BY GRAHAM MATTHEWS
"At the beginning of the Aston by-election campaign, Socialist Alliance had one member in the electorate of Aston," the alliance's Aston campaign coordinator David Glanz told a post-election Socialist Alliance celebration on July 14. "Now we have enough members to found a branch in Melbourne's east."
In its first electoral test, the Socialist Alliance mobilised more than 150 supporters to cover all 33 booths for the by-election. Only four other parties (Labor, Liberal, the Australian Greens and the Democrats) were able to mobilise a similar number. At least three voters joined the alliance on the day, and many more took policy information and details of coming events.
Socialist Alliance candidate Josephine Cox received 0.45% of the primary vote cast.
"For an electorate where the left is not known, in a field of 15 candidates, this result is a great first step", Glanz said.
The election will come down to postal and pre-poll votes. At the end of the polling-booth counting on July 14, Labor candidate Kieran Boland was ahead by only 14 votes on a two-party preferred basis with a further 10,000 postal and pre-poll votes left to count. This represents a 4.25% swing to Labor. The swing against the Liberals was 8%.
Josephine Cox argued that the ALP's failure to win a bigger swing reflected its lack of real opposition to the Liberals' agenda. "The closeness of this result is an indictment of the Labor Party", she told the post-election party.
The Labor Party failed to campaign against the Liberals' biggest attack on working people, the GST, until the final week of the campaign. When it finally did, Labor did not oppose the tax outright, and provided no details on its promised "roll-back". Boland was severely embarrassed as he stumbled over questions from journalists about Labor's position on the Kyoto climate-change treaty, failing to give any indication of Labor's position.
The disillusionment with the Liberals and the ALP was evident in the campaign. Around 30% of the electorate voted for alternative candidates. Much of this vote went to the Australian Democrats, whose vote rose from 7.5% in 1998 to 8.4%. They did not provide voters with any detailed policy. Nevertheless they plastered polling booths with posters featuring new leader Natasha Stott Despoja and vague promises to "change politics". The Australian Greens (Victoria), who did not contest the seat in 1998, received 2.5% of the vote.