1999 Victorian state election
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All 88 seats in the Victorian Legislative Assembly and 22 (of the 44) seats in the Victorian Legislative Council | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Results in each electorate. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1999 Victorian state election, held on Saturday, 18 September 1999, was for the 54th
, which had held majority government since the 1996 election, lost 15 seats and its majority due mainly to a swing against it in rural and regional Victoria.The
Results
Legislative Assembly
Victorian state election, 18 September 1999[2][3] | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Enrolled voters | 3,130,338 | |||||
Votes cast | 2,826,467 | Turnout | 94.21 | +0.13 | ||
Informal votes | 72,800 | Informal | 2.58 | +0.28 | ||
Summary of votes by party | ||||||
Party | Primary votes | % | Swing | Seats | Change | |
Labor | 1,289,696 | 45.57 | +2.44 | 42 | +13 | |
Liberal | 1,194,998 | 42.22 | –1.77 | 36 | –13 | |
National | 135,930 | 4.80 | –1.69 | 7 | – 2 | |
Greens | 32,570 | 1.15 | +1.15 | 0 | ± 0 | |
Hope | 10,894 | 0.39 | +0.39 | 0 | ± 0 | |
One Nation | 8,181 | 0.29 | +0.29 | 0 | ± 0 | |
Democrats | 7,972 | 0.28 | +0.28 | 0 | ± 0 | |
Democratic Labour | 6,183 | 0.22 | +0.22 | 0 | ± 0 | |
Natural Law | 6,044 | 0.21 | –1.65 | 0 | ± 0 | |
Shooters
|
2,011 | 0.07 | +0.03 | 0 | ± 0 | |
Reform | 1,483 | 0.05 | +0.05 | 0 | ± 0 | |
Christian Democrats | 414 | 0.02 | –0.21 | 0 | ± 0 | |
Independent | 133,895 | 4.73 | +1.12 | 3 | + 2 | |
Total | 2,830,271 | 88 | ||||
Two-party-preferred | ||||||
Labor | 1,420,775 | 50.20 | +3.66 | |||
National
|
1,409,567 | 49.80 | –3.66 |
Legislative Council
The following voting statistics exclude the three mid-term by-elections held on the same day, at which two seats were retained by Labor and a third was gained by Labor from the Liberals.
Victorian state election, 18 September 1999[4] | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Enrolled voters | 3,130,338 | |||||
Votes cast | 2,909,727 | Turnout | 92.95 | –1.13 | ||
Informal votes | 97,949 | Informal | 3.37 | +0.79 | ||
Summary of votes by party | ||||||
Party | Primary votes | % | Swing | Seats won |
Seats held | |
Labor | 1,187,484 | 42.23 | +1.74 | 8 | 14 | |
Liberal | 1,116,347 | 39.70 | –4.17 | 11 | 24 | |
National | 204,587 | 7.28 | +0.65 | 3 | 6 | |
Democrats | 190,940 | 6.79 | +1.06 | 0 | 0 | |
Greens | 62,796 | 2.23 | +2.23 | 0 | 0 | |
Reform | 6,617 | 0.24 | +0.24 | 0 | 0 | |
Christian Democrats | 6,608 | 0.24 | +0.04 | 0 | 0 | |
Independent | 36,399 | 1.29 | +0.35 | 0 | 0 | |
Total | 2,811,778 | 22 | 44 | |||
Two-party-preferred | ||||||
Labor | 1,408,843 | 50.12 | +4.08 | |||
National
|
1,402,338 | 49.88 | –4.08 |
Maps
Seats changing hands
Seat | Pre-1999 | Swing | Post-1999 | ||||||
Party | Member | Margin | Margin | Member | Party | ||||
Ballarat East | Liberal | Barry Traynor | 0.1 | -3.7 | 3.7 | Geoff Howard | Labor | ||
Ballarat West | Liberal | Paul Jenkins | 1.4 | -2.4 | 1.0 | Karen Overington | Labor | ||
Bendigo East | Liberal | Michael John | 5.0 | -8.1 | 3.1 | Jacinta Allan | Labor | ||
Carrum | Liberal | David Lean | 0.8 | -1.0 | 0.2 | Jenny Lindell | Labor | ||
Frankston East | Independent | Peter McLellan *
|
3.1 | -7.7 | 4.6 | Matt Viney | Labor | ||
Geelong | Liberal | Ann Henderson | 3.5 | -3.5 | 0.03 | Ian Trezise | Labor | ||
Gippsland East | National | David Treasure | 15.2 | -22.9 | 7.7 | Craig Ingram | Independent | ||
Gisborne | Liberal | Tom Reynolds
|
7.8 | -9.4 | 1.6 | Jo Duncan
|
Labor | ||
Narracan | Liberal | Florian Andrighetto | 1.6 | -4.1 | 2.5 | Ian Maxfield | Labor | ||
Oakleigh | Liberal | Denise McGill | 0.8 | -4.1 | 3.3 | Ann Barker | Labor | ||
Ripon | Liberal | Steve Elder | 4.6 | -7.2 | 2.6 | Joe Helper | Labor | ||
Seymour | Liberal | Marie Tehan | 4.2 | -4.9 | 0.7 | Ben Hardman | Labor | ||
Tullamarine | Liberal | Bernie Finn | 3.0 | -6.8 | 3.8 | Liz Beattie | Labor | ||
Warrnambool | National | John McGrath | 13.8 | -22.7 | 8.9 | John Vogels | Liberal |
- Members listed in italics did not recontest their seats.
- The Liberal-turned-Independent member for Frankston East, Peter McLellandied on election day. A supplementary election was held in which Labor won.
- In addition, Labor won by-electionand retained it in this election.
- In addition, Independent Susan Davies won Gippsland West in a by-election and retained it in this election.
Campaign
The Kennett government entered the campaign with a substantial lead in the polls and was widely expected to win, some commentators even tipped the government to increase their already large majority.[5]
The Liberals ran a campaign centred on Jeff Kennett and the unusual jeff.com.au website. The presidential nature of the campaign was emphasised when the Herald Sun ran a damaging front-page story revealing that most Liberal candidates were gagged from speaking to the media.[6] The Coalition stuck to a message of focusing on its economic record, and promising modest increases in spending in schools, hospitals and police.[5]
In contrast Labor sought to tap into perceptions in rural Victoria that the Kennett government had neglected them. Both
Election day
On the afternoon of the election, while polling was being conducted, it was learned that Liberal-turned-Independent member for the marginal seat of Frankston East, Peter McLellan, had died of a heart attack. Polling was therefore aborted, with a supplementary election to be scheduled.
When the results started to come through, it appeared that there was only a modest swing in metropolitan Melbourne, even in the electorally volatile eastern suburbs, but there was a substantial swing to Labor in provincial and rural Victoria, traditionally a Liberal stronghold. Political analyst and ABC commentator Antony Green later wrote that "in the more than 35 elections I've been involved in, the 1999 Victorian election was the only one where I thought there was something wrong with the computer."[10]
When the Victorian Electoral Commission finished counting for the night, the result was still too close to call: Labor had made huge gains in the rural hinterland, but had failed to make much headway in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne where elections had historically been won or lost.
Frankston East and rural independents
Initial counting had the Coalition on 43 seats in the 88-seat chamber, Labor on 41 (including winning the seat of Geelong by just 16 votes), and the independents on three. Frankston East remained vacant pending the results of the 16 October supplementary election. As McLellan died on the day of the general election, voters in Frankston East had already cast votes before learning of McLellan's death. As McLellan died while the campaign was underway, the Victorian constitution required a supplementary election in the seat.
Regardless of who won in Frankston East, neither the Coalition nor Labor could form a government without the support of the independents, leaving them in a position to effectively choose the next premier.
On 16 October, the supplementary election resulted in a 7.71% swing to Labor, with its candidate
The next morning, Labor and the Independents signed an agreement which became public the following day. Although this allowed Labor to form government by one seat, Kennett's supporters urged the Coalition to force a last-ditch confidence vote on the floor of the Assembly. They believed that Savage, Davies and Ingram would be forced to publicly support Kennett. In truth, Savage and Davies felt that Kennett had given them short shrift during the previous term, and would not have even considered supporting any government led by Kennett. However, with the Liberals divided on Kennett's future role, Kennett resigned as premier and retired from politics.
Aftermath
Kennett's resignation became official on 20 October. Soon afterward, Bracks advised the
Labor won Kennett's old seat of Burwood in a by-election that December after he decided to retire from parliament. The following year they also won McNamara's hitherto safe seat of Benalla in another by-election, which brought them to 44 of the Assembly's 88 seats.
See also
- Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly, 1999–2002
- Members of the Victorian Legislative Council, 1999–2002
- Candidates of the 1999 Victorian state election
Notes
- ^ The supplementary election for Frankston East was held on 16 October 1999.
References
- ^ ISSN 0004-9522.
- ^ Hughes, Colin A. (2002). A Handbook of Australian Government and Politics 1985-1999. Sydney: Federation Press. p. 320.
- ^ Antony Green (June 2001). "1999 Victorian State Election - Summary of Results" (PDF). Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 5 July 2013.
- ^ Hughes (2002) p.321.
- ^ S2CID 153439196.
- ^ Bennett S. & Newman G., 'Victorian Election 1999', Australian Parliamentary Library Research Paper [1] Archived 2007-06-13 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Bennett S. & Newman G., 'Victorian Election 1999', Australian Parliamentary Library Research Paper
- ^ Megalogenis, George (2006). The Longest Decade. Melbourne: Scribe. p. 54.
- ^ "'I'll just sit here and drink my tea': Jeff Kennett's tense interview on ABC". www.abc.net.au. 10 October 2019. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
- ^ Comment by Antony Green at pollbludger ([2] Archived 9 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine, 8 May 2006, accessed 2 February 2010.
- ^ "Ministers of the Crown" (PDF). Victoria Government Gazette. Victorian Government Printer. 20 October 1999. p. 1999:S155 (Special).