Paul Douglas Williams

The Queensland Election of 17 February 2001: Reforging the Electoral Landscape?

The 2001 general election for the Queensland Legislative Assemblys fiftieth Parliament will stand as a watershed in Queensland electoral politics. The Beattie Labor government, elected with minority status in 1998, subsequently elevated to a majority of one later that year, and once again reduced to a technical minority at the end of 2000 amid the controversy generated by the Shepherdson Inquiry into allegations of vote rorting, managed not only to survive but to increase its vote in a record primary swing of 10.0% that reduced the non-labor parties to a rump (ECQ 2001). In taking 66 of the Assemblys 89 seats, the ALP achieved its greatest share of electorates since Forgan-Smiths 1935 landslide (Campbell 1996). This election was remarkable for several other reasons. First, it was the first poll since 1992 to return a majority government in Queensland; second, it second, it seemed eminently possible on election night that both the National Party leader, Rob Borbidge, and Liberal Party leader, David Watson, would lose their respective seats; third, a record number of women members (33, or 37%) now sit in the Legislative Assembly; and, fourth, the election saw a dramatic reduction in the hitherto-strong One Nation vote.

The Queensland election of 7 February 2004: the coming of the second labor hegemony?

It was posited in this journal in 2001 that Labor Premier Peter Beattie’s landslide at that year’s poll was a ‘critical’ election at which there occurred ‘more than minor modifications in the patterns of party support’ (Williams 2001, 371; see also Jaensch 1995, 101). It was also speculated that ‘[i]f, after three years, the ALP has retained its new found support base ... it can be assumed that Labor has indeed reforged Queensland’s electoral landscape’ (Williams 2001, 371). This commentary confirms this earlier speculation and argues that the Australian Labor Party’s (ALP) 2004 landslide—almost identical to that in 2001—has indeed seen a realignment in Queensland’s voting patterns. In suffering the loss of just three seats in a negative primary swing of 1.9% (ECQ 2004), the ALP, in taking 63 of the Legislative Assembly’s 89 districts, appears to have retained the faith of the majority of those disgruntled voters who deserted the Coalition in 2001. On this evidence, together with Beattie’s ongoing domination of the policy agenda and the non-Labor parties’ lacklustre opposition and continuing disarray, this commentary argues that Queensland has begun a second period of Labor hegemony. Yet the February 2004 election remains notable for other reasons. First, not since the days of Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s domination of Queensland politics has there been such a degree of inevitability as to the result. Second, this election was perhaps the least engaging of any in Queenslanders’ living memory: the campaign remained largely uneventful; no single issue dominated; and no single event threatened to change the result. Third, this campaign saw a sharp increase in pressure group activity that, in turn, shaped some of the major parties’ policy announcements. Last, there was some speculation at the commencement of the campaign that this poll would be, in practice, two elections and two ensuing sets of results: one in the south-east, the other in the ‘rest’ of Queensland. This perception is consistent with the often cited ‘two Queenslands’ thesis that argues that the State is an economic, political and cultural dichotomy (Holmes 1994).

yes, premier: Labor Leadership in Australia's States and Territories.

The focus of Yes, Premier is on the big names of state and territory Labor politics: Carr, Beattie, Bracks, Rann, Gallop, Martin, Stanhope and Bacon/Lennon. The book includes a chapter on each state or territory, and in each case focuses on the leader who has led their party to power and so created this unprecedented and historical situation.

The Greening of the Queensland electorate

The Greens at the 2004 Queensland State election almost trebled their primary vote from 2001, an increase suggesting the party has already filled the vacuum left by the declining Australian Democrats as the States principal Left-of-Centre minor party. This article argues, first, that much of this growth in support can be attributed to the substantial interstate migration to the States southeast, a pattern that has contributed to a partial transformation of Queenslands traditional political culture to one more disposed to Green support. Second, given that this growth is set to continue, it is argued that the Queensland Greens are yet to maximise their vote. This article analyses the 2004 Queensland State election results to determine the impact of Green preferences under the States Optional Preferential Voting (OPV) system, and to locate where geographically, and among whom demographically, Green support was strongest. A rudimentary profile of the ‘typical’ Queensland Greens voter is also offered.

Story-Telling in Lectures

Good teachers know real learning is not acquired through short-term memorisation or learning just enough to pass a quiz, with answers likely forgotten tomorrow (Warrall-Davies, 1999; Armitt, Slack, Green, & Beer, 2002). Effective teachers also know rote learning at best offers shallow or ritual knowledge, while genuinely acquired deep knowledge will be internalised to create personal understanding (Ivanitskaya, Clark, Montgomery, & Primeau, 2002, p. 101).

House Divided: The Australian General Election of 21 August 2010

The election for Australia’s 43rd Parliament on 21 August 2010 will long be recalled for several reasons. First, the election resulted in a hung House of Representatives – the first such outcome since 1940. The governing Australian Labor Party (ALP) won just 72 of the 150 House seats (a loss of nine) on a twoparty preferred (2PP) vote of 50.12% (a negative swing from 2007 of 2.58%). The Liberal and National Party Coalition (LNP) won 73 seats and 49.88% 2PP, while four independent MPs (an increase of one) were also elected. Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Vic.) became the first Green MP elected to the House of Representatives at a general election, while Liberal Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, WA) became the first Indigenous member of the lower house. Liberal Wyatt Roy (Longman, Qld), at 20 years of age, became the nation’s youngest federal MP. Second, this was the first federal election to have a woman leading one of the major political parties. After suffering declining public support throughout 2010, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Qld) was replaced on 24 June, without caucus ballot, by Julia Gillard (Lalor, Vic.). This election was therefore the first since 1993 where an elected prime minister was prevented from taking his party to an election, and the first occasion since 1916 on which a prime minister was removed by his own party before completing a single term. The factors behind this event are themselves of enormous scholarly interest. On her

Book Review: Lenin's Last Struggle

In the halting, spasmodic march of democracy, trade unions occupy a crucial place, affording for the first time a collective voice for the lowliest wage earners. They secured, however imperfectly, a seat at the table of capitalist power, and it was won only through protracted struggle. But whether that seat still exists or, if it does, whether it has any value for the represented workers, is problematic. There is an ongoing question here that remains unresolved, and it forms an underlying subtext for this book’s rationale. What is the appropriate role for a trade union in a capitalist economy? Is it an oppositional force that seeks to undermine from within and, if so, to what end? Is it a neutral mitigating power that seeks to negotiate better outcomes for workers who would otherwise be exploited more than they are? Or is it merely an integral (though not always welcome) part of the capitalist system that is, like the employers, competing for a share of contested resources in a marketplace? These questions are not new. Antonio Gramsci, writing in 1920, noted how union officials tended to become defenders rather than critics of the capitalist system, conceptualising industrial legality as a permanent state of affairs. The union bureaucrat gradually adopted the perspective of the business owner, seeing ‘only chaos and wilfulness in everything that emerges from the working masses. He does not understand the worker’s act of rebellion against capitalist discipline; he perceives only the physical act, which may in itself and for itself be trivial . . . in these conditions union discipline can only be a service to capital.’ These are precisely the issues and attitudes that Tom Bramble addresses in a timely account of the evolution and current state of trade unionism in Australia: What happened? Why did it happen? What is to be done? Certainly, Gramsci’s reading of Italian trade unionism has its parallel in contemporary Australia where class militancy has been significantly repressed through a political strategy which has concentrated power in the ACTU and trade union officials and bureaucrats. The incidence of strikes at an historic low has nothing to do with the elimination of friction and class conflict in the workplace, and much to do with the tacit alliance between union leaders and capital. It also explains why trade union membership has declined so dramatically. From this emerges a very real problem for the unions, and that is a lack of confidence among working-class activists, the anti-WorkChoices campaign notwithstanding. Of course, the unions themselves are not solely to blame. Over the past three decades, there has been a concerted campaign waged against the union movement and its very legitimacy, and this has been a fundamental part of the neo-liberal revolution that has sought, and largely achieved, a halt and reversal of the post-war downward redistribution of wealth. As Bramble demonstrates, industrial militancy has been good for the unions and beneficial for the workers. The successful metal trades campaign against absorption of over-award payments in the summer of 1968 ignited a wave of industrial action not seen since the mid-1940s. Not only did it challenge employers, governments, tribunals and courts, it also played a key role in pushing social attitudes to the left and provided the training ground for a new generation of social movement activists. What the strike wave did achieve was a massive redistribution of national income from capital to labour, ensuring that workers finally enjoyed more of the benefits of the post-war boom. It also saw a dramatic rise in union membership, up from 2.1 million in 1966 to 2.8 million a decade later (p. 70). Australian Journal of Political Science, Vol. 44, No. 3, September 2009, pp. 547–578