2002 Victorian state election

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2002 Victorian state election
Flag of Victoria (Australia).svg
  1999 30 November 2002 (2002-11-30) 2006  

All 88 seats in the Victorian Legislative Assembly
and 22 (of the 44) seats in the Victorian Legislative Council
45 seats needed for a majority
 First partySecond partyThird party
  Steve Bracks at a Vietnam Veterans Day ceremony, August 2006 b.jpg Robert Doyle 2013 b.jpg Peter Ryan b.jpg
Leader Steve Bracks Robert Doyle Peter Ryan
Party Labor Liberal National
Leader since22 March 199920 August 2002 16 December 1999
Leader's seat Williamstown Malvern Gippsland South
Last election42 seats36 seats7 seats
Seats won62177
Seat changeIncrease2.svg20Decrease2.svg19Steady2.svg
Popular vote1,392,704985,011125,003
Percentage47.95%33.91%4.30%
SwingIncrease2.svg2.38Decrease2.svg8.31Decrease2.svg0.50
TPP 57.78%42.22%
TPP swingIncrease2.svg7.58Decrease2.svg7.58

2002 Victorian state election.svg
Results in each electorate.

Premier before election

Steve Bracks
Labor

Elected Premier

Steve Bracks
Labor

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.

Contents

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. Labor also won a majority of seats in the Legislative Council for the first time in its history.

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.

The Nationals (who after breaking off their Coalition with the Liberals rebranded 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]

Future Premier Daniel Andrews entered parliament at this election.

Results

Legislative Assembly

2002 VIC Legislative Assembly.svg
PartyVotes%+/–Seats+/–
Labor 1,392,70447.95Increase2.svg 2.3862Increase2.svg 20
Liberal 985,01133.91Decrease2.svg 8.3117Decrease2.svg 19
Greens 282,5859.73Increase2.svg 8.580Steady2.svg
National 125,0034.30Decrease2.svg 0.507Steady2.svg
Independents 98,7003.40Decrease2.svg 1.322Decrease2.svg 1
Citizens Electoral Council 9,6540.33Increase2.svg 0.330Steady2.svg
Democrats 3,9480.14Decrease2.svg 0.140Steady2.svg
Socialist Alliance 3,2740.11Increase2.svg 0.040Steady2.svg
Christian Democrats 1,7230.06Increase2.svg 0.040Steady2.svg
Democratic Labour 1,0350.04Decrease2.svg 0.180Steady2.svg
Hope 9140.03Decrease2.svg 0.360Steady2.svg
Total2,904,551100.0088
Valid votes2,904,55196.58
Invalid/blank votes102,7913.42Increase2.svg 0.84
Total votes3,007,342100.00
Registered voters/turnout3,228,46693.15Decrease2.svg 1.05
Source: [2]
Two-party-preferred
Labor 1,677,85657.78Increase2.svg 7.58
Liberal/National Coalition 1,226,21442.22Decrease2.svg 7.58
Total2,904,070100.00

Legislative Council

Results for the Legislative Council. 2002 Victorian state election - Legislative Council.svg
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 voters3,228,466
Votes cast3,006,200 Turnout 93.12+0.17
Informal votes110,422Informal3.67+0.30
Summary of votes by party
PartyPrimary votes %SwingSeats
won
Seats
held
  Labor 1,375,24547.49Increase2.svg+5.261725
  Liberal 999,39234.51Decrease2.svg–5.19314
  Greens 314,69710.87Increase2.svg+8.6400
  National 126,4194.37Decrease2.svg–2.9125
  Democrats 51,7181.79Decrease2.svg–5.0000
  Hope 4,6150.16New00
  Christian Democrats 4,6150.14Decrease2.svg–0.1000
  Independent 19,5340.67Decrease2.svg–0.6200
Total2,895,778  2244
Two-party-preferred
  Labor 1,675,89357.85Increase2.svg+7.74
  Liberal/National 1,220,99942.15Decrease2.svg–7.74

Electoral maps

Melb districts pol3.JPG Vic districts pol.jpg
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

SeatPre-2002SwingPost-2002
PartyMemberMarginMarginMemberParty
Bass  Independent Susan Davies 3.6-4.20.6 Ken Smith Liberal 
Bayswater  Liberal Gordon Ashley 6.3-9.02.7 Peter Lockwood Labor 
Bellarine  Liberal Garry Spry 1.1-9.38.2 Lisa Neville Labor 
Benalla* Labor Denise Allen 0.4-2.42.0 Bill Sykes National 
Bentleigh  Liberal Inga Peulich 1.9-6.64.7 Rob Hudson Labor 
Cranbourne  Liberal Gary Rowe -1.1-9.710.8 Jude Perera Labor 
Eltham  Liberal Wayne Phillips 3.7-8.54.8 Steve Herbert Labor 
Evelyn  Liberal Christine Fyffe 12.3-12.60.3 Heather McTaggart Labor 
Ferntree Gully  Liberal Hurtle Lupton 7.6-9.92.3 Anne Eckstein Labor 
Forest Hill  Liberal John Richardson 6.2-12.05.8 Kirstie Marshall Labor 
Frankston  Liberal Andrea McCall 3.2-9.05.8 Alistair Harkness Labor 
Gembrook  Liberalnotional - new seat6.7-8.31.6 Tammy Lobato Labor 
Hastings  Liberalnotional - new seat7.1-8.00.9 Rosy Buchanan Labor 
Kilsyth  Liberal Lorraine Elliott 7.9-10.02.1 Dympna Beard Labor 
Monbulk  Liberal Steve McArthur 2.4-10.78.3 James Merlino Labor 
Mordialloc  Liberal Geoff Leigh 2.5-7.04.5 Janice Munt Labor 
Mount Waverley  Liberal Ron Wilson 9.0-11.32.3 Maxine Morand Labor 
Narre Warren North  Liberalnotional - new seat5.1-14.89.7 Luke Donnellan Labor 
Narre Warren South  Liberalnotional - new seat1.3-13.912.6 Dale Wilson Labor 
Prahran  Liberal Leonie Burke 4.7-9.14.4 Tony Lupton Labor 
South Barwon  Liberal Alister Paterson 4.7-9.75.0 Michael Crutchfield Labor 

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