Research Note 15 2001-02

Australian Capital Territory Election 2001

Scott Bennett
Politics and Public Administration Group
12 February 2002

The fifth election for the fixed term Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly was held on 20 October 2001. Seventeen MLAs were elected by the Hare-Clark voting method. Two divisions had five members; one had seven members.

Party Changes

The parties had made major changes since 1998. Kate Carnell, prolific vote-winner and Liberal Chief Minister, (1995-2000), had left office under a cloud in October 2000. She was replaced by Gary Humphries, MLA since 1989. Of Humphries' Cabinet, the Minister for Health, Michael Moore, elected as independent, but invited into the ministry, decided not to re-contest.

In 1998 the ALP's vote of 27.6 per cent, its worst State or Territory result in over fifty years, prompted an internal party review. With the election in 1999 of Jon Stanhope and Ted Quinlan, as leader and deputy, and efforts made to reduce the influence of unions in the local party, Labor was attempting to present a new face to the electorate. To that end, the party chose its candidates 11 months before the election.

The Campaign

Humphries worked hard to suggest that his government was different from his predecessor's, even going so far as to distance himself from Carnell's so-called 'big ticket' items such as a controversial V8 car race. Carnell's resignation had been due largely to criticism over the Canberra Hospital implosion and the re-development of Canberra's major sporting stadium. Unfortunately for the Government, her resignation did not see a lift in its fortunes. Among the controversies dogging it were a blow-out in the Canberra Hospital budget, claims that the Government was too influenced by developers, and a long-delayed freeway that threatened green space in the city's north.

Labor had been devastatingly attacked over its spending proposals in 1998, and in 2001 it worked very hard to present a picture of a party that would govern responsibly. As part of this effort it presented an independent audit of its figures-though the Government attacked the independence of the firm that conducted the audit.⁽¹⁾ The success of Labor's steady approach seemed borne out by the final opinion poll, which showed the party holding a 14 point lead, although that seemed unlikely to produce the ACT's first majority government.⁽²⁾

As in the February 2001 Western Australian election, the Australian Democrats used their national leader as the focus for their campaign, and although the party presented a full list of policies, support seemed linked to voter liking for Senator Stott Despoja. Opinion poll support of 10 per cent suggested the success of the tactic. Such a result gave it a chance of winning at least two seats.

The ACT Greens also campaigned hard, with polls suggesting about eight per cent support. This might well mean the election of two MLAs, though only the sitting MLA, Kerrie Tucker, appeared certain of victory.

By contrast, the conservative independents, Paul Osborne and Dave Rugendyke, appeared to be in trouble in their respective electorates, as was former Liberal Chief Minister, Trevor Kaine, (1989-91), campaigning as an independent.

There was plenty of evidence that candidates had become used to Hare-Clark. Individual campaigns need to oppose rival parties while boosting the individual name within the party list. To that end, candidates flooded the media and letterboxes, and some reportedly spent in excess of $20 000 on their campaigns.

Perhaps because defeat seemed likely, Liberal attacks on Labor became stronger as polling day loomed. The Chief Minister referred constantly to the dangers faced by the coming to power of a 'Stanhope-Berry Government', trying to rekindle memories of unpopular former leader, Wayne Berry. Humphries also spoke of the 'disaster' of a possible Labor-Greens alliance, based on the Greens' 'disturbing policies' on drugs and police, and their 'total disregard' for principled economic management. Attorney-General Bill Stefaniak also claimed that burglaries could double under a Labor-Green alliance due to a likely watering-down of the Bail Act. Overall, the Government warned of the ACT being plunged into 'economic and social disaster' were Labor to win office.⁽³⁾

The Result

The Labor Party (41.7 per cent) won eight seats, with its highest vote since self-government. The three seats won in Brindabella were the first time a party has won three in a five-member division.

The Liberals (31.6 per cent) won seven seats. Among their new members was Steve Pratt, gaoled CARE worker in Serbia. A strong personal performance by the then Chief Minister enabled them to win three seats in Molonglo.

Kerrie Tucker won a third term in Molonglo for the Greens. In Ginninderra the Australian Democrats' Roslyn Dundas won her party's first-ever Assembly seat. At 23, Dundas is the youngest woman to win a seat in an Australian legislature.

As often occurs with the Hare-Clark system, there was a marked alteration in membership of the Assembly. Apart from Carnell's and Moore's resignations, four victors from 1998 (Hird, Kaine, Osborne and Rugendyke) were defeated; Carnell's replacement (Burke) also lost her seat. Six of the 17 members were newcomers. Six women won seats, an increase of four on 1998, and a record for the ACT, challenging the view that Hare-Clark discriminates against female candidates.⁽⁴⁾

On 12 November, the Legislative Assembly elected Jon Stanhope as the ACT's fifth Chief Minister; he formed the fourth Labor Cabinet as a consequence. As with all ministries since self-government, his would be a minority government, reliant on either Tucker or Dundas for the passage of legislation.

Source: ACT Electoral Commission

The defeat of the conservative independents, Osborne, Rugendyke and Kaine, indicated a rejection of their views and past actions, many of which had been controversial. It was difficult to see their rejection as the 'maturing' of the ACT electorate that some described,⁽⁵⁾ for the combined Labor/Liberal vote was only 73.3 per cent, well below the normal figure for Australian State and Territory elections. The two major parties have averaged only 69.9 per cent of the vote since 1992.

Electronic Voting

This was the first Australian election in which electronic voting technology was used. Electronic voting was conducted in four pre-poll centres and in eight specified polling places on polling day.

In the event, 45.5 per cent of people voted electronically where that was an option; 8.3 per cent of the final ACT votes were electronically cast.

All stages of the counting were handled electronically, including the full allocation of preferences. The overall reaction to the electronic voting experiment, closely watched by all other Australian electoral bodies, was positive.

Among the benefits noted:

• blind voters were able to cast votes without assistance, an Australian first

• a reduction of informal votes

• the counting was less prone to error than is usual, largely because of the accuracy of the data entry stage

• new software handled the full count with ease and speeded up the distribution of votes, and

• the declaration of the poll, 16 days after polling day, was a reduction of eight days on the 1998 count-though behind the 14 days of 1995.

With refinements in the voting arrangements, this type of delay is likely to be further reduced.

The minor problems included:⁽⁶⁾

• delays for some voters due to hardware difficulties

• brief periods of down-time at some polling places

• delays in the posting of polling day electronic votes

• a delay in the loading of pre-poll electronic returns, and

• a delay in the feed of figures to the tally room due to an overload on the web site.

The ACT Electoral Commissioner praised the system as more accurate than hand counting: 'The system worked wonderfully well for something that was designed within six months'.⁽⁷⁾

The Canberra Times had been an enthusiastic supporter of the experiment, and remained so, editorialising that, despite the difficulties, electronic voting had not failed the test, and, 'one should expect, is here to stay'.⁽⁸⁾

At a time when there is a great deal of international interest in electronic voting, discussion in Australia has been muted. The ACT may well be showing the way forward in this aspect of electoral administration.⁽⁹⁾

1. L. Armitage, 'ALP costings deficit-free', Canberra Times, 16 October 2001.
2. For these and other poll references, C. Hull, 'Labor's lead widening: latest poll', Canberra Times, 19 October 2001.
3. L. Armitage, 'Labor-Greens deal 'would be disaster' ', Canberra Times, 18 October 2001.
4. E. Macdonald, 'Kirner not so keen on Hare-Clark', Canberra Times, 20 September 2001.
5. C. Hull, 'Poll results show we're growing up in terms of our politics', Canberra Times, 20 October 2001.
6. S. Lucas, 'Despite glitches, electronic voting 'a success'', Canberra Times, 23 October 2001.
7. S. Lucas, 'Poll preference updates cruel: ALP secretary', Canberra Times, 2 November 2001.
8. 'Gremlins hit e-voting', editorial, Canberra Times, 23 October 2001, but see S. Mitchell, 'States say e-vote cost is too high', Australian, 13 November 2001.
9. See L. Manthorpe, 'Electronic Voting and Counting in the ACT Election', Department of the Parliamentary Library, Current Issues Brief, forthcoming.

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