about 850 troops in the Persian Gulf at the time of the 2004 election. Paul Moran, a cameraman for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, had been the only Australian fatality of the conflict. Moran was killed by a suicide bomber while on assignment in northern Iraq.
In May, Latham declared that, if he were able to form a government after the federal election, he would bring all Australian troops home by Dec. 25. Howard maintained that the soldiers should remain in Iraq until the job is done.
In June, Peter Garrett—the former lead singer in rock group Midnight Oil, who has been active in environmentalist causes, and has acted as president of the Australian Conservation Foundation—accepted to become the ALP's nominee in the Kingsford-Smith constituency.
In early July, Australian politics were dominated by a series of abuse allegations regarding Latham. The opposition leader claimed the insinuations came from what he called the government's "dirt unit," a charge prime minister Howard denied.
On Aug. 3, United States president George W. Bush signed the free trade agreement between the U.S. and Australia. Latham has pledged to block the deal unless the government ensures that medicine prices will not increase. The Australian Senate must still approve the accord.
2004 Parliament Election
On Aug. 29, Australian prime minister John Howard called a parliamentary election for Oct. 9. During a press conference at Canberra's Parliament House, Howard said he expected the ballot to revolve around the question of trust, saying, "Who do you trust to keep the economy strong and protect family living standards? Who do you trust to lead the fight on Australia's behalf against international terrorism?"
In August, Howard was the target of criticism for his past behaviour regarding the so-called "Children Overboard" affair. On Oct. 7, 2001, just days before the parliamentary ballot, the Australian government claimed that disturbing actions had taken place in a boat filled with asylum-seekers. Various reports alleged that adults in the vessel threw children into the Indian Ocean.
After the election—which resulted in a new mandate for Howard's coalition of Liberals and Nationals—the government admitted that the initial claims on the matter were unsubstantiated.
In August 2004, Mike Scrafton—a former advisor to then-defence minister Peter Reith—said that he spoke directly to Howard before the election, and told him that video images of the incident "certainly didn't provide any evidence supporting the claim that children were thrown overboard." The prime minister has repeatedly stated that he was not aware of any inconsistencies until after the vote took place.
Australian Labor Party (ALP) leader Mark Latham echoed Howard's election message, saying, "I can agree with the prime minister in saying that the election is about trust. If people don't trust this government any more, it's with good reason. It is a government that's been dishonest for too long."
A late August Newspoll/The Australian survey placed the ruling coalition with a three per cent lead in overall voting intention, while trailing the ALP by four per cent in the two-party preferred vote category.
On Sept. 9, a car bomb exploded outside Australia's embassy in Indonesia, killing at least nine people. Prime minister Howard said Australia "is not a nation that is going to be intimidated by acts of terrorism." Opposition leader Latham stated that those "responsible for this attack are evil and barbaric and must be dealt with as harshly as possible, as quickly as possible."
After the bombing briefly halted campaign activities, the top candidates faced off in a televised debate on Sept. 12. Latham argued that Australia had become a target of international terrorism as a result of its involvement in Iraq, while Howard stated that the country's capability to deal with militant groups in Southeast Asia had not been impaired.
A mid-September Newspoll/The Australian survey gave the ruling alliance a six per cent advantage in overall voting intention. In the two-party preferred vote category, the coalition and the ALP were tied at 50 per cent. One Nation party founder Pauline Hanson announced that she would run for the Senate as an independent candidate.
On Sept. 15, Australia sent a logistics team to Iraq to verify reports of an apparent hostage-taking. Latham accused the government of "putting political interests ahead of the national interests, playing politics instead of doing the right thing by this country's security." Howard denied that the move had breached the country's caretaker conventions—which come into effect when an election is called—saying the policy "does not require you to talk to (the opposition) every minute of the day."
Surveys released on the second half of September suggested a tight contest. An AC Nielsen/The Age poll put the coalition ahead in both overall voting intention and two-party preferred vote. In Newspoll/The Australian and Roy Morgan Research studies, the ruling coalition led the ALP in voting intention, but trailed the opposition party in preferred vote.
On Sept. 22, Latham presented his party's $706 million U.S. proposal to revamp public hospitals. The ALP leader declared that the parliamentary election would be "a referendum about the future of health care in this country." Howard criticized the plan, saying, "There is nothing of a net gain in this."
On Sept. 26, Howard presented the coalition's $ 4.2 billion U.S. election platform, which includes an overhaul of technical education programs and funding increases for schools.
Federal Voting Intention
(Surveys conducted from Sept. 30 to Oct. 3, 2004)
First Preference Votes |
|
|
|
Coalition (Liberal / National) | 46% | 41.5% | 48% |
Australian Labor Party | 39% | 40.5% | 39% |
Two-Party Preferred Vote | |||
Coalition (Liberal / National) | 50.5% | 48.5% | 52% |
Australian Labor Party | 49.5% | 51.5% | 48% |
Voting went on without any major problems on Oct. 9. Preliminary results announced by the Australian Electoral Commission after 77.7 per cent of the vote was tallied, showed the ruling coalition of Liberals and Nationals ahead in the two-party preferred vote category with 52.4 per cent, with the Australian Labor Party in second place with 47.6 per cent.
ALP leader Latham congratulated the prime minister and conceded defeat, saying, "Tonight was not our night." Howard claimed victory, saying, "We are happy, we are joyful that the verdict has been given by the Australian people but never forget the fact that governments are elected to govern not only for the people who voted for them, but also for the people who voted against them.''
The coalition elected 87 lawmakers to the House of Representatives, while the ALP secured 60 seats. Three independents complete the lower house. In the Senate, the coalition won 21 seats, pushing their total to 39 lawmakers. Howard is the first prime minister with a majority in the upper house since 1981.
Political Players
Queen: Elizabeth II
Governor-General: Michael Jeffery
Prime minister: John Howard - LP
Legislative Branch: The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia has two chambers. The House of Representatives has 150 members, elected to three-year terms in single-seat constituencies with a system of preferential voting (or transferable vote). Electors assign numbers for each contender on the ballot, and the winning candidate is the one with the majority of the vote. The Senate has 76 members elected by proportional representation; 72 state senators are elected to a six-year term, and four territorial senators are elected to a three-year term. Half of all state senate seats are renewed every three years.
Results of Last Election:
House of Representatives - Oct. 9, 2004
Two-Party Preferred Vote
Vote% | |
Coalition Liberals / Nationals | 52.75% |
Australian Labor Party (ALP) | 47.25% |
First Preference Votes
Vote% | Seats | |
Coalition Liberals / Nationals | 46.70% | 87 |
Liberal Party of Australia (LP) | 40.47% | 74 |
National Party of Australia (NP) | 5.89% | 12 |
Country Liberal Party - | 0.34% | 1 |
Australian Labor Party (ALP) | 37.63% | 60 |
Australian Greens (AG) | 7.19% | -- |
Family First (FF) | 2.01% | -- |
Australian Democrats (AD) | 1.24% | -- |
One Nation (ON) | 1.19% | -- |
Christian Party (CDP) | 0.62% | -- |
Citizens Electoral Council (CEC) | 0.36% | -- |
Socialist Alliance | 0.12% | -- |
New Country Party (NCP) | 0.08% | -- |
liberals for forests (lff) | 0.07% | -- |
No GST | 0.07% | -- |
Ex-Service, Service & Veterans Party | 0.04% | -- |
Save the ADI Site Party | 0.03% | -- |
Progressive Labour Party (PLP) | 0.03% | -- |
Outdoor Recreation Party | 0.03% | -- |
The Great Australians | 0.02% | -- |
The Fishing Party | 0.02% | -- |
Lower Excise Fuel and Beer Party | 0.02% | -- |
HEMP | 0.01% | -- |
Non-Custodial Parents Party (NCPP) | 0.01% | -- |
Democratic Labor Party (DLP) | 0.01% | -- |
Nuclear Disarmament Party (NDP) | 0.00% | -- |
Aged and Disability Pensioners Party | 0.00% | -- |
Independents | 2.44% | 3 |
Senate - Oct. 9, 2004
Vote% | Strength | |
Coalition Liberals / Nationals | 45.09% | 39 |
Liberal Party of Australia (LP) | 17.65% | 33 |
National Party of Australia (NP) | 1.37% | 6 |
Country Liberal Party - | 0.35% | |
Combined lists | 25.72% | |
Australian Labor Party (ALP) | 35.02% | 28 |
Australian Democrats (AD) | 2.09% | 4 |
Australian Greens (AG) | 7.67% | 4 |
Family First (FF) | 1.76% | 1 |
