ALP 'Laberal' government for ACT

March 4, 1992
Issue 

By Sue Bolton

CANBERRA — It seems the ACT will have a minority Labor government when the counting's all done following the February 15 elections. Labor will probably have to rely on support from the Michael Moore Independent Group.

It appears the ALP will have eight seats, the Liberals six, the Abolish Self Government group one, and the Moore Independents two, though the counting won't be completed for several weeks yet.

The Canberra Times summed up the main sentiment of the political establishment with its February 1 headline: "Vote 1 Laberal stability". In a "debate" the previous day, the leaders of the Labor and Liberal tickets urged voters to return to the major parties.

Liberal leader Trevor Kaine summed up the ACT's three years of self-government: "To be honest, I believe that the Labor Party shared with the Liberal Party the commitment to good government for Canberra." Labor's Rosemary Follett said there was only one issue: stability.

When the territory got its first government in 1989 — a minority Labor regime under Follett — it immediately began cutting services, closing one of two public hospitals and several schools. A Liberal-dominated Alliance government replaced Follett after a no-confidence vote in 1990.

The Alliance duly proceeded with the closure of Royal Canberra Hospital, closed more schools and cut other services. In 1991, it was in turn replaced by Labor, which reopened a couple of schools but not the hospital and refused to reverse other Alliance cuts. Labor then slashed another 250 jobs from the ACT public service, hacked into TAFE courses and cut the graduate nurse program. Not surprisingly in view of all this, both Liberal and Labor focussed their campaigns on the personalities of Follett and Kaine rather than any policies.

Reflecting widespread discontent, there was also a big field of independents and smaller parties. The New Conservative Party was formed by a former Liberal member of the assembly who was dropped from the ticket after her conviction for tax fraud. The ACT Liberals got down to some serious internal brawling just before the elections.

Left of centre, the most successful group was the Michael Moore Independents, with policies similar to those of the Democrats. Moore was elected in 1989 as part of the Residents Rally ticket, but resigned from this group shortly afterwards to serve as an independent.

Launching his campaign, Moore described it as a "group of true independents ... None of the group sought to be in government after the election, and the members would not form coalitions, even amongst themselves."

Stephen Mugford, also a member of the group, said it "differed from a it was a collection of like-minded people who liked each other and shared common principles, but a party is a group of people who loathe each other but share a common lust for power". Many greens chose to support this group on the grounds that it had the most progressive candidates with the best chance of being elected.

Despite their progressive credentials, both the Moore group and the Democrats stumbled over the issues of jobs and "stable government". Both said the way to create jobs was to give handouts to private enterprise, an approach thoroughly tested in the '80s without any evident success if the current state of the economy is any indication.

Apparently spooked by the Laberal campaign for "stability", the Independents and the Democrats both dutifully promised not to support no-confidence motions against the government or to interfere with supply and appropriations bills.

The Democratic Socialists' first ACT campaign faced a media blackout. Under new federal election laws, advertising time was allocated in proportion to votes in the 1989 elections; Labor got 75 minutes, the Liberals 50, Resident Rally 30, and the No Self Government Party 25. Groups that didn't stand in 1989 got nothing. The socialists were also disadvantaged by a law requiring a list of 100 members, while members of the outgoing assembly could register parties without providing membership lists.

Despite these hurdles, Democratic Socialist Lara Pullin won around 650-700 votes, beating all the other independents and the Canberra Party. "This campaign was just a start, we'll be campaigning around a wide range of issues between now and the federal elections when we'll stand a full slate of candidates", said Pullin.

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