- by Richard Titelius
- The Guardian
- Issue #2140
Richard taking a break from helping the Greens hand out how-to-vote material.
On Saturday 8 March West Australian comrades helped the Greens hand out how-to-vote material. I chose a booth at a Primary School in the north eastern suburb of Ballajura in the seat of West Swan held by the State Treasurer and Deputy Premier, Rita Saffioti.
There was also a Liberal Candidate. There were two Romanians helping out the Romanian-born candidate for Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party, Cristina Pomana, and a stream of young polite Christians who were helping out the Australian Christians Party (main policies anti-abortion, pro-bigotry). The One Nation people tried to paint their party as ‘moderate right.’ They’re far right.
One Nation claims it would cut immigration, create affordable housing, reduce taxes and regulations, ban foreign ownership, protect our freedoms and ‘stand with our farmers.’ There is the pretence at nationalism but it didn’t get them very far.
There was definitely a hiccup in the results, as by 8 pm some booths only had about 10 per cent of their ballots counted and it took until 9.30 pm for Roger Cook to claim victory and for Liberal Leader Libby Mettam and Nationals Leader Shane Love to concede.
In the Legislative Assembly the ALP secured 46 seats, the Liberals 7 seats, and the Nationals 6. The seat of Fremantle in which ALP apparatchik Simone McGurk suffered a 27 per cent swing against her as voters swung towards independent Kate Hulett who campaigned on climate change and the environment. McGurk was re-elected, but the swing should give Labor pause for thought.
In the Legislative Council the Greens look like electing a further four representatives to assist lawyer Brad Pettitt. Legalise Cannabis Party leader Brian Walker has been re-elected, as have Australian Christians lead candidate, Maryka Groenwald and One Nation’s Rod Caddies.
The full vote took some time. From experience I would say it is not all the Electoral Commissioner’s fault but rather the government caught napping on inadequate resources and pay of electoral officials and not foreseeing that the Electoral Commissioner was going to need some extra help.
The government of Roger Cook is now well and truly out of the shadow of Mark McGowan and the Liberals are well and truly in the wilderness where they are likely to stay for a while. High profile media personality and former Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas, who barely got over the line in the Western Suburb of Churchlands. This election also bodes well for an ALP and Greens win in the Federal election to be held in May.
However, the ALP has to make it a campaign about what Anthony Albanese can offer the Australian people, rather than making it all about not risking Peter Dutton.
