Department of the INFORMATION AND RESEARCH SERVICES Parliamentary Library Research Paper No. 11 2001–02 Commonwealth Election 2001 ISSN 1328-7478 Copyright Commonwealth of Australia 2002 Except to the extent of the uses permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means including information storage and retrieval systems, without the prior written consent of the Department of the Parliamentary Library, other than by Senators and Members of the Australian Parliament in the course of their official duties. This paper has been prepared for general distribution to Senators and Members of the Australian Parliament. While great care is taken to ensure that the paper is accurate and balanced, the paper is written using information publicly available at the time of production. The views expressed are those of the author and should not be attributed to the Information and Research Services (IRS). Advice on legislation or legal policy issues contained in this paper is provided for use in parliamentary debate and for related parliamentary purposes. This paper is not professional legal opinion. Readers are reminded that the paper is not an official parliamentary or Australian government document. IRS staff are available to discuss the paper's contents with Senators and Members and their staff but not with members of the public. Published by the Department of the Parliamentary Library, 2002 I NFORMATION AND R ESEARCH S ERVICES Research Paper No. 11 2001–02 Commonwealth Election 2001 Scott Bennett Politics and Public Administration Group Gerard Newman Andrew Kopras Statistics Group 19 March 2002 Acknowledgments The authors wish to thank Nola Adcock, Barbara Bennett, Sean Brennan, Gary Brown, David Clune, Frank Frost, Ian Holland, Rob Lundie, Cathy Madden, Leanne Manthorpe, June Verrier, Janet Wilson and the Australian Electoral Commission for their assistance in writing this paper. 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On the Internet the Department of the Parliamentary Library can be found at: http://www.aph.gov.au/library/ IRS Publications Office Telephone: (02) 6277 2778 Contents Major Issues ............................................................................................................................i Introduction ............................................................................................................................1 Part One: The Coalition is Returned to Office.......................................................................2 The setting..............................................................................................................................2 Election timetable..............................................................................................................2 Nominations ......................................................................................................................2 The contest for the House of Representatives........................................................................3 Labor's task........................................................................................................................3 The major players..............................................................................................................3 The state of the Government.........................................................................................3 Labor's cautious approach.............................................................................................4 The Government is saved? ................................................................................................5 On the campaign trail ........................................................................................................7 Policies ..............................................................................................................................7 Issues .................................................................................................................................9 The House of Representatives result....................................................................................13 The Government..............................................................................................................14 Liberal Party ...............................................................................................................14 National Party .............................................................................................................14 The challengers................................................................................................................15 Labor Party .................................................................................................................15 Country independents .................................................................................................17 Australian Democrats .................................................................................................18 Greens .........................................................................................................................18 Pauline Hanson's One Nation .....................................................................................19 The major party vote .......................................................................................................19 Informal voting................................................................................................................19 The Morgan Poll..............................................................................................................20 Local contests ..................................................................................................................21 The Senate contest................................................................................................................28 The major parties.............................................................................................................29 The minor parties.............................................................................................................29 Australian Democrats .................................................................................................29 The Greens..................................................................................................................30 Pauline Hanson's One Nation .....................................................................................30 The state of the Senate after 1 July 2002.........................................................................31 In retrospect..........................................................................................................................31 Appendix 1: Text-messaging ...............................................................................................32 Appendix 2: The passing parade..........................................................................................33 House of Representatives................................................................................................33 Table 1: Retiring Members.........................................................................................33 Table 2: Defeated Members .......................................................................................33 Table 3: New Members ..............................................................................................34 Senate ..............................................................................................................................34 Table 4: Retiring Senators..........................................................................................34 Table 5: Defeated Senators.........................................................................................35 Table 6: New Senators................................................................................................35 Women ............................................................................................................................35 Table 7: Women elected.............................................................................................35 Faces from the past..........................................................................................................36 Appendix 3: Did some journalists mis-read the campaign? ................................................37 Appendix 4: Criticism of the electoral system.....................................................................39 Endnotes...............................................................................................................................41 Part Two: Election Results...................................................................................................49 Symbols and Abbreviations........................................................................................49 Explanation of Tables ..........................................................................................................50 Table 8 House of Representatives: National Summary..............................................51 Table 9 House of Representatives: State Summary....................................................52 Table 10 House of Representatives: Regional Summary...........................................57 Table 11