Conquered But Not Conceding
The Age
Monday October 5, 1998
The coalition had survived a bigger voter swing against it than the swing that ousted Paul Keating in 1996, the Opposition Leader, Mr Kim Beazley, said yesterday.
Mr Beazley told a news conference at his home in South Perth that he still could not say how many seats Labor would win and he was still not ready to concede.
But he said the outcome would probably become clearer by Tuesday or Wednesday as counting of pre-poll and postal votes continued.
He predicted that over the next three years Australia would face a series of crises in services including hospitals, child care, education and employment.
``There are going to be a lot more issues on the agenda of this Government than their view of trying to impose a huge indirect tax in the middle of difficult economic circumstances," Mr Beazley said.
He also confirmed that he was keen to get new blood onto his front bench though it was up to the caucus to decide who should be elevated.
He said he was keen to see the Queenslander Wayne Swan included. Labor insiders said others under consideration were Anthony Albanese (NSW), Robert McClelland (NSW) and the former Health Minister Carmen Lawrence (WA) if she emerged unscathed from her court appearance on charges flowing from the Marks royal commission.
Mr Beazley agreed that Mr Howard might well have trouble getting his Telstra and tax legislation through the House of Representatives. ``It depends whether or not his backbenchers stick to the positions that they told their electorates. That's going to be interesting. And it depends what's going to them if they don't."
And despite the concerns raised by Labor's president, Mr Barry Jones, that the ALP's NSW branch had run a campaign in marginal seats that was separate from the national campaign, Mr Beazley said he suspected that the NSW party had polled a majority of votes.
He said the strong support for One Nation showed that many people were still deeply dissatisfied with the major parties. ``That's a challenge to me."
Mr Beazley said his Treasury spokesman, Mr Gareth Evans, had been subjected to a very unfair campaign by the Liberal Party. He said Mr Evans was a great Australian political figure and the greatest Foreign Minister in the country's history.
``I thank him for his services."
It was likely that Mr Howard would soon face a challenge as Liberal leader. It was part of the national sport of the Liberal Party to seek to replace Mr Howard. ``And no doubt Mr Costello and others who are interested in that will be wandering around checking the statistics and using some of the statistics that are there to be used."
And he rejected claims that the coalition had a mandate for its tax package and the Telstra sale. ``Mr Howard goes back into Parliament with a mandate for good government which we will assist him with by being a good and effective Opposition over the course of the next few years," he said.
``He has a mandate for nothing else in policy terms. If he is ultimately successful in securing government.
``If we are not successful in enough seats to form a government, and as I said last night, that would seem to be the most likely course of events, we will find ourselves confronting a Parliament in which there will be a huge number of marginal seats. Our work will be cut out winning those seats next time around."
He said Labor won more than 51 per cent of the two-party preferred vote and the ALP would hold more seats than any other party.
On Labor's failure to make sufficient headway in NSW, Mr Beazley denied that the state branch ran a separate campaign to that run federally.
He said Labor was in the position where it was faced with the need to win at least 27 seats and more realistically 30 if it were to form a stable government.
He said Labor had a tremendous result outside the south-eastern corner of Australia. ``We now have half the seats in WA. The electoral map of Perth looks completely different. We've had a good result in Queensland and we can have a better one there and we've had an excellent result in Tasmania and we'll have to see in SA."
Mr Beazley said he was happy that Labor now held a majority of seats in Victoria.
© 1998 The Age
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