Federal Election 1998

By as little as 4800 votes the Greens (WA) have lost parliamentary representation in the Federal arena. The unpredictable decision of the right wing Christian Democrats to preference the number three candidate of the ALP ticket brought to a sad end an inspiring, innovative and eventful campaign by Senator Dee Margetts, the Senate Office Team and the Greens (WA).

In WA as in the rest of Australia the "minor" parties suffered from the political polarisation engendered by the GST, the possible victory of the ALP and the emergence of One Nation. Our Senate vote, however, increased from 5.68 to 5.74, while the Democrats vote plunged by well over two percent. Unlike the Democrats we held our own, seeing only a marginal decrease in our Lower House support from 5.31 to 5.05, maintaining our vote in most seats, and increasing in a number of key seats, such as Perth, Curtin and Moore.

Some of the drop in our lower house vote is attributable to the very tight election that was run, with the One Nation factor added in for good measure. It is significant that the seats where we had poor results (Brand, Canning and Cowan) were outer suburban areas in seats that had been targeted by the ALP. Each seat was a key seat for the ALP to win, and to do so they needed to minimise the drift of votes away from themselves.

Overall we went below 4% in only 3 seats (Brand, Cowan and O'Connor), with O'Connor, however, achieving the best result we have ever done for that seat. The Democrats went below 4% in 6 seats, and must now be re-evaluating their own strategies. Their overall House of Representative's vote fell over 1.6% to 3.97%, indicating they are no longer perceived as a viable alternative to either major party. In all seats except Cowan and Tangney, the Green vote was higher than the Democrat vote.

Though we should all feel a sense of great loss at Dee losing her seat. we should also remind ourselves of the many successes of this campaign.

The Greens achieved a balance between central and local campaigning that was so sadly missing in previous campaigns. Groups felt empowered to hit the hustings, and this never detracted from the task of re-electing Dee.

As with the 1996 State Election campaign we invested a great deal of time and money in electronic media, taking the Green message to audiences we have never reached before.

The professional approach to radio and television advertising allowed us to move smoothly from concept to reality in a remarkably short space of time. This surely helped maintain our vote.

In such a polarised election there was little more we could do.

One disappointing note was the number of members who were unable to help on Election Day. Having people hand out "How to Vote" cards makes a real difference. Just think that with only 12 more votes on each booth Dee would have been re-elected.

The Party is now engaged in a thorough review of the campaign that will help as we begin to organise for the next State and Federal Elections. In the next State Election the Greens (WA) have a real opportunity to increase the number of parliamentarians in the Upper House.

Many thanks should be given to all those who helped, especially the Greens (WA) Campaign Team and all the helpers on the day.