Gippsland by-election, 2008
Encyclopedia
A by-election was held for the Australian House of Representatives
seat of Gippsland
on 28 June 2008. It was triggered by the resignation of National Party
MP
Peter McGauran.
The writ
for the by-election
was issued on 19 May 2008. Nominations closed at 12 noon on 5 June 2008. The declaration of nominations, including the ballot
order, was revealed the following day, 6 June 2008. The electorate was contested on the same boundaries drawn for Gippsland at the 2007 federal election.
The by-election saw the National Party
retain the seat with an increased margin, electing candidate Darren Chester
.
defeated the incumbent Liberal
-National
coalition
government. This marked the first change of government in over 11 years. This meant a transition from the government frontbench to the opposition backbench for several Liberal Party and National Party politicians. It was speculated that a number of former ministers would not serve out their terms but resign their seats early, and this has in fact occurred (McGauran, Alexander Downer
and Mark Vaile
have all resigned).
On 4 April 2008, McGauran became the first former Howard
government minister returned at the 2007 election to announce his resignation. McGauran first won the seat of Gippsland at the 1983 federal election
. He retained the seat at every subsequent election. At the 2007 election, McGauran won the seat for the National Party by a two-party preferred margin of 55.91% to Labor's 44.09%.
McGauran has reportedly lined up a job in the racing industry with Thoroughbred Breeders Australia.
, independent Victorian MLA
for the seat of Gippsland East
, told reporters that he was considering contesting the by-election as an independent
. Subsequently, Liberal Senator
Bill Heffernan
made an offer to Ingram to run with the joint endorsement of the Liberal and National parties. Heffernan saw this as the first step in a potential merger between the two parties. However, the idea was rejected by both party organisations; and it is doubtful whether Heffernan had the authority to make such an offer. Soon after that, Ingram announced that he would not be running in any capacity.
retained the seat for the National Party with an increased margin.
Australian House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....
seat of Gippsland
Division of Gippsland
The Division of Gippsland is anAustralian Electoral Division in Victoria. The division was one of the original 75 divisions contested at the first federal election. It is named for the Gippsland region of eastern Victoria, which in turn is named for Sir George Gipps, Governor of New South Wales...
on 28 June 2008. It was triggered by the resignation of National Party
National Party of Australia
The National Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Traditionally representing graziers, farmers and rural voters generally, it began as the The Country Party, but adopted the name The National Country Party in 1975, changed to The National Party of Australia in 1982. The party is...
MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
Peter McGauran.
The writ
Writ of election
A writ of election is a writ issued by the government ordering the holding of a special election for a political office.In the United Kingdom and in Canada, this is the only way of holding an election for the House of Commons...
for the by-election
By-election
A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....
was issued on 19 May 2008. Nominations closed at 12 noon on 5 June 2008. The declaration of nominations, including the ballot
Ballot
A ballot is a device used to record choices made by voters. Each voter uses one ballot, and ballots are not shared. In the simplest elections, a ballot may be a simple scrap of paper on which each voter writes in the name of a candidate, but governmental elections use pre-printed to protect the...
order, was revealed the following day, 6 June 2008. The electorate was contested on the same boundaries drawn for Gippsland at the 2007 federal election.
The by-election saw the National Party
National Party of Australia
The National Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Traditionally representing graziers, farmers and rural voters generally, it began as the The Country Party, but adopted the name The National Country Party in 1975, changed to The National Party of Australia in 1982. The party is...
retain the seat with an increased margin, electing candidate Darren Chester
Darren Chester
Darren Jeffrey Chester is an Australian politician. He is the National Party member of the Australian House of Representatives for the electoral division of Gippsland in Victoria. He was elected at the 2008 by-election caused by the resignation of Peter McGauran.Chester was born in the Victorian...
.
Background
At the 2007 federal election, the opposition Labor PartyAustralian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
defeated the incumbent Liberal
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
-National
National Party of Australia
The National Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Traditionally representing graziers, farmers and rural voters generally, it began as the The Country Party, but adopted the name The National Country Party in 1975, changed to The National Party of Australia in 1982. The party is...
coalition
Coalition (Australia)
The Coalition in Australian politics refers to a group of centre-right parties that has existed in the form of a coalition agreement since 1922...
government. This marked the first change of government in over 11 years. This meant a transition from the government frontbench to the opposition backbench for several Liberal Party and National Party politicians. It was speculated that a number of former ministers would not serve out their terms but resign their seats early, and this has in fact occurred (McGauran, Alexander Downer
Alexander Downer
Alexander John Gosse Downer is a former Australian Liberal Party politician who was Foreign Minister of Australia from March 1996 to December 2007, the longest-serving in Australian history...
and Mark Vaile
Mark Vaile
Mark Anthony James Vaile , Australian politician, is a former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and former leader of the National Party of Australia.-Early life:...
have all resigned).
On 4 April 2008, McGauran became the first former Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
government minister returned at the 2007 election to announce his resignation. McGauran first won the seat of Gippsland at the 1983 federal election
Australian federal election, 1983
Federal elections were held in Australia on 5 March 1983. All 125 seats in the House of Representatives, and all 64 seats in the Senate, were up for election, following a double dissolution...
. He retained the seat at every subsequent election. At the 2007 election, McGauran won the seat for the National Party by a two-party preferred margin of 55.91% to Labor's 44.09%.
McGauran has reportedly lined up a job in the racing industry with Thoroughbred Breeders Australia.
Candidates
Five candidates contested the by-election. They are listed below in ballot order.- Australian GreensAustralian GreensThe Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, is an Australian green political party.The party was formed in 1992; however, its origins can be traced to the early environmental movement in Australia and the formation of the United Tasmania Group , the first Green party in the world, which...
– Malcolm McKelvie, doctor from YarragonYarragon, VictoriaYarragon is a small town in the West Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia. The town lies on the Princes Highway and the main Gippsland Railway line approximately halfway between the major towns of Warragul and Moe...
.
- Liberal Party of AustraliaLiberal Party of AustraliaThe Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
– Rohan Fitzgerald, senior manager with the Central Gippsland Health Service. He is based in TraralgonTraralgon, VictoriaTraralgon is a regional city located in the Latrobe Valley in the Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia. Traralgon is a city within the City of Latrobe....
.
- Liberty and Democracy Party – Ben Buckley, pilot and a councillor of East Gippsland Shire Council. Buckley is a perennial candidatePerennial candidateA perennial candidate is one who frequently runs for public office with a record of success that is infrequent, if existent at all. Perennial candidates are often either members of minority political parties or have political opinions that are not mainstream. They may run without any serious hope...
who contested Gippsland as an independentIndependent (politician)In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...
in 1984, 1990, 1993, 1996, 2001 and 2007, and as a One Nation candidate in 2004. He is based in BenambraBenambra, VictoriaBenambra is a small town located 28 kilometres north-east of Omeo and 430 kilometres east of the state capital Melbourne, in the Australian Alps of East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. Other nearby towns include Swifts Creek, Ensay, and the major town of Bairnsdale...
.
- Australian Labor PartyAustralian Labor PartyThe Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
– Darren McCubbin, Mayor of Wellington Shire at the time of nomination but has since resigned in order to focus on the campaign. He won preselection over Latrobe City Deputy Mayor David Wilson. He is based in SaleSale, VictoriaSale is a city in the Gippsland region of the Australian state of Victoria. It is the seat of the Shire of Wellington as well as the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sale and the Anglican Diocese of Gippsland. It has a population of around 13,336, and is expected to reach a population of 14,000 soon...
.
- National Party of AustraliaNational Party of AustraliaThe National Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Traditionally representing graziers, farmers and rural voters generally, it began as the The Country Party, but adopted the name The National Country Party in 1975, changed to The National Party of Australia in 1982. The party is...
– Darren ChesterDarren ChesterDarren Jeffrey Chester is an Australian politician. He is the National Party member of the Australian House of Representatives for the electoral division of Gippsland in Victoria. He was elected at the 2008 by-election caused by the resignation of Peter McGauran.Chester was born in the Victorian...
, chief of staff to Nationals leader in Victoria Peter RyanPeter Ryan (politician)Peter Julian Ryan is an Australian politician and leader of the National Party in Victoria. He has represented the electoral district of Gippsland South since 1992, and has been the Deputy Premier of Victoria, Minister for Police as well as the Minister for Rural and Regional Development since 2...
. He won preselection over retired army officer Russell Smith. He is based in Lakes EntranceLakes Entrance, VictoriaLakes Entrance is a tourist resort and fishing port in eastern Victoria, Australia. It is situated approximately east of Melbourne, near a managed, man-made channel connecting the Gippsland Lakes to the Bass Strait. At the 2006 census, Lakes Entrance had a population of 4,094.The township was...
.
A joint Coalition candidate?
Following McGauran's resignation announcement, Craig IngramCraig Ingram
Craig Ingram is a former Australian politician, and was the Independent Member of Parliament for Gippsland East in the Victorian Legislative Assembly from 1999 to 2010.-Personal life:...
, independent Victorian MLA
Victorian Legislative Assembly
The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the Parliament of Victoria in Australia. Together with the Victorian Legislative Council, the upper house, it sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Melbourne.-History:...
for the seat of Gippsland East
Electoral district of Gippsland East
The Electoral district of Gippsland East is an electoral district of the Victorian Legislative Assembly. It covers most of eastern Victoria and includes the towns of Bairnsdale, Lakes Entrance, Orbost, Omeo, Maffra and Heyfield....
, told reporters that he was considering contesting the by-election as an independent
Independent (politician)
In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...
. Subsequently, Liberal Senator
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...
Bill Heffernan
Bill Heffernan
William Daniel Heffernan, more commonly known as Bill Heffernan, , Australian politician, has been a Liberal Party member of the Senate, representing the state of New South Wales, since September 1996.-Early life:...
made an offer to Ingram to run with the joint endorsement of the Liberal and National parties. Heffernan saw this as the first step in a potential merger between the two parties. However, the idea was rejected by both party organisations; and it is doubtful whether Heffernan had the authority to make such an offer. Soon after that, Ingram announced that he would not be running in any capacity.
Results
Darren ChesterDarren Chester
Darren Jeffrey Chester is an Australian politician. He is the National Party member of the Australian House of Representatives for the electoral division of Gippsland in Victoria. He was elected at the 2008 by-election caused by the resignation of Peter McGauran.Chester was born in the Victorian...
retained the seat for the National Party with an increased margin.