BY
LISA MACDONALD
SYDNEY — Ask anyone on the street in NSW when the date
of the state election is and the odds are you'll get a blank look. This
isn't a reflection of people's disinterest in politics — after all, just
three weeks ago 500,000 Sydneysiders rallied against the Australian government's
support for a war on Iraq.
Rather, the general disinterest in the March 22 election reflects the
population's deep cynicism about “business as usual” politics in NSW, the
apparent stranglehold of the Premier Bob Carr's Labor Party on parliamentary
politics and the lack of any significant difference between the major parties.
The Coalition and Labor parties are quite aware of the growing disillusionment
of voters. The ALP has spent millions of dollars on a TV advertising campaign,
baffling establishment commentators who point out that the Coalition has
little chance of winning government, despite running its most energetic
campaign in eight years (a recent poll indicated that more than 60% of
voters still don't know the name of the opposition leader John Brogden).
The real threat to Labor's support base is the Greens. If there is a
spark of public interest in this election, it is because a new and progressive
player is set to make further gains in NSW. The Greens won their first
federal House of Representatives seat in the Cunningham by-election in
NSW just a few months ago and they won a second Senate seat, again in NSW,
in the last federal election.
With two NSW Legislative Council (upper house) members already — Ian
Cohen and Lee Rhiannon — the Greens seem to be on a roll. This momentum,
together with the decline of the Australian Democrats, and most recently
the Green MPs consistent and high profile opposition to the US war on Iraq,
has reinforced the party's position as the “real opposition” in parliamentary
politics.
The Greens in NSW are campaigning hard not only to get Cohen re-elected,
but to win at least one more upper house seat (Sylvia Hale). More significantly,
the Greens are aiming to win their first seat in the Legislative Assembly
(lower house). In the seat of Port Jackson, the Greens are standing Leichhardt
deputy mayor Jamie Parker against the extremely unpopular ALP incumbent
Sandra Nori. The most optimistic Greens members think they have a strong
chance of also winning the seat of Keira (in Wollongong) and even Marrickville,
in inner-Sydney.
The passage in 2000 of amendments to the NSW electoral act, which make
it extremely difficult for small, resource-poor organisations to contest
state elections has done its job. The list of candidates for the upper
house election — 15 registered parties above the line, and seven unregistered
groups/individuals below the line — is the smallest since 1991.
While most of the small right-wing parties, backed by establishment
money, made it onto the above-the-line upper house ballot (Shooters, Australians
Against Further Immigration, Fishing, Horseriding and Four-Wheel Drive
parties, One Nation and Pauline Hanson's group), the Socialist Alliance
and the Greens are the only left-wing organisations whose party name will
appear on the ballot paper.
Noticeably absent are the Communist Party of Australia, which is not
standing candidates, and the Progressive Labour Party (PLP), which is standing
three candidates as independents in the Newcastle area. The tiny Communist
League is standing Robert Aiken as an independent in the Sydney seat of
Lakemba.
In the spirit of left unity, the Socialist Alliance offered a “non-aggression
pact” with the PLP and decided to contest the seat of Charlestown, rather
than Newcastle, where the PLP's Harry Williams is standing, so as not to
split the socialist votes. However, the PLP went ahead and nominated Kate
Ferguson for Charlestown. It is standing Di Gibson in Wallsend.
Other generally progressive candidates in the upper house include Peter
Breen MLC's Reform the Legal System, which is also contesting some lower
house seats and, despite having little grassroots involvement in the anti-war
movement, has made strong statements against the war on Iraq and the attacks
on the Australian Muslim and Arab communities. The strictly single-issue
No Privatisation People's Party, a very small group, is contesting the
upper house only and says it wants to get elected “to put more pressure
on the major parties”.
Save Our Suburbs (SOS), a newly registered party in NSW, was, according
to the March 22 issue of its broadsheet Suburban Advocate, established
primarily to campaign for all private developer donations to all political
parties to be banned. It presents itself as a political voice for community
activists “protecting neighbourhood character, environment and heritage
values”.
While SOS grew out of important local campaigns against the loss of
green spaces and profiteering by private developers, such as at the former
Australian Defence Industries site in Sydney's outer-west, the group's
broadsheet reveals its right-wing trajectory. It laments the “ever-increasing
population” of Australia and advocates “incentives for immigrants to settle
in areas capable of accepting population growth”.
Under the NSW's new optional preferential voting system, individuals
may vote for just one candidate or party, or for more than one (that is,
they can distribute preferences to as many other candidates as they wish).
Parties' how-to-vote cards simply indicate to voters where the party would
prefer preferences to be allocated. Unlike in federal elections, parties'
how-to-vote cards do not indicate where each vote for them will automatically
flow if the party concerned is knocked out of the count. Only when the
individual voter votes for more than one candidate/party will their vote
flow on to their second, third etc. preference.
There has been no visible effort by the state government to educate
the public about the voting system and State Electoral Office staff say
that they expect a high proportion of informal votes as a result of the
confusion that will be created.
The Coalition and Labor parties are, in most seats, calling for a vote
for themselves only, aiming to minimise the number of votes that flow to
competing parties. The Greens have attempted to use their preference recommendations
to pressure the ALP in certain areas, recommending preferences to Labor
in most seats, but not recommending preferences to either Labor or the
Coalition in 12 key seats where they say the ALP government has “not performed”
around the issues of public education, developer donations, land clearing,
GE crops and old-growth forest protection. The question of whether the
Coalition would perform any better is left open.
In the upper house, the Greens are recommending preferences flow first
to SOS, then to the Socialist Alliance. In those lower house seats being
contested by both the Greens and Socialist Alliance, each is recommending
that voters preference for the other.
The Socialist Alliance is recommending that its preferences flow first
to the Greens and then the ALP in both the upper house and most lower house
seats it is contesting. In Charlestown, the alliance is recommending preferences
flow to the PLP candidate before the ALP.
In recommending preferences flow to the ALP, the Socialist Alliance
is making clear its opposition to the election of a Coalition government.
In those seats it is not contesting, the Socialist Alliance is recommending
a vote for the Greens.
With the prospect of an utterly unjust war against the people of Iraq
now looming large, the Socialist Alliance, supported by the Greens, is
also calling on all voters to transform polling day into a people's referendum
by writing the words “No war” along the top of both ballot papers.
[Lisa Macdonald in the lead candidate on the Socialist Alliance's upper
house ticket.]
From Green Left Weekly, March 19, 2003.
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