Australian Democrats - Electoral Fortunes

Electoral Fortunes

The Australian Democrats' electoral fortunes have fluctuated throughout their history.

During the Hawke and Keating Labor Governments (1983–96), the Australian Democrats held a theoretical balance of power in the Senate: the numbers were such that they could team with Labor to pass legislation, or team with the Coalition to block legislation on occasions when the Coalition decided to oppose a government bill.

Their power was weakened in 1996 after the Howard Government was elected, and a Labor senator, Mal Colston, resigned from the Labor party. This meant that the Australian Democrats now shared the parliamentary balance of power with two Independent senators. As a result, the Coalition government could often bypass the Australian Democrats, and pass legislation by negotiating with Colston and Brian Harradine. Following the 1998 election the Australian Democrats again held the balance of power, until the Coalition gained a Senate majority at the 2004 election.

The Hawke and Keating governments pursued economic policies that drew on economic rationalist and neo-liberal thought, and the Australian Democrats positioned themselves to the left of the ALP government, and thus at the left end of mainstream Australian politics. Their appeal (and focus on issues beyond the usual "economic" ones that monopolised major party attention) was always greatest amongst tertiary-educated voters. However, the party's progressive politics also remained attractive to a sizeable section of mainly middle class ("wet") Liberal supporters – often female, and often disparagingly described on the right of the Liberal Party as "Soccer Mums" or "Doctor's Wives" – who were turned off by the Liberal party's social conservatism and "Reagonomic/Thatcherite" economic policies. Many Liberals saw their support of the Australian Democrats in the Senate as having "an each way bet", ameliorating the effect of their support for the Liberals in the House of Representatives – an attitude positively fostered, not unsurprisingly, by Democrat politicians and campaigners.

Cheryl Kernot became leader in 1993. She had strong media appeal, which increased media and public awareness of herself and the party. She was known to have interests in industrial relations and was able to cultivate solid relationships with Labor government frontbenchers, which also added to her credibility in the press gallery.

Lack of clear direction other than, possibly, senators' common ambition to play a more productive role in government manifested itself in tensions over Cheryl Kernot's policy on industrial relations (see the Workplace Relations Act 1996). Under Kernot, after negotiations and some compromises from the government, the Australian Democrats voted for the Howard Government's right-leaning industrial relations legislation which decreased union power and allowed a larger role for individual employer-employee contracts.

Kernot, however, remained broadly opposed to the Liberal government. This, together with her personal ambition for a role and contribution to strategy in government, led her to defect to the ALP in 1997. Her replacement as leader was by long-serving deputy, Meg Lees.

Under Lees' leadership, in the 1998 federal election, the Democrats' candidate John Schumann came within 2 per cent of taking Liberal Foreign Minister Alexander Downer's seat of Mayo in the Adelaide Hills under Australia's preferential voting system. The party's Senate representation increased to nine Senators.

Internal conflict and leadership tensions from 2000 to 2002, blamed on the party's support for the Government's Goods and Services Tax (GST), was damaging to the Democrats.

Opposed by the Labor Party, the Australian Greens and independent Senator Brian Harradine, the GST required Democrat support to pass. In an election fought on tax, the Democrats publicly stated that they liked neither the Liberal (GST) tax package or the Labor package, but pledged to work with whichever party was elected to make their tax package better. They campaigned with the slogan "No GST on food".

In 1999, after negotiations with Prime Minister Howard, Meg Lees, Andrew Murray and the party room Senators agreed to support the A New Tax System (ANTS) legislation with exemptions from GST for most food and some medicines, as well as many environmental and social concessions. Five Australian Democrats senators voted in favour. However, two dissident senators on the party's left Natasha Stott Despoja and Andrew Bartlett voted against the GST.

In 2001, a leadership spill saw Meg Lees replaced as leader by Natasha Stott Despoja after a very public and bitter leadership battle. Despite criticism of Stott Despoja's youth and lack of experience, the 2001 election saw the Democrats receive similar media coverage to the previous election. Despite the internal divisions, the Australian Democrats' election result in 2001 was quite good. However, it was not enough to prevent the loss of Vicki Bourne's Senate seat in NSW.

Resulting tensions between Stott Despoja and Lees led to Meg Lees leaving the party in 2002, becoming an independent and forming the Australian Progressive Alliance. Stott Despoja stood down from the leadership following a loss of confidence by her party room colleagues. It led to a protracted leadership battle in 2002, which eventually led to the election of Senator Andrew Bartlett as leader.

On 6 December 2003, Andrew Bartlett stepped aside temporarily as leader of the party, after an incident in which he assaulted Liberal Senator Jeannie Ferris on the floor of Parliament while intoxicated. The party issued a statement stating that Deputy Leader Lyn Allison would serve as the Acting Leader of the party. Bartlett apologised to the Democrats, Jeannie Ferris and the Australian public for his behaviour and assured all concerned that it would never happen again. On 29 January 2004, after seeking medical treatment, Bartlett returned to the Australian Democrats leadership, vowing to abstain from alcohol.