Greens Senator Scott Ludlam and Palmer United party’s Dio Wang both set to secure spots, along with two Liberals and one Labor candidate, and final Senate seat still to be determined
The Greens and the Palmer United Party are each set to win a Senate seat as voters punished the major parties in a rerun Western Australian ballot that will determine the makeup of the upper house and its decisions on the Abbott government’s legislative agenda.
The result means the Coalition will be forced to get the votes of the PUP Senate bloc, as well as either two or three other crossbench senators, for every bill opposed by Labor and the Greens.
After a strong grassroots campaign the Greens won a 6.3% swing, easily securing a quota for Senator Scott Ludlam. With an advertising campaign that outspent all the other parties combined, the Palmer United Party also secured a 7.4% swing, putting lead candidate Dio Wang very close to a quota and certain to be elected.
With almost 90% of first preference votes counted, Labor suffered a 4.8% swing against it. Labor’s controversial lead candidate, Joe Bullock, has been elected, but its second candidate, Louise Pratt, is fighting for the sixth WA senate spot with the Liberals third candidate, Linda Reynolds.
There was also a swing of 5.5% against the Liberals. The Liberals had been confident of securing three seats, although the deputy leader, Julie Bishop, insisted the swing was well within normal swings against a government in a by-election.
TT EARLIER: • Greens Senator To Tony Abbott: “We Want Our Country Back”
• Andrew Inglish Clarke, in Comments: Interesting debate here … The question must be asked: Why nationally are the Greens on a roll; while in Tasmania the Greens are in the doldrums? Why in WA did the Greens vote go up more than six per cent; yet in Tasmania, the March 15 poll saw a massive slump ( 8 per cent ) which saw the Greens lose party status and MPs Basil O’Halloran and Tim Morris. So what did Nick’s much-vaunted bike ride in 2010 with Barty – which established the Labor Green nexus (that is conspicuously apart from Kim Booth) – achieve? What did two Green ministers in Cabinet achieve? They said they were governing for experience … But the only outcome seems to have been a trashing of the Green “brand”.
• Colette Harmsen, in Comments: My name is Colette Harmsen and I am a pubic servant. I would like to openly communicate my disapproval of the Tony Abbott government. I feel that there have been far too many decisions made since Abbott came into office in September 2013 that anger, alarm, disgust and sadden me; and that in the current political climate I feel appalled and embarrassed to be an Australian. I would like to provide a list of reasons why Tony Abbott does not speak for me. My original list was 2 pages long but I didn’t want to lose your attention …
