Big Green vote in Coburg
By Chris Slee
MELBOURNE -- Labor candidate Carlo Carli won the May 14 by-election for the state parliamentary seat of Coburg with 53% of the vote, up 3% from 1992, but the vote was not impressive in a working-class electorate which, in the past, has often given Labor an overwhelming majority. Of interest was the substantial vote for independent candidates, especially the Green candidate, Andrea Sharam.
The Liberals failed to stand, fearful of a big swing against them.
Sharam, an activist in the campaign to save the Upfield railway line, which has been threatened with closure by both the former Labor government and the current Liberal government, got 21% of the vote.
Sharam campaigned against public sector job cuts, and for the creation of “clean, green jobs” through an improved public transport system, energy conservation and “green manufacturing”. She told Green Left that the vote for the Greens “has heartened progressive people. It shows that change is possible ... It was a vote against both Liberal and Labor, whose policies are essentially the same.”
Independent candidate Sam Ganci got 23%. Ganci, the president of the Coburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry, called for improved public transport and campaigned against the Kennett government's job cuts and the $100 state deficit levy (“poll tax”). He also claimed to be involved in the campaign to save the Upfield line, though activists in that campaign do not remember noticing his participation.
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