2016 Australian Capital Territory general election
A general election for the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly was held on Saturday, 15 October 2016.[2]
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All 25 seats of the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly 13 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Turnout | 88.5 (![]() | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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![]() Winning party seats by division for the Legislative Assembly. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 15-year incumbent Labor Party, led by Chief Minister Andrew Barr, won a fifth term over the main opposition Liberal Party, led by opposition leader Jeremy Hanson. On election night, ABC analyst Antony Green predicted that Labor would once again form a minority government with the support of the Greens, with Liberal leader Hanson saying in a speech it would be very difficult for the Liberals to win government.[3] On 22 October, the final list of elected candidates was confirmed; the Labor Party winning 12 seats, the Liberal Party 11 seats and the Greens 2 seats.[4] Labor and the Greens subsequently signed off on a formal Parliamentary Agreement, which outlined shared policy priorities and allowed Greens leader Shane Rattenbury to retain a seat in the Cabinet whilst mandating that the Greens not move or support any motion of no confidence in the Labor Government, except in instances of gross misconduct or corruption.[5][6]
Prior to this election, candidates were elected to fill all 17 Legislative Assembly seats in the unicameral parliament which consisted of three multi-member electorates, Brindabella (five seats), Ginninderra (five seats) and Molonglo (seven seats), using a proportional representation single transferable vote method known as the Hare-Clark system. On 5 August 2014, the Assembly voted to increase the size of the Assembly to 25 members, elected from five electorates of five seats each. The Hare-Clark system continued.[7] The election was conducted by the ACT Electoral Commission.
Of the 25 elected members, 13 were women, representing the first female parliamentary majority in Australian history.[8]
Results
Australian Capital Territory general election, 15 October 2016[9][10] | ||||||
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Enrolled voters | 283,162 | |||||
Votes cast | 250,460 | Turnout | 88.5% | −0.9 | ||
Informal votes | 6,332 | Informal | 2.5% | −1.0 | ||
Summary of votes by party | ||||||
Party | Primary votes | % | Swing | Seats | Change | |
Labor | 93,811 | 38.4 | −0.5 | 12 | +4 | |
Liberal | 89,632 | 36.7 | −2.2 | 11 | +3 | |
Greens | 25,096 | 10.3 | −0.5 | 2 | +1 | |
Independent | 10,835 | 4.4 | +2.6 | 0 | 0 | |
Sex Party | 7,474 | 3.1 | +3.1 | 0 | 0 | |
Liberal Democrats | 5,028 | 2.1 | +1.0 | 0 | 0 | |
Sustainable Australia | 3,831 | 1.6 | +1.6 | 0 | 0 | |
Animal Justice | 3,681 | 1.5 | +1.5 | 0 | 0 | |
Like Canberra | 2,624 | 1.1 | +1.1 | 0 | 0 | |
Canberra Community Voters | 1,703 | 0.7 | +0.7 | 0 | 0 | |
Community Alliance | 413 | 0.2 | +0.2 | 0 | 0 | |
Total | 244,128 | 25 |
Primary vote by electorate
Results by electorate | ||||||||||||||||
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Brindabella | Ginninderra | Kurrajong | Murrumbidgee | Yerrabi | ||||||||||||
Party | Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Seats | |
Labor | 15,744 | 33.6 | 2 | 19,494 | 41.4 | 3 | 18,796 | 38.5 | 2 | 17,265 | 34.5 | 2 | 22,512 | 43.9 | 3 | |
Liberal | 19,606 | 41.9 | 3 | 15,095 | 32.0 | 2 | 15,140 | 31.0 | 2 | 21,425 | 42.8 | 2 | 18,366 | 35.8 | 2 | |
Greens | 2,399 | 5.1 | 0 | 4,573 | 9.7 | 0 | 9,165 | 18.8 | 1 | 5,325 | 10.6 | 1 | 3,634 | 7.1 | 0 | |
Independent | 1,967 | 4.2 | 0 | 4,580 | 9.7 | 0 | 2,135 | 4.4 | 0 | 687 | 1.4 | 0 | 1,466 | 2.9 | 0 | |
Sex Party | 3,694 | 7.9 | 0 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 1,746 | 3.5 | 0 | 2,034 | 4.0 | 0 | |
Liberal Democrats | 1,175 | 2.5 | 0 | 587 | 1.2 | 0 | 1,057 | 2.2 | 0 | 813 | 1.6 | 0 | 1,396 | 2.7 | 0 | |
Sustainable Australia | 697 | 1.5 | 0 | 1,105 | 2.3 | 0 | 645 | 1.3 | 0 | 652 | 1.3 | 0 | 732 | 1.4 | 0 | |
Animal Justice | 1,106 | 2.4 | 0 | 444 | 0.9 | 0 | 602 | 1.2 | 0 | 1,071 | 2.1 | 0 | 458 | 0.9 | 0 | |
Like Canberra | 442 | 0.9 | 0 | 450 | 1.0 | 0 | 419 | 0.9 | 0 | 658 | 1.3 | 0 | 655 | 1.3 | 0 | |
Community Voters | — | — | — | 814 | 1.7 | 0 | 889 | 1.8 | 0 | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
Community Alliance | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 413 | 0.8 | 0 | — | — | — |
Final distribution of seats
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Key dates
- Last day to lodge applications for party register: 30 June 2016
- Party registration closed: 8 September 2016
- Pre-election period commenced and nominations opened: 9 September 2016
- Rolls close: 16 September 2016
- Nominations close: 21 September 2016
- Nominations declared and ballot paper order determined: 22 September 2016
- Pre-poll voting commences: 27 September 2016
- Polling day: 15 October 2016
- Last day for receipt of postal votes: 21 October 2016[11]
Background
![](../I/ACT_Electorates_2016.png.webp)
The incumbent Labor Party led by Chief Minister Andrew Barr attempted to win re-election for a fifth term in the unicameral ACT Legislative Assembly. Labor, led by Katy Gallagher, formed a minority coalition government with the Greens after the 2012 election, where Labor won 8 seats, Liberal 8 seats, Greens 1 seat. The Greens retained their balance of power in the election despite losing the majority of their 4-seat representation, with sole remaining representative Shane Rattenbury entering the cabinet to form a coalition government. Gallagher resigned as Chief Minister and Labor leader on 5 December 2014 to enter the Senate in the vacancy left by Kate Lundy. She was replaced by her deputy Andrew Barr on 11 December 2014.
The opposition, the Liberal Party, also had a change in leadership. Zed Seselja, the leader of the party since 2007, stood down on 11 February 2013, to challenge Liberal Party pre-selection for the Senate at the 2013 federal election. Seselja eventually won his pre-selection bid, and was elected Senator for the Australian Capital Territory at the federal election. He was replaced as leader of the Liberal Party by Jeremy Hanson.
All members of the unicameral Assembly faced re-election, with members being elected by the Hare-Clark system of proportional representation. The Assembly was previously divided into three electorates: five-member Brindabella (including Tuggeranong and parts of the Woden Valley) and Ginninderra (including Belconnen and suburbs) and seven-member Molonglo (including North Canberra, South Canberra, Gungahlin, Weston Creek, and the remainder of the Woden Valley). These electorates, were redistributed following the increase in the size of the Assembly to 25 seats.
At the end of May 2015, the following electorates were announced:
- Brindabella – contains the district of Tuggeranong (except the suburb of Kambah).
- Ginninderra – contains the district of Belconnen (except the suburbs of Evatt, Giralang, Kaleen, McKellar and Lawson).
- Kurrajong – contains the districts of Canberra Central and Majura
- Murrumbidgee – contains the districts of the Woden Valley, Weston Creek, Molonglo Valley and the Tuggeranong suburb of Kambah.
- Yerrabi – contains the districts of Gungahlin, Hall and the Belconnen suburbs of Evatt, Giralang, Kaleen, McKellar and Lawson.
Election dates are set in statute with four-year fixed terms, to be held on the third Saturday of October every four years.
Campaign
The opposition Liberal Party opposed the Light rail in Canberra project, so did the Like Canberra and Sustainable Australia. In April 2015, the Liberal party announced it would cancel any contracts for the light rail if it won the 2016 ACT election.[12] A year out from the poll, the light rail project was already predicted to be the election's major issue.[13] As predicted, the light rail project was the major issue of the campaign.[14][15] The election saw the Labor government returned, with the party claiming the result as an endorsement of the project.
Candidates
Registered parties
Twelve parties were registered with the ACT Electoral Commission as eligible for the October 2016 election, ten of which nominated candidates for the election.[16]
- Animal Justice Party
- Australian Labor Party (ACT Branch)
- Australian Sex Party ACT
- Canberra Community Voters
- Liberal Democratic Party
- Liberal Party
- Like Canberra
- Sustainable Australia (ACT)
- The ACT Greens
- The Community Alliance Party (ACT)
- The Flux Party – ACT (did not contest)
- VoteCanberra (did not contest)
Labor
Liberal
Brindabella
Five seats were up for election.
Labor candidates | Liberal candidates | Greens candidates | Animal Justice candidates | Liberal Democrats candidates |
---|---|---|---|---|
Joy Burch* |
Ed Cocks |
Johnathan Davis |
Sarah O'Brien |
Matt Donnelly |
Like Canberra candidates | Sex Party candidates | Sustainable candidates | Ungrouped candidates | |
Timothy Friel |
Steven Bailey |
Claude Hastir |
Andrew Holt (Ind) |
Ginninderra
Five seats were up for election.
Labor candidates | Liberal candidates | Greens candidates | CCV candidates | Liberal Democrats candidates |
---|---|---|---|---|
Yvette Berry* |
Vicki Dunne* |
Jason Chappel |
Beth Gooch |
Naomi Gowor |
Like Canberra candidates | Sustainable candidates | Ungrouped candidates | ||
Richard Harriss |
Geoff Buckmaster |
Bernie Brennan (AJP) |
Kurrajong
Five seats were up for election.
Labor candidates | Liberal candidates | Greens candidates | CCV candidates | Liberal Democrats candidates |
---|---|---|---|---|
Andrew Barr* |
Candice Burch |
Shane Rattenbury* |
Richard Farmer |
Mark Ellis |
Like Canberra candidates | Sustainable candidates | Ungrouped candidates | ||
Chris Bucknell |
John Haydon |
Jeff Isaacs (AJP) |
Murrumbidgee
Five seats were up for election.
Labor candidates | Liberal candidates | Greens candidates | Animal Justice candidates | Community Alliance candidates |
---|---|---|---|---|
Bec Cody* |
Jessica Adelan-Langford |
Emma Davidson |
Deborah Field |
Michael Lindfield |
Liberal Democrats candidates | Like Canberra candidates | Sustainable candidates | Ungrouped candidates | |
Fergus Brown |
Shelley Dickerson |
Jill Mail |
Robbie Swan (Sex) |
Yerrabi
Five seats were up for election.
Labor candidates | Liberal candidates | Greens candidates | Liberal Democrats candidates | Like Canberra |
---|---|---|---|---|
Meegan Fitzharris* |
Alistair Coe* |
Andrew Braddock |
Dave Green |
Tim Bohm |
Sex Party candidates | Sustainable candidates | Ungrouped candidates | ||
Andrew Dewson |
Paul Gabriel |
Mandy Cottingham (AJP) |
Newspaper endorsements
Newspaper | Endorsement | |
---|---|---|
The Canberra Times | Liberal[17] |
See also
Notes
- The Australian Capital Territory does not use preferential voting. This calculation is an estimate of preference flows at the previous federal election.[1]
References
- "Australian Federal 2pp Estimator".
- Commonwealth Parliament. "Australian elections timetable". www.aph.gov.au. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
- "ACT election: Labor Chief Minister Andrew Barr claims victory, says Canberra has voted for light rail". ABC News. 15 October 2016. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
- "ACT election final tally announced; Labor holds lead over Liberals". ABC News. 22 October 2016.
- "Labor and Greens hammer out deal to see Shane Rattenbury in Cabinet, Joy Burch as Speaker". Canberra Times. 30 October 2016.
- "Full Text of the Parliamentary Agreement for the 9th Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory". ABC News. 30 October 2016.
- "ACT Legislative Assembly votes to increase the size of the Assembly to 25 members from the 2016 election". ACT Electoral Commission. 6 January 2015.
- "ACT achieves 'first ever female majority' in parliament as ninth Assembly sworn in". Canberra Times. 31 October 2016.
- "Results – ACT Election 2016". ABC Elections. 15 October 2016.
- "Election Results 2016". ACT Elections. 15 October 2016. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
- "2016 Election timetable". Elections ACT. Archived from the original on 17 September 2016. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
- "Light rail contract 'will be torn up' if the Canberra Liberals win 2016 ACT election". ABC News. 15 April 2015. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
- "Light rail will dominate next year's ACT election. Both main parties have more explaining to do". The Canberra Times. 11 October 2015.
- Knaus, Christopher (15 October 2016). "Election win shows comprehensive support for light rail". The Canberra Times.
- "ACT election: Labor Chief Minister Andrew Barr claims victory, says Canberra has voted for light rail". ABC News. 15 October 2016. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
- "Official political party register". Elections ACT. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
- "It's time to decide: tram or no tram". The Canberra Times. 14 October 2016. Retrieved 14 October 2016.