2002 Victorian state election

The 2002 Victorian state election, held on Saturday, 30 November 2002, was for the 55th Parliament of Victoria. It was held to elect the 88 members of Victorian Legislative Assembly and 22 members of the 44-member Legislative Council.

2002 Victorian state election

30 November 2002 (2002-11-30)

All 88 seats in the Victorian Legislative Assembly
and 22 (of the 44) seats in the Victorian Legislative Council
Results below are for the Assembly election.
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Steve Bracks Robert Doyle Peter Ryan
Party Labor Liberal National
Leader since 22 March 1999 20 August 2002 December 1999
Leader's seat Williamstown Malvern Gippsland South
Last election 42 seats 36 seats 7 seats
Seats won 62 17 7
Seat change Increase20 Decrease19 Steady
Popular vote 1,392,704 985,011 125,003
Percentage 47.95% 33.91% 4.30%
Swing Increase2.38 Decrease8.31 Decrease0.50
TPP 57.78% 42.22%
TPP swing Increase7.58 Decrease7.58

Results in each electorate.

Premier before election

Steve Bracks
Labor

Elected Premier

Steve Bracks
Labor

The Labor government led by Premier Steve Bracks was returned for a second term in a landslide victory, taking 62 seats, a gain of 20. It was easily the biggest majority that Labor had ever won in Victoria, and one of Labor's best-ever performances at the state level in Australia. Additionally, it was only the third time that a Labor government had been reelected in Victoria. Labor also recorded 57.8 percent of the two-party preferred vote, their highest on record for a Victorian election.

Jeff Kennett had resigned as Liberal leader soon after his shock defeat in 1999, and was succeeded by former Health Minister Denis Napthine. However, Napthine was unable to get the better of Bracks, and was ousted in August 2002 by Shadow Health Minister Robert Doyle. With just a few months before the writs were dropped, Doyle was unable to recover any significant ground. The Liberals saw their seat tally more than halved, to 17 seats — their worst result since the 1952 election.

Labor also won a majority of seats in the Legislative Council for the first time in its history and secured the largest majority government in Victorian history. The Nationals (who after breaking off their Coalition with the Liberals renamed themselves the 'VicNats') retained the seven seats they held from 1999.

Labor was assisted by a strong economy and by the popularity of Steve Bracks, while the Liberal Party was badly divided between the Kroger and Kennett factions. The Liberal campaign was also damaged by the revelation that the shadow treasurer, Robert Dean, was ineligible to run. Dean's electorate of Berwick had been abolished and merged into the new electorate of Gembrook. Dean won Liberal preselection for Gembrook, but failed to update his address after moving to his new electorate. As a result, he was no longer on the electoral roll; Victorian law requires candidates to be registered voters. Treasurer John Brumby loudly wondered if the Liberals could be trusted to manage Victoria's economy if their shadow treasurer could not manage his own affairs.

This was the last Victorian election where the Legislative Council was elected using preferential voting in single-member districts (while each province has two members, they were elected at alternate elections). The Constitution (Parliamentary Reform) Act 2003 abolished the electoral provinces and divided Victoria into eight regions each electing five members using proportional representation, with all seats being vacated each election.[1]

Results

Legislative Assembly

Victorian state election, 30 November 2002[2]
Legislative Assembly
<< 19992006 >>

Enrolled voters 3,228,466
Votes cast 3,007,342 Turnout 93.16 –1.05
Informal votes 102,791 Informal 3.42 +0.84
Summary of votes by party
Party Primary votes  % Swing Seats Change
  Labor 1,392,704 47.95 +2.38 62 +20
  Liberal 985,011 33.91 –8.31 17 –19
  Greens 282,585 9.73 +8.58 0 ± 0
  National 125,003 4.30 –0.50 7 ± 0
  Citizens Electoral Council 9,654 0.33 +0.33 0 ± 0
  Democrats 3,948 0.14 –0.14 0 ± 0
  Socialist Alliance 3,274 0.11 +0.04 0 ± 0
  Christian Democrats 1,723 0.06 +0.04 0 ± 0
  Democratic Labor 1,035 0.04 –0.18 0 ± 0
  Hope 914 0.03 –0.36 0 ± 0
  Independent 98,700 3.40 –1.32 2 – 1
Total 2,904,551     88  
Two-party-preferred
  Labor 1,677,856 57.78 +7.58
  Liberal/National 1,226,214 42.22 –7.58

Legislative Council

Results for the Legislative Council.

The following voting statistics exclude the two mid-term by-elections held on the same day, at which one seat each was retained by the Liberal and National parties.

Victorian state election, 30 November 2002[3]
Legislative Council
<< 19992006 >>

Enrolled voters 3,228,466
Votes cast 3,006,200 Turnout 93.12 +0.17
Informal votes 110,422 Informal 3.67 +0.30
Summary of votes by party
Party Primary votes  % Swing Seats
won
Seats
held
  Labor 1,375,245 47.49 +5.26 17 25
  Liberal 999,392 34.51 –5.19 3 14
  Greens 314,697 10.87 +8.64 0 0
  National 126,419 4.37 –2.91 2 5
  Democrats 51,718 1.79 –5.00 0 0
  Hope 4,615 0.16 +0.16 0 0
  Christian Democrats 4,615 0.14 –0.10 0 0
  Independent 19,534 0.67 –0.62 0 0
Total 2,895,778     22 44
Two-party-preferred
  Labor 1,675,893 57.85 +7.74
  Liberal/National 1,220,999 42.15 –7.74

Electoral maps

Metropolitan Melbourne: ALP held seats are marked in red. Liberal seats are coloured blue. Country Victoria: ALP seats are coloured in red, Liberal in blue, Nationals in green and independents in yellow.

Seats changing hands

Seat Pre-2002 Swing Post-2002
Party Member Margin Margin Member Party
Bass   Independent Susan Davies 3.6 -4.2 0.6 Ken Smith Liberal  
Bayswater   Liberal Gordon Ashley 6.3 -9.0 2.7 Peter Lockwood Labor  
Bellarine   Liberal Garry Spry 1.1 -9.3 8.2 Lisa Neville Labor  
Benalla*   Labor Denise Allen 0.4 -2.4 2.0 Bill Sykes National  
Bentleigh   Liberal Inga Peulich 1.9 -6.6 4.7 Rob Hudson Labor  
Cranbourne   Liberal Gary Rowe -1.1 -9.7 10.8 Jude Perera Labor  
Eltham   Liberal Wayne Phillips 3.7 -8.5 4.8 Steve Herbert Labor  
Evelyn   Liberal Christine Fyffe 12.3 -12.6 0.3 Heather McTaggart Labor  
Ferntree Gully   Liberal Hurtle Lupton 7.6 -9.9 2.3 Anne Eckstein Labor  
Forest Hill   Liberal John Richardson 6.2 -12.0 5.8 Kirstie Marshall Labor  
Frankston   Liberal Andrea McCall 3.2 -9.0 5.8 Alistair Harkness Labor  
Gembrook   Liberal notional - new seat 6.7 -8.3 1.6 Tammy Lobato Labor  
Hastings   Liberal notional - new seat 7.1 -8.0 0.9 Rosy Buchanan Labor  
Kilsyth   Liberal Lorraine Elliott 7.9 -10.0 2.1 Dympna Beard Labor  
Monbulk   Liberal Steve McArthur 2.4 -10.7 8.3 James Merlino Labor  
Mordialloc   Liberal Geoff Leigh 2.5 -7.0 4.5 Janice Munt Labor  
Mount Waverley   Liberal Ron Wilson 9.0 -11.3 2.3 Maxine Morand Labor  
Narre Warren North   Liberal notional - new seat 5.1 -14.8 9.7 Luke Donnellan Labor  
Narre Warren South   Liberal notional - new seat 1.3 -13.9 12.6 Dale Wilson Labor  
Prahran   Liberal Leonie Burke 4.7 -9.1 4.4 Tony Lupton Labor  
South Barwon   Liberal Alister Paterson 4.7 -9.7 5.0 Michael Crutchfield Labor  
  • Results for Benalla are based from the 2000 by-election, which Labor won from the Nationals.
  • Cranbourne became a notionally Labor seat after the redistribution.
  • Members listed in italics did not recontest their seats.

See also

Notes

  1. Parliament of Victoria (18 June 2009). "Information Sheet No.7: The Legislative Council's History". Retrieved 3 February 2010.
  2. Antony Green (July 2003). "2002 Victorian State Election - Summary of Results" (PDF). Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 5 July 2013.
  3. Victorian Electoral Commission. "Report to Parliament on the 2002 Victorian State election" (PDF). p. 71. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 September 2008. Retrieved 3 February 2009.

References

  • Victorian Electoral Commission,
  • Costar, B.J. & Campbell J. "Realigning Victoria: The State Election of 30 November 2002". Australian Journal of Political Science. 38 : 2: 313–323.
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