By Lisa Macdonald Despite the large number of small progressive parties and independents contesting the federal elections on March 2, the vote for these alternatives was relatively low. The Australian Democrats, promoted by the establishment media throughout the campaign as the only serious alternative to Labor and the Coalition, won its largest share of the anti-two party vote since 1990. The Democrats almost doubled their vote in the lower house (3.75% to 6.5%) and in the Senate (5.3% to 10%), with the other candidates to the left of Labor picking up less than 10% between them. The Greens in particular fared poorly compared to pre-election expectations among party members, supporters and even the media. With eight state and federal parliamentarians and a more organised national structure, the Green parties entered this electoral contest stronger than they have ever been in Australia. The probable election of Australian Greens leader Bob Brown to the Senate ahead of the Democrats' Robert Bell will help to boost the Greens' parliamentary profile and confidence. The loss of WA Greens Senator Christabel Chamarette, however, leaves the Greens no stronger overall in federal parliament. The Australian Greens contested federal seats and the Senate for the first time this year in all states except Tasmania and NSW, and the ACT Senate. Direct comparisons with previous election results are therefore limited. Nevertheless, the 1996 results do give some insight into the progress of the Greens towards their goal of third party status and eventual "green government". In Tasmania, where a long history of environmental activism and Green Party participation in state parliament form one of the strongest bases for the Greens in Australia, the party's vote declined from 1993 in three of the five lower house seats. On average, the Tasmanian Greens' lower house vote dropped by 0.2%, most of this drop concentrated in the seat of Denison, which was previously contested by Bob Brown. The Greens' Senate vote, however, increased by over 1% and was 3.4% higher than in the 1990 federal elections. In NSW, the average lower house vote of the Greens was almost the same as in 1993 (it declined by less than 0.1%), but was substantially less than in 1990 when they averaged 5.8%. In the NSW Senate the Greens scored 0.4% better than in 1993 and 0.6% better than in 1990. In light of the 3.5% scored by the Greens in last year's state elections, which resulted in Ian Cohen being elected to the Legislative Council, this vote is unexpectedly low. The highest average Green lower house vote nationwide was won in the ACT. This result should, however, be balanced against the ACT Greens' Senate vote which, in contrast to Green Senate votes in other states, declined from 1993 by over half a percent. The widespread desire for some sort of progressive alternative to Labor and the Coalition, regardless of whether it is called the Greens or Democrats, is clearly illustrated in the minor party vote in the Northern Territory. In both houses in the NT, where the Democrats did not stand, the Greens' vote approached that of the Democrats elsewhere. When combined with the 3.2% won by Democratic Socialist lower house candidate Bernie Brian, the progressive vote in the NT exceeded the average vote of the Democrats in other states. In Western Australia, while the Greens' vote was substantially less than the 8.4% that got Christabel Chamarette elected in 1990, their Senate vote increased (by 0.2%) from 1993. In the lower house, however, the WA Greens' average vote declined by 0.56%, increasing (by less than 1%) in only four of the 14 seats.
Federal Green party vote, March 2, 1996 State Senate House of Reps Seats Contested ACT 5.5% 8.3% 3/3 NSW 2.5% 4.0% 29/50 NT 6.4% 6.8% 1/1 Qld 2.2% 2.9% 21/26 SA 1.9% 2.7% 12/12 Tas 8.2% 5.8% 5/5 Vic 2.8% 3.3% 20/37 WA 5.7% 5.0% 14/14 National 4.4% 4.8% 105/148
One of the newcomers which has been watched with interest by many activists since its formation in mid-1995 is the Australian Women's Party. The AWP stood five lower house candidates (four in Queensland), and in the Senate in NSW, WA, SA and Queensland. The party averaged only 1.6% in the lower house and 0.7% in the Senate, where its vote ranged from less than 0.5% in NSW to 1% in WA. Among the other progressive parties to contest the elections, the Democratic Socialists, who contested 11 Lower House seats nationwide, averaged 1.3% of the vote with the highest votes in the NT (3.2%), Cunningham in NSW (2.4%) and Canberra (2.2%). The Australian Indigenous People's Party, which contested 25 of the 26 seats in Queensland, averaged 0.63% in the lower house and 0.2% in the Senate. The No Aircraft Noise party, formed in inner suburban Sydney in 1995 out of the campaign against the third runway at Kingsford Smith Airport, entered these elections with high expectations. In last year's state elections, NAN averaged 16.7% of the vote across the six worst affected seats, and scored 1.1% in the Legislative Council. On March 2, however, despite an attempt to maximise its vote via preference deals with both major parties, NAN averaged only 6.4% across four seats. In the Senate it scored less than 0.5%. The persistently small and fairly static vote for the minor progressive parties indicates that most people still do not perceive viable possibilities for an alternative to the major parties. They are still opting to limit the damage that they know the capitalist parties will cause by taking out an "insurance policy" with the Democrats rather than take the risk of an outright rejection of the two-party status quo. If this is true for the small progressive parties, the unceremonious dumping of progressive independent Phil Cleary in the seat of Wills, and the very low vote for other similar candidates around the country, indicate that independents are seen as even less of an option today than in previous years. Whatever the political and ethical virtues of Cleary the individual, Cleary the independent, like nearly all independents in parliaments, was singularly ineffective.