What an amazing weekend! A huge thank you to all the GetUp volunteers who worked on the GetUp election campaign, especially those who were out in force on Saturday handing out scorecards to voters all over the country, from Magnetic Island to Broome and hundreds of cities and towns in between.
Votes are still being counted, but it seems that neither major party earned the trust of the Australian people to govern in their own right. Almost 1 in 5 voted for independents and minor parties.
The tally in the Lower House currently stands at 72 seats for Labor and 70 for the Coalition (with three remaining seats likely to go their way). 76 is needed to form Government and the most likely outcome is a minority Labor Government, formed by an agreement with the Greens and some or all of the independents -- but this is far from certain.
This moment provides an historic opportunity for GetUp members to push for much needed parliamentary and democratic reform that would never happen under the usual two party dominance of parliament.
Just a few months ago, the balance of power in the UK's new Parliament created the potential for desperately needed democratic reforms, giving new power to ideas like preferential voting, parliamentary process reform, political transparency and more. But despite early hopes, reform has stalled. In Australia we can't let that happen. It is these moments that our movement is made for.
So who are these independents and what are their values? You might be surprised at what we've found.
Prior to the election, we organised a forum at the National Press Club for these independents, to be live-streamed on the internet this Wednesday. It's a fantastic opportunity to hear where they stand on the issues that matter to you. We've also compiled some information about these independents and how they've voted on key issues including climate change. Click here to read more, or to RSVP for the webcast:
www.getup.org.au/campaign/independentsday
The end result of this election is still up in the air, but, one thing is for sure: GetUp members made a huge impact this election.
As just one example, through the High Court challenge brought by GetUp members, 98,138 Australians were able to vote yesterday who wouldn't have otherwise had the chance. That's a wonderful thing for democracy. And in the tightest electorates those extra votes are determining who forms Government.
In the marginal seat of Brisbane the difference between Labor and Liberal is currently a few hundred votes, and GetUp's High Court case added 1097 voters to the rolls. In Corangamite, where the margin may be in the hundreds, there were over 724 extra voters because of the success of GetUp members. And in McEwan, where the last election came down to 27 votes, there were an additional 1191 voters on the rolls this election. In 12 marginal electorates, the number of voters added to the rolls because of the High Court challenge was greater than the difference between the two parties last election.
Your work has made a huge impact.
In the last two days of the campaign GetUp members distributed over 1.1 million issue scorecards to voters, showing where the parties stand on key issues. At several booths in key marginal seats, GetUp members outnumbered volunteers for political parties!
While there is so much more to say about what we've just achieved, a balance of power situation brings its own set of challenges, and we all want to see an agreement for stability as soon as possible. But this is also an opportunity for some fresh voices, unconstrained by party politics, to give new force to important ideas, and call for the kind of reforms we so desperately need.
Whoever forms Government, Getup members will be there to keep them accountable and stand up for what's right.
Thank you for being a part of this movement,
The GetUp team.
PS - For the nerd in you, here's the current Lower House count in more detail:
Labor: 72 seats. Coalition: 69 seats (if you don't count Tony Crook from the WA National Party), but Boothby, Brisbane and Hasluck are all still up for grabs and look likely to go their way. Tony Crook was the surprise winner in O'Connor, unseating longstanding Liberal MP Wilson Tuckey. Mr. Crook represents the West Australian Nationals party, which is separate from the Liberal National Party and the federal Nationals. He today declared that the coalition can "not at all" count on his vote to form government.
Independents Tony Windsor in New England, Bob Katter in Kennedy and Rob Oakshott in Lyon have all been reelected with huge margins. Andrew Wilkie, the former intelligence agent who fell out with John Howard over the Iraq war and formerly ran for the Greens in Bennelong, looks likely to be elected as an independent in the seat of Denison, Tasmania. And of course there's Adam Bandt, the new Greens MP for Melbourne who won in a greenslide. That's as many as 6 voices in the lower house singing from a whole new song sheet!
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