BY ANTHONY BENBOW
PERTH — After eight years of attacks on workers' rights and living standards Western Australian Premier Richard Court's Coalition government is no more, swept from office by a backlash against its increasingly obvious corruption, and pro-corporate policies.
The state Labor Party, led by Geoff Gallop (Oxford-educated and a good mate of British PM Tony Blair), was rated an outside chance in the polls, but gained an unprecedented 14 seats, giving it a majority of four. It is also likely that Labor will control the Legislative Council with the help of the Greens (WA).
Some Coalition losses were sweet revenge. Graham Kierath, the minister responsible for the hated second and third wave anti-union laws was defeated. Doug Shave, who allowed the finance broking industry to "lose" millions of dollars of retirees' savings lost his seat to Liberals for Forests candidate Janet Woollard.
The Labor Party also won country seats such as Albany and Geraldton that it had not held for decades. However, it lost the long-held goldfields seat of Kalgoorlie because of a racist scare campaign by the Liberal Party, which blamed the slump in mining and exploration on Labor Party-introduced native title laws.
For some, the Labor victory has been overshadowed by the success of Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party, which managed to tap voter discontent and gained parliamentary representation in WA for the first time. One Nation won three seats in the Legislative Council.
However, the Greens (WA) also did well. They are expected to have five or six seats in the Legislative Council. The Australian Democrats were wiped out, losing their two upper house members. Ex-Liberals Phil Pendal and Liz Constable, former Labor MP Larry Graham and Janet Woollard from Liberals for Forests also won seats in the Legislative Assembly.
Socialist candidates received modest results. Because WA's new electoral laws make it difficult to register new parties, the names of socialist candidates were listed on the ballot paper without their party names. Democratic Socialist Party candidate Roberto Jorquera won 0.6% in the seat of Perth with the other DSP candidate Anthony Benbow achieving a similar result in Fremantle. In Maylands, Socialist Party candidate Neil Gray, whose name headed the ballot paper, won 1.2% of the vote.
One Nation's 9.5% vote has to be put in perspective though. Its election propaganda featured Hanson draped in the Australian flag. In addition to One Nation's usual racist attacks on "wealthy" Aboriginal people and "parasitic" migrants, it proposed a curfew for children under 16, harsher penalties for crimes as part of its "law and order" and "back to the family" policies, and posed as the only true fighter against globalisation and environmental destruction. Hanson spent the last week of the campaign in rural WA.
The WA election result was significant for the fact that nearly 30% of voters voted for candidates or parties other than the ALP and the Coalition. This was the lowest combined vote for the Liberal, National and Labor parties in at least 50 years.
The swing against the Coalition government was 8.5% but the ALP only benefited from 2.5% of the swing. Most seats were decided on preferences.
Court claimed that One Nation's policy of preferencing sitting members last was the major reason for the ALP's success. However, One Nation preferences were not the only factor. The increased vote for the Greens (WA) was also important.
Unlike the Australian Democrats who ran open tickets, the Greens (WA) called for a "change of government" and directed their preferences to Labor. In urban areas the Greens (WA) vote exceeded the One Nation vote in a majority of seats, with Greens Fremantle candidate Ian Alexander receiving their highest result, almost 20%.
While One Nation's average statewide vote of 9.5%, with up to 20% in some electorates, is slightly higher than their WA vote in the 1998 federal election, the Greens (WA) increased their vote from around 5% in 1998 to 7.5% this time. The Greens are thus likely to retain their three existing Legislative Council members Christine Sharp, Giz Watson and Jim Scott and gain two extra upper house seats. Greens candidates Robin Chapple and former federal senator Dee Margetts are likely to win their seats.
Also, WA's gerrymander means that country voters' votes are worth more than city votes. Metropolitan electorates usually have double the number of voters that country area electorates have. This rural gerrymander benefited One Nation and the National Party, which will retain five of its six Legislative Assembly seats.
Logging of old-growth forests was a major election issue, with the Wilderness Society and other environment groups running a slick "vote for the forests" campaign. The Labor Party responded by promising in mid-campaign to halt all old-growth woodchipping immediately if elected. The "vote for the forests" campaign then evolved into a "vote Labor (or Green)" campaign.
The Labor Party's stance on old growth forests drew an angry response from timber workers in rural seats, and accusations of betrayal by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union which is led by the ALP right faction heavyweight Kevin Reynolds. Reynolds and Gallop are in different ALP factions.
In addition, Unions WA secretary Tony Cooke has threatened to campaign against the ALP if it does not outlaw individual contracts in the workplace. The Labor Party's industrial relations policy allows for "employer-employee agreements" to be retained.
While the end of the Court government is a welcome victory for working people in WA, we should not let Gallop off the hook. The WA ALP still supports mandatory sentencing and individual workplace contracts.
Gallop has already been placed under pressure by big business with oil company BP threatening to shut its refinery and leave WA if the ALP presses ahead with changes to retail petrol marketing.
At BHP Iron Ore in WA's Pilbara region, an embattled workforce is gearing up for the next round in the battle to save their rights and job conditions. Facing the workers is the company which started the war on them more than a year ago. Both sides believe that the ALP will back them up.
WA people voted didn't just for an end to Court government, but also for an end to the policies of cutbacks, privatisation, corporate handouts and attacks on workers' rights.