By Stephen Robson
PERTH — The government of Carmen Lawrence was dumped on February 6, bringing to an end 10 years of Labor in Western Australia. It was a decade marked by shonky business deals with the big end of town and of corruption.
In the end business, the majority of which were not in on the rorts, and their media decided to dump Labor and openly campaigned for the Liberals. Discredited, Labor outlived its usefulness, and as in Victoria, WA business now wants escalated attacks on social conditions.
The margin of Liberal victory, however, was smaller than had been widely forecast. A widespread disgust with the ALP government did not translate into any great enthusiasm for the Liberals.
Labor's primary vote fell to 37.6%, compared to 42.5% in 1989. But the Liberal vote increased only 1.5%, and that of the Nationals 0.7%, so it appears that much of the swing away from Labor went to third parties and independents.
At the close of counting on the Saturday night, the likely composition of the new parliament was 25 Liberal, six National, 21 Labor, one right-wing independent and four seats still in doubt.
In its editorial the day before the elections, on February 5, the West Australian said, "Voters in tomorrow's election should do the State a service and get rid of the Lawrence Labor Government". The editorial capped several weeks of anti-Labor material in WA's only daily.
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia mounted a publicity campaign for weeks calling for a change of government, as did the WA Small Business and Enterprise Association.
Meanwhile the Trades and Labour Council had financed a half-hearted media campaign using the theme of "Protect the Award that protects you", and called for the Liberals to be put last.
Indicative of the right-wing agenda adopted by Labor was the familiar cry from the Liberals: "Labor stole our education ideas".
Reviews of other policy indicate that as much as 40% of Liberal-National and Labor election platforms are similar.
The much trumpeted Great Debate between Lawrence and Court, televised at peak viewing time on February 2, was quickly dubbed "the masturbate". Lawrence continued her slick and sharp style while, fortunately for the Liberals, Richard Court managed not to put his foot in his mouth on this occasion.
A panel of carefully chosen journalists managed to focus on the inane n the studio audience and others were questioned later, it became clear that both major parties were on the nose. No alternative candidates were invited.
While the commercial media were quite content to play up disillusionment with the mainstream parties, when it came to alternative candidates, there was an almost total blackout.
The Greens (WA) coverage was a partial exception to this; they managed to attract much of the media attention that in the past was reserved for the Australian Democrats.
"Widespread disillusionment with the two major parties is very clear", Geoff Spencer, the Democratic Socialist candidate for Fremantle, told 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly. "We found a great deal of interest in what we had to say.
"We managed to distribute election leaflets throughout the two electorates we stood in. The elections helped us develop important networks which we want to continue after the elections are over.
"The most important aspect is not the number of votes but the links that are made during the campaign in introducing and popularising the ideas of democratic socialism."
Stewart Jackson, campaign manager for the Greens (WA), told 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly that the Greens were pleased with the way their campaign had gone. They had run their campaign on a budget of around $50,000, standing candidates in 35 of the 57 lower house seats and the six upper house regions. Jackson said the Greens hoped to pick up two upper house seats with Robin Chapple in the Mining and Pastoral Region and Paul Davis in the South-West Region. Both of these regions elect five members.