Elections to the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly were held on Saturday, 18 October 2008. The incumbent
Labor Party, led by
Jon Stanhope
Jonathan Donald Stanhope (born 29 April 1951) is a former Australian politician who was Labor Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory from 2001 to 2011. Stanhope represented the Ginninderra electorate in the ACT Legislative Assem ...
, was challenged by the
Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world.
The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...
, led by
Zed Seselja
Zdenko Matthew "Zed" Seselja (; born 27 March 1977) is an Australian politician who was a Senator for the Australian Capital Territory from 2013 to 2022, representing the Liberal Party. He was the Minister for International Development and the ...
. Candidates were elected to fill three multi-member electorates using a
single transferable vote
The single transferable vote (STV) or proportional-ranked choice voting (P-RCV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which each voter casts a single vote in the form of a ranked ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vot ...
method, known as the
Hare-Clark system.
The result was another
hung parliament
A hung parliament is a term used in legislatures primarily under the Westminster system (typically employing Majoritarian representation, majoritarian electoral systems) to describe a situation in which no single political party or pre-existing ...
with Labor winning seven seats, the Liberals six seats and the
Greens finishing with four seats, giving the Greens the
balance of power in the 17-member
unicameral
Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature consisting of one house or assembly that legislates and votes as one. Unicameralism has become an increasingly common type of legislature, making up nearly ...
Assembly.
On 31 October 2008, after almost two weeks of deliberations, the Greens chose to support a Labor
minority government
A minority government, minority cabinet, minority administration, or a minority parliament is a government and cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in ...
.
Consequently, Labor was re-elected to a third consecutive term of government in the ACT. Stanhope was elected
Chief Minister
A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union ter ...
at the first sitting of the seventh Assembly on 5 November 2008.
The election was conducted by the
ACT Electoral Commission.
Key dates
* Last day to lodge applications for party register: 30 June 2008
* Party registration closed: 11 September 2008
* Pre-election period commenced and nominations opened: 12 September 2008
*
Rolls Rolls may refer to:
People
* Charles Rolls (engraver) (1799–1885), engraver
* Charles Rolls (1877–1910), Welsh motoring and aviation pioneer, co-founder of Rolls-Royce Limited
* John Etherington Welch Rolls (1807–1870), British jurist and art ...
closed: 19 September 2008
* Nominations closed: 24 September 2008
* Nominations declared and ballot paper order determined: 25 September 2008
* Pre-poll voting commenced: 29 September 2008
* Polling day: 18 October 2008
* Scrutiny completed: 25 October 2008
* Poll declared: 29 October 2008
* Legislative Assembly formed: 5 November 2008
Overview
The incumbent
centre-left
Centre-left politics is the range of left-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. Ideologies commonly associated with it include social democracy, social liberalism, progressivism, and green politics. Ideas commo ...
Labor Party, led by Chief Minister
Jon Stanhope
Jonathan Donald Stanhope (born 29 April 1951) is a former Australian politician who was Labor Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory from 2001 to 2011. Stanhope represented the Ginninderra electorate in the ACT Legislative Assem ...
, attempted to win re-election for a third term after coming to power in 2001. They were challenged by the opposition
centre-right
Centre-right politics is the set of right-wing politics, right-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. It is commonly associated with conservatism, Christian democracy, liberal conservatism, and conservative liberalis ...
Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world.
The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...
, led by
Zed Seselja
Zdenko Matthew "Zed" Seselja (; born 27 March 1977) is an Australian politician who was a Senator for the Australian Capital Territory from 2013 to 2022, representing the Liberal Party. He was the Minister for International Development and the ...
, who assumed the Liberal leadership in December 2007. A third party, the
ACT Greens
The ACT Greens is a green politics, green political party located in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), and a member of the federation of the Australian Greens. Both parties were formed in 1992, three years after the ACT achieved self-gover ...
, held one seat in the Assembly through retiring MLA
Deb Foskey
Deborah Jane Foskey (12 November 1949 – 1 May 2020) was an Australian politician with the ACT Greens.
Early life
Foskey was born at Terang in rural Western Victoria, the second of a family of four. Her father worked for the Victorian Depart ...
.
The election saw all 17 members of the Assembly face re-election, with members being elected by the
Hare-Clark system of
proportional representation
Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...
. The Assembly is divided into three electorates: five-member
Brindabella (including
Tuggeranong
Tuggeranong () is a district in the Australian Capital Territory in Australia. The district is subdivided into divisions (suburbs), sections and blocks and is the southernmost district of the Australian Capital Territory. The district comprise ...
and parts of the
Woden Valley
Woden Valley () is a district in the Australian Capital Territory in Australia. The district is subdivided into divisions (suburbs), sections and blocks.
The name of Woden Valley is taken from the name of a nearby homestead owned by James Murr ...
) and
Ginninderra
Ginninderra is the name of the former agricultural lands surrendered to urban development on the western and north-western fringes of Canberra, the capital of Australia. Ginninderra corresponds with the watershed of Ginninderra Creek, which ...
(including
Belconnen
Belconnen () is a Lands administrative divisions of Australia#Australian Capital Territory, district in the Australian Capital Territory in Australia. The district is subdivided into 27 divisions (suburbs), sections and blocks. As at the , the ...
and suburbs) and seven-member
Molonglo (including
North Canberra
North Canberra, or the Inner North, is a subdivision of Canberra Central in the Australian Capital Territory in Australia. Comprising 14 suburbs. At the , it had 26,699 dwellings housing 61,188 people of the 453,324 people in the Australian Capi ...
,
South Canberra
South Canberra, or the Inner South, is a subdivision of Canberra Central in the Australian Capital Territory in Australia.
South Canberra is separated from North Canberra by Lake Burley Griffin. The two subdivisions combined form the district o ...
,
Gungahlin
Gungahlin () is a Lands administrative divisions of Australia#Australian Capital Territory, district in the Australian Capital Territory, one of the fastest growing regions in Australia. The district is subdivided into suburbs, sections and blo ...
,
Weston Creek, and the remainder of the
Woden Valley
Woden Valley () is a district in the Australian Capital Territory in Australia. The district is subdivided into divisions (suburbs), sections and blocks.
The name of Woden Valley is taken from the name of a nearby homestead owned by James Murr ...
). Election dates are set in statute to occur once every four years; the government has no ability to set the election date.
Following the
2004 election outcome, Labor held 9 seats, becoming the first
majority government
A majority government is a government by one or more governing parties that hold an absolute majority of seats in a legislature. Such a government can consist of one party that holds a majority on its own, or be a coalition government of multi ...
in the territory's history. The opposition Liberal Party held 7 seats, with the Greens holding a further one. The Liberal numbers in the Assembly dropped to six in December 2007 when former Shadow Treasurer
Richard Mulcahy
Richard James Mulcahy (10 May 1886 – 16 December 1971) was an Irish Fine Gael politician and army general who served as Minister for Education from 1948 to 1951 and 1954 to 1957, Minister for the Gaeltacht from June 1956 to October 1956, L ...
was expelled from the party and began sitting as an independent. The opposition thus would have needed to win a further three seats, on top of regaining Mulcahy's seat, to hold government in its own right.
The Liberal campaign suffered early problems in February 2008 when a number of prominent Liberal Party and business figures, including popular former Chief Minister
Kate Carnell
Anne Katherine Carnell (née Knowlman; born 30 May 1955) is an Australian businesswoman and former Liberal Party politician, who served as the third Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) from 1995 to 2000.
Early life and ...
and high-profile businessman and former party finance director Jim Murphy, relaunched the 250 Club, previously a Liberal fundraising group, as the independent Canberra Business Club. The new organisation pledged to support
minor party
A minor party is a political party that plays a smaller (in some cases much smaller, even insignificant in comparison) role than a major party in a country's politics and elections. The difference between minor and major parties can be so great t ...
and independent pro-business candidates in the election, citing their disillusion with both major parties and the need for a third political force in the Assembly. At the same time, their best prospect for winning Mulcahy's seat of Molonglo, the Liberal candidate for Fraser in the previous Federal election, Troy Williams, withdrew.
Polling
Conducted by Patterson Market Research, and published in
The Canberra Times
''The Canberra Times'' is a daily newspaper in Canberra, Australia, which is published by Australian Community Media. It was founded in 1926, and has changed ownership and format several times.
History
''The Canberra Times'' was launched in 1 ...
, polling released on 4 October suggested the Green vote had doubled to tripled since the last election, at the expense of Labor, with the Liberal vote relatively unchanged. Commentators predicted the Greens would hold the
balance of power and decide who forms government. The Greens stated they were willing to court both major parties.
Scanning of ballot papers
In the 2001 and 2004 elections, after the first manual count of paper ballots the preferences were data entered for distribution. For the 2008 election, paper ballots were scanned and
character recognition
Optical character recognition or optical character reader (OCR) is the electronic or mechanical conversion of images of typed, handwritten or printed text into machine-encoded text, whether from a scanned document, a photo of a document, a sce ...
software used to identify preferences. Any preferences that could not be identified by the software were entered manually.
Candidates
Sitting members at the time of the election are listed in bold. Tickets that elected at least one MLA are highlighted in the relevant colour. Successful candidates are indicated by an asterisk (*).
Retiring Members
Labor
*
Wayne Berry (
Ginninderra
Ginninderra is the name of the former agricultural lands surrendered to urban development on the western and north-western fringes of Canberra, the capital of Australia. Ginninderra corresponds with the watershed of Ginninderra Creek, which ...
)
*
Karin MacDonald (
Brindabella)
Liberal
*
Bill Stefaniak
William George Stefaniak (born 8 January 1952) is an Australian politician and former Australian Capital Territory Minister. He was the Leader of the Opposition in the Australian Capital Territory after succeeding in a leadership challenge agai ...
(
Ginninderra
Ginninderra is the name of the former agricultural lands surrendered to urban development on the western and north-western fringes of Canberra, the capital of Australia. Ginninderra corresponds with the watershed of Ginninderra Creek, which ...
)
Greens
*
Deb Foskey
Deborah Jane Foskey (12 November 1949 – 1 May 2020) was an Australian politician with the ACT Greens.
Early life
Foskey was born at Terang in rural Western Victoria, the second of a family of four. Her father worked for the Victorian Depart ...
(
Molonglo)
Brindabella
Five seats were up for election. The
Labor Party was defending three seats. The
Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world.
The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...
was defending two seats.
Ginninderra
Ginninderra is the name of the former agricultural lands surrendered to urban development on the western and north-western fringes of Canberra, the capital of Australia. Ginninderra corresponds with the watershed of Ginninderra Creek, which ...
Five seats were up for election. The
Labor Party was defending three seats. The
Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world.
The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...
was defending two seats.
Molonglo
Seven seats were up for election. The
Labor Party was defending three seats. The
Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world.
The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...
was defending three seats. The
Greens were defending one seat.
Results
At the close of counting on election night 18 October 2008, with 82.1 per cent of the vote counted Labor had obtained 37.6 per cent of the vote across the ACT, with the Liberals at 31.1 per cent and the Greens at 15.8 per cent. Swings were recorded against both the Labor (-9.3 per cent) and Liberal (-3.7 per cent) parties with a +6.6 per cent swing towards the Greens. Labor won 7 seats, the Liberals won 6 seats, while the Greens won 4 seats, giving them the
balance of power, and negotiated with both major parties for the formation of a
minority government
A minority government, minority cabinet, minority administration, or a minority parliament is a government and cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in ...
.
After almost two weeks of deliberations, the Greens chose to form a minority government with Labor.
The
ACT Electoral Commission determined and announced the election's final results on 25 October 2008 after distribution of preferences.
In
Brindabella, Labor lost one of its three seats to Greens candidate
Amanda Bresnan
Amanda Bresnan (born 4 December 1971) is an Australian politician and a former member of the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly. Bresnan was elected to the ACT Legislative Assembly representing the electorate of Brindabella for ...
. Government minister
John Hargreaves was re-elected, but Labor backbencher
Mick Gentleman was beaten by another Labor candidate,
Joy Burch. For the Liberal Party, former leader
Brendan Smyth was re-elected, but shadow minister
Steve Pratt lost his seat to party colleague
Steve Doszpot.
Labor also lost a seat in
Ginninderra
Ginninderra is the name of the former agricultural lands surrendered to urban development on the western and north-western fringes of Canberra, the capital of Australia. Ginninderra corresponds with the watershed of Ginninderra Creek, which ...
, where Greens candidate
Meredith Hunter was elected. Chief Minister
Jon Stanhope
Jonathan Donald Stanhope (born 29 April 1951) is a former Australian politician who was Labor Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory from 2001 to 2011. Stanhope represented the Ginninderra electorate in the ACT Legislative Assem ...
and Labor MLA
Mary Porter were both re-elected, and on the Liberal ticket sitting MLA
Vicki Dunne
Vicki Ann Dunne (born 25 December 1956) is an Australian politician who was a member of the unicameral Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly, from 2001 to 2020, representing the electoral district of Ginninderra for the Liberal Party ...
was joined by
Alistair Coe
Alistair Bruce Coe (born 9 January 1984) is an Australian politician and a former leader of the Liberal Party and Leader of the Opposition in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). He was a member of the ACT Legislative Assembly from 2008 to ...
, who replaced retiring
Bill Stefaniak
William George Stefaniak (born 8 January 1952) is an Australian politician and former Australian Capital Territory Minister. He was the Leader of the Opposition in the Australian Capital Territory after succeeding in a leadership challenge agai ...
.
In seven-member
Molonglo, the Liberals lost one seat to the Greens. Labor ministers
Katy Gallagher
Katherine Ruth Gallagher ( /'gæləhər/ GAL-ə-her; born 18 March 1970) is an Australian politician who has been serving as the Minister for Finance, Minister for Women, Minister for the Public Service and Vice-President of the Executive ...
,
Andrew Barr
Andrew James Barr (born 29 April 1973) is an Australian politician who has been serving as the 7th and current chief minister of the Australian Capital Territory since 2014 and the treasurer of the Australian Capital Territory since 2011. He ...
and
Simon Corbell
Simon Corbell (born 21 November 1970) is a former Australian politician and Deputy Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory. He was also Attorney-General, Minister for Health, Minister for the Environment and Minister for the Capital ...
all won re-election, as did Liberal leader
Zed Seselja
Zdenko Matthew "Zed" Seselja (; born 27 March 1977) is an Australian politician who was a Senator for the Australian Capital Territory from 2013 to 2022, representing the Liberal Party. He was the Minister for International Development and the ...
. Sitting MLA
Jacqui Burke lost to
Jeremy Hanson
Jeremy David Hanson, Conspicuous Service Cross (Australia), CSC, Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly, MLA (born 18 February 1967) is a former Australian Army officer and is an Australian politician with the Liberal Party of Austra ...
for the second Liberal seat. The Greens increased their representation in this seat to two, electing new MLAs
Shane Rattenbury and
Caroline Le Couteur
Caroline Le Couteur (born 1952) is an Australian politician. She was elected to the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly representing the electorate of Molonglo electorate, Molonglo for the ACT Greens at the 2008 Australian Capital ...
, the latter at the expense of Liberal-turned-Independent MLA
Richard Mulcahy
Richard James Mulcahy (10 May 1886 – 16 December 1971) was an Irish Fine Gael politician and army general who served as Minister for Education from 1948 to 1951 and 1954 to 1957, Minister for the Gaeltacht from June 1956 to October 1956, L ...
.
See also
*
Members of the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly, 2008–2012
References
External links
List of candidates for the 2008 ACT Legislative Assembly electionACT Legislative Assembly - List of Members (1989 - 2008)ACT Electoral Commission - 2008 ACT Legislative Assembly election
{{DEFAULTSORT:Australian Capital Territory Election, 2008
2008 elections in Australia
2008
2008 was designated as:
*International Year of Languages
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The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...
October 2008 in Australia
2000s in the Australian Capital Territory