BY MARCEL CAMERON AND JOE KIM
MELBOURNE — Country Victoria hasn't finished taking revenge on the Liberal and National parties just yet, as was shown by the election of Labor candidate Denise Allen in the May 13 by-election for the state seat of Benalla.
The seat used to belong to National Party leader Pat McNamara and was one of the safest in the state: in 1992 he won it with a 72% majority. On May 13, Allen won the seat with an 8% swing against the Nationals.
A dramatic loss of rural and regional votes was the main reason for the defeat of Jeff Kennett's state government in October. Country Victoria had borne the brunt of Coalition "economic rationalism", including privatisation, cuts to public sector employment and the closure of public schools, hospitals and government services.
Allen's election makes Labor's precarious hold on government more secure. Premier Steve Bracks now requires the support of only one of the three independent candidates elected in October to rule.
Despite the swing towards it and a honeymoon with Victorians, whose expectations were lowered by seven years of Kennett savagery, Labor holds out little promise for a regeneration of country areas. Its October election campaign concentrated on "a new style of leadership" and its modest spending initiatives in health and education will not reverse or heal the damage done under the previous government.
Bracks' priorities seem identical to his predecessor's. A $1000-a-head Labor fundraising dinner, for example, attracted many of the Coalition's business mates who had been favoured with contracts to build casinos, freeways and the Grand Prix race track. It's business as usual in Victoria.
Bracks has also promised to maintain a tight reign on public expenditure and budget surpluses, and has given assurances that there will be no significant reversal of the privatisation of electricity, prisons, roads and public transport. Promises to restore regional railway services have already been forgotten.
As conservative columnist Andrew Bolt noted with satisfaction in the May 22 Herald-Sun, "Steve Bracks is turning out to be a thoroughly decent bloke who isn't the spendthrift some feared".
The Benalla by-election vote has federal implications, too — much of the vote was punishment for federal Coalition policy, on the GST and Telstra privatisation, for example.
The Coalition's defeat also confirms that the National Party is yet to shore up its eroding support among its traditional constituency of farmers and small business owners in the country. While that erosion favoured One Nation in NSW and Queensland, in Victoria, where One Nation never consolidated, the swing has favoured Labor.
Encouraged by the Benalla by-election, Labor is trying to capitalise on the backlash against the conservative parties in rural and regional electorates by marketing itself under a new brand name, "Country Labor".
The new name aside, the substance of Labor's pitch to rural voters has not changed. It combines token opposition to those aspects of Coalition policy that are unpopular in the bush with assurances that it will follow a conservative program.