AK's Australian Election Series - 1991

[Wake Me Up When The Hard Border Ends]

1988, from a purely analytical view was one of the most interesting elections yet - Natural Law outpolled Labor by 6%, although given the nature of the Australian voting system, received less seats in the House of Representatives. The NCP also took a hit to Joh's Patriotic Front, losing over 8% of the vote, while the Patriotic Front picked up 6%, notably hurting both the Progress and NCP. The Australia Party made modest gains votewise, the Progress Party remained stagnant, and the Communists managed to only pick up 2.3% of the vote - perhaps a sign that communism really was sinking in popularity, despite the Gorbachev-inspired slogan used at the election. The balanced budget referendum also failed by a margin of 48.27-51.73. The House result, as will be discussed in more detail, was almost a mirror image in a sense:

Summary of 1988 election:

House of Representatives
Labor – 50 (+4)
Progress – 39 (+1)
National Country – 26 (-1)
Australia Party – 14 (+2)
Natural Law – 13 (+11)
Patriotic Front – 6 (+6)
Communist – 3 (+2)

Senate
1985: 9 Progress, 7 Labor, 6 National Country, 6 Natural Law, 4 Australia Party, 1 Communist
1988: 10 Progress, 10 Natural Law, 6 Labor, 6 Australia Party, 5 National Country, 2 Patriotic Front, 1 Communist
Total: 19 Progress, 14 Natural Law,12 Labor, 11 National Country, 10 Australia Party, 2 Communist, 2 Patriotic Front

Two-party preferred vote: 50.85-49.15

In the new 151-member House, the incument Progress and NCP government won 65 seats between them. In the old house, this would have made for a majority of 4. Now, the government was 11 seats short of a majority, on the opposition side, Labor and Natural Law were 13 seats short of a majority themselves, winning 63 seats. With a party on the extreme fringes of each side of politics, the Communists and the Patriotic Front respectively, and the Australia Party holding the balance of power between the two "blocs" with 14 seats in the House, negotiations began to form the next government of Australia.

Don Chipp, leader of the Australia Party since 1981, stated that compromises will have to be made, particularly with both blocs requiring Australia Party support to pass legislation in the Senate, as well as the House. After two weeks of negotiations, Don Chipp announced that his Australia Party would back a Bob Hawke-led Labor government, along with Natural Law support. Chipp cited the failure of the balanced budget referendum as "a sign that Australians have tired of the extreme hands-off economic policies of the Progress Party", as one of the reasons for backing Labor. While neither party would enter into a formal coalition with Labor, a government accord was devised for the next parliamentary term.

The accord for government, released on the 23rd of May, 1988, went as follows:

• Creation of a Natural Disaster Fund.
• Income taxes to rise on the middle and upper classes, with a new top rate of 50%.
• Abolition of the Privy Council.
• A new federal tax on petrol of three cents on every litre, all revenue raised will go to infrastructure development.
• New taxes on capital gains and fringe benefits.
• No further expansion of nuclear power plants.
• Significant stimulus packages to aid in the wake of the previous year's stock market crash.
• No developments to occur on the Great Barrier Reef.
• Foundation of a committee on electoral reform.

While there would be outrage from conservatives around Australia, particularly as the right won the national two-party preferred vote, with 50.85% of the vote, the first Labor-led government since 1976 took office as expected. In the aftermath of the election, former PM Peter Reith stated he will stay on as Progress leader, subject to a leadership spill. Reith ended up losing to John Hewson, against the likes of John Howard, Michael Wooldridge, Philip Ruddock and John Hyde. Reith stated he will remain in Parliament, and hopefully chosen in Hewson's shadow cabinet. In the NCP, Sinclair was returned as leader easily.

While the Olympic Dam still opened for operation as scheduled, in June of 1988, new PM Hawke stated that "there will be no further expansion of uranium mining in this term of government". Despite this stance, Natural Law leader Bob Brown as not pleased - this did not go far enough for him, although given the alternative, the Australia Party propping up the former Progress/NCP government, Brown stayed quiet for the time being. The Natural Disaster Fund was promptly passed in both houses in July of 1988, due to come into effect next financial year, along with the proposed national petrol tax. Both of these also received additional Communist support, with staunch opposition from the Progress Party, NCP, and the Patriotic Front.

With the World Expo 88 wrapping up in October of 1988, around the same time, legislation to abolish the Privy Council, the final legal ties to the United Kingdom, and thus making the High Court of Australia the highest legal body in Australia. The UK government, led by Margaret Thatcher, passed similar legislation, and the Australia Acts of 1988 passed easily, with even a few Progress and NCP MPs voting in favour. Unfortunately, late 1988 also witnessed two Victorian police officers gunned down in Walsh Street, South Yarra, a suburb of Melbourne.

The final year of the 1980s witnessed Labor returning to office in Queensland after a 32-year absence, taking advantage of the split in the vote between the NCP and the Patriotic Front. It also saw homosexuality subsequently decriminalised in Queensland  the following year, Tasmania following suit in 1991. Natural Law leader Bob Brown, himself openly gay, stated that "this is a massive breakthrough for Australia's gay community, after all these years of oppression under Bjelke-Petersen and his lynch mob". Bjelke-Petersen, who had resigned as Premier of Queensland to contest federal Parliament in 1988, was in for a whole lot of hot water - the findings of the Fitzgerald Inquiry, taken over a two-year period, were released on the 5th of July, 1989. Bjelke-Petersen, along with ministers from his government and members of the Queensland Police, were found guilty of corruption, false accounts, perjury, bribery, amongst other offences. Bjelke-Petersen found himself in a perilous position - he resigned from Parliament immediately, his electorate of Maranoa reverted back to its safe NCP status at the subsequent by-election. Graeme Campbell, the sole Patriotic Front MP not from Queensland, took over as leader.

Earlier in 1989 saw Australia's first private university, Bond University on the Gold Coast, open its doors in March. Despite being private, it remained not-for-profit, to the satisfaction of most MPs, although the Communists and Natural Law disapproved of Bond Corporation's involvement. On the 18th of August, the AFAP, or Australian Federation of Air Pilots, went on strike. Pilots affiliated with the AFAP told the airlines, notably Australian Airlines and Ansett, stated that they will only work 9am-5pm, until they get a significant payrise. As a result, Australia's commerce and tourism industries were significantly impacted. This caused significant turmoil amongst the Government - Natural Law wanted the Government to give the pilots the payrises, while Labor and the Australia Party believed that negotiations with the AFAP were required before action. A 15% payrise was eventually awarded in October 1989, a mere half of the 30% the union asked for, and many pilots resigned over the issue. This caused further tension in the Government, between Labor and Natural Law.

Amidst the global background of the beginning of the end of communism, notably the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the 1980s saw inflation was back to around 2.5% , not much of an increase from the election of the government, comparative with 1970s-era inflation. Unemployment had shrunk to 3% by December of 1989, it would seem like Australia was weathering the aftermath of the 1987 Black Monday crash well. 1989 also closed off with the Bond Corporation, led by businessman Alan Bond, going into receivership. Not long after these events, in January of 1990, the NCP rebranded itself as the National Party, leader Ian Sinclair stated that "The National Party is not just for rural Australians anymore, but for those who share National values."

[Wake Me Up When The Hard Border Ends]

February the 12th, 1990 saw Australia's first female Premier take office, WA Labor's Carmen Lawrence. 1990, unfortunately, also witnessed the start of a recession in the economy, unemployment was back up to 5% by July of 1990, although inflation continued to remain low. This caused a spat in the government ranks over industries such as logging - Labor stated that adding more regulations to these industries would be incredibly harmful with an emerging recession, while the Natural Law Party believed that this was a perfect opportunity to move Australia to more environmentally friendly industries. Tensions in the Tasmanian state government, in the form of a Labor-Green Accord, began to rise in this year as a result of the recession, which saw the Accord torn up on the 1st of October, 1990, after the state government decided it wanted to continue with its logging strategy, with Progress support. This caused considerable anger from Brown and the Natural Law Party, who now announced the following week that they will merely support the federal government on confidence and supply matters, purely because "we cannot stomach the horrors of a Progress-led government".

April of 1990 also saw the foundation of the Parliamentary Committee for Electoral Reform, as promised by the government. While it stated that no government attempt to change the voting system until after the next election, when a government would have a mandate for reform of the voting system. In the interim, the political parties began to develop policies on electoral reform, which had been sought after by the Australia Party, the Communists, the Patriotic Front, and Natural Law in particular. Meanwhile, a proposal to deregulate the domestic aviation market in November was voted down by Natural Law and the Communists, but passed with Progress support. Capital gains tax and fringe benefits tax were also passed in the 1990 Budget, against staunch opposition from the right.

By the end of 1990, Australia was in recession, as announced by Treasurer Paul Keating live on TV. Unemployment was back to 7%, and didn't seem like it was going to go down any time soon, and despite the tax increases, a projected surplus had turned into a significant deficit. 1991 came with no visible end to the recession - the South Australian Government was forced to bail out the State Bank on the 10th of January, to the tune of almost $1,000,000,000. Unemployment continued to rise in the first half of 1991, reaching 8% by April.

As an emergency measure, the Government passed stimulus measures, in the form of increased unemployment benefits, and additional payments to the handicapped, elderly, and students, to assist them during the recession. These were passed in March of 1991, ahead of the next federal budget, due in May, just before an election was due. The campaign would be centred around the economy and electoral reform.

An election has been called for the 25th of May, 1991.

Party platforms at this election:

Labor Party – Prime Minister Bob Hawke and Labor are continuing to call for their stimulus packages, have announced a repeal of the GST, to ease burden on struggling Australians, no additional regulations that would hinder jobs, although PM Hawke has stated that "This does not mean no new regulations, if you want runaway economics, vote Progress". Labor are supporting retention of compulsory preferential voting, on the subject of electoral reform. Labor’s slogan for 1991 is “Let's See It Through”.

Australia Party – Don Chipp and the Australia Party are running on their performance as part of the Commonwealth government, Chipp stating that "we have proved that we work well both inside and outside of government", A mixed-member proportional system, where 101 members are elected from single-member seats, and the other 50 are elected by proportional representation, is backed by the Australia Party, regarding electoral reform. The Australia Party's 1991 slogan is " No Spin, No Deceit".

Natural Law Party - Bob Brown and the Natural Law Party are campaigning on their record of protecting Australia's environment in government, namely the halt of new nuclear power plants, and are also championing the legality of homosexuality nationwide, stating that "Without our party, homosexuality will still be illegal in certain parts of the country". Brown has also stated that he will "not rubber-stamp the agenda of a second Hawke Government, and re-negotiations will need to be made, should the left win enough seats for a majority". Abolition of the Senate, and a 200-member, proportionally-elected House of Representatives is the Natural Law's position on voting reform. The Natural Law Party's 1991 slogan is "Stop The Destruction".

Progress Party – Opposition Leader John Hewson and the Progress Party are campaigning on repealing the capital gains and fringe benefits taxes, lowering income taxes, and stopping any more regulations on businesses, small and large alike, as part of their plans to create more jobs. Optional preferential voting is supported by the Progress Party, regarding electoral reform. The Progress Party’s 1991 slogan is “The Answer Is Progress”.

National Party – Ian Sinclair and the National Party are running on protecting rural industries, such as logging and farming, although are also, as their name suggests, running a more nationwide campaign, reaching out for Australia's families in particular, Sinclair stating that "traditional families have been essential to Australia's past and present, and its future as well". Regarding electoral reform, the NCP are calling for retention of the current compulsory preferential system, agreeing with Labor. The National Party's 1991 slogan is "For Farmers and Families Alike".

Communist Party – Eric Aarons and the Communists are once again staying true to their beliefs, even in an international atmosphere of fading communism. Although they still want all governments, including eventually the Commonwealth Government abolished, the Communist Party are backing a similar policy to Natural Law, but nationwide, as opposed to state/territory-based electorates, and are calling for a 250-member House. The Communist slogan for 1991 is " Never Lose Hope ".

Patriotic Front - Graeme Campbell and the Patriotic Front are once again running on a far-right platform, including a halt to non-European immigration in Australia, a nationwide ban on homosexuality, re-institution of the death penalty, a return to more protectionism, particularly in manufacturing and agriculture,  a return of conscription, repeal of all land rights legislation. The Patriotic Front desires proportional representation, similar to Natural Law, although desire a smaller house of only 120. The Patriotic Front's 1991 slogan is "Australia's Calling - Will You Answer?".

Voting is open for 72 hours as per usual.

Me: Progress

[Cranberry]

Great!

Natural Law, as usual.

[Wake Me Up When The Hard Border Ends]

Great!

Natural Law, as usual.

Good to see you're still enjoying it!

[Cranberry]

Great!

Natural Law, as usual.

Good to see you're still enjoying it!
[/quote)

Trust me, the day can never come that I stop enyoing this; especially because of the in-depth analysis on what we brought upon Australia with our votes. It is really a great project!

[Wake Me Up When The Hard Border Ends]

Great!

Natural Law, as usual.

Good to see you're still enjoying it!

Trust me, the day can never come that I stop enyoing this; especially because of the in-depth analysis on what we brought upon Australia with our votes. It is really a great project!

No problem, will be interesting to see how the 1990s and 2000s pan out in this timeline!

[Murica!]

Communists for me. If they are more libertarian than most "communist" parties that is.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Natural Law, although I disagree with their electoral reform position (I assume there would be a referendum anyway)

[Supersonic]

Labor deserves to be re-elected.

[SNJ1985]

Patriotic Front

[ElectionsGuy]

Progress!

[Wake Me Up When The Hard Border Ends]

Natural Law, although I disagree with their electoral reform position (I assume there would be a referendum anyway)

There will be a referendum on electoral reform sometime in the next Parliament, what exactly it will contain depends on who wins this election.

Also, voting closes 8am tomorrow morning AWST.

[morgieb]

Natural Law.

[Wake Me Up When The Hard Border Ends]

Final bump before voting closes.

[H. Ross Peron]

Labour

[Wake Me Up When The Hard Border Ends]

Voting has now closed, thank you all for your participation.