Werriwa by-election, 2005
Encyclopedia
A by-election was held in the Werriwa
electorate in south-western Sydney
on 19 March 2005, after the resignation of Labor
MP
Mark Latham
, who had represented the electorate since 1994. Latham, who at the time was also serving as federal Opposition Leader, had become increasingly disenchanted with political life and was struggling with recurring pancreatitis
, had announced his resignation on 18 January.
The governing Liberal Party of Australia
chose not to contest the by-election, as Werriwa has long been considered a safe Labor seat; Labor has held it for all but nine years since 1906. Nevertheless, the by-election received substantial public attention, due to both the surprise nature of Latham's resignation and a brutal Labor preselection battle between two potential candidates. This resulted in the drafting of a compromise candidate, industrial mediator Chris Hayes
. With the by-election only being contested by minor parties, Hayes was ultimately successful, taking 55.4% of the primary vote, an increase on the vote polled by Latham at the 2004 federal election.
following the retirement of former Treasurer
John Kerin
, and had been easily re-elected four times, in 1996, 1998, 2001 and 2004.
Latham had served as Shadow Minister for Education from 1997 to 1998, but had resigned from the Shadow Cabinet in 1998 after a policy dispute with then-leader Kim Beazley
, and had been a dissident backbencher for five years thereafter. He rose to sudden prominence again in 2003 after the forced resignation of Beazley's successor and Latham's friend and ally, Simon Crean
, as leader. It was widely assumed that Beazley would retake his former position as Labor leader, but Latham nominated for the position, and in a surprise result, was successful by 47 votes to 45.
Latham served as Opposition Leader for a stormy thirteen months, initially revitalising the party and opening an election-winning lead in the polls before the October 2004 election, but slipping behind during the election campaign after a series of gaffes and a successful government scare campaign on interest rates. This resulted in a net loss of seats, and the party's worst result in some years. A devastated Latham largely disappeared from public life in the wake of the election defeat, and was widely criticised for failing to reappear or make any public comment in the wake of the December 2004 tsunami
. It was revealed that he was suffering from pancreatitis, a condition which had dogged him through his time as leader, but after repeatedly failing to reappear in public and after nearly a month of questions as to his whereabouts, he announced his resignation from politics on 18 January, thus creating the need for a by-election in his seat of Werriwa
.
Two main candidates were touted for the Labor nomination: Brenton Banfield, the then-mayor of Campbelltown, and Steven Chaytor
, a City of Campbelltown councillor and aide to former Prime Minister
Gough Whitlam
. Paul Lynch
, the state MP for Liverpool
, and former federal minister Michael Lee
were both briefly touted as potential candidates, but were soon ruled out.
Banfield emerged as an early favourite in the preselection, having been a popular mayor with a high profile in the area, and having been reportedly asked to nominate by the party's head office. The campaign got increasingly nasty, with supporters of Banfield and Chaytor clashing, which reached a peak when supporters of Chaytor launched a public attack on Banfield for having defended sex offenders through his work as a solicitor, though Banfield had been professionally obligated to do so. This reportedly raised concerns among party insiders that Banfield could become a liability after doing polling on the issue, and began looking for a consensus candidate instead.
This emerged in the form of Chris Hayes
, an industrial mediator and former assistant secretary of the Australian Workers Union with no prior political background. He nominated at the end of January, receiving strong support from the party's head office, and Banfield and Chaytor came under pressure to withdraw before the close of nominations on 1 February; Banfield doing so on 31 January, and Chaytor following the next day. Hayes was thus the sole nominee at the close of nominations, and was confirmed as the party's candidate on 2 February.
would nominate as a star candidate for the Liberals, but he had announced that he would not run on 7 February. The decision by the Liberal Party not to run changed the dynamics of the race significantly, as with the only threat now from minor parties and independents, Labor became the solid favourite to retain the seat.
In total, 16 candidates nominated for the by-election - the most in a federal by-election since 1992. They included candidates from the Australian Greens
, Family First Party
, Christian Democratic Party
, One Nation, Progressive Labour Party and Australians Against Further Immigration
. Nine independents were among them, including independent Liberal James Young, self-confessed former Labor branchstacker Sam Bargshoon, and radio presenter Mal Lees, who ran on a joke platform of free beer. Police whistleblower Deborah Locke, an endorsed People Power Party
candidate, was forced to run as an independent due to her party's failure to re-register in time. Most of the independent and minor candidates joined in an "anyone but Labor" campaign, with Young and Locke considered the most likely challengers during the campaign.
A variety of issues were raised in the campaign; the poor state of public transport in the region, hospital waiting lists, the state of the region's high schools, interest rates, a lack of infrastructure in newer suburbs, and anger over the then-recent 2005 Macquarie Fields riots
. Much of the campaign was focused on personality and name recognition; Greens candidate Ben Raue commented "There really haven't been any debates about policies - it's been more about getting your face out to the people." The by-election was also marked by a high rate of apathy and disinterest, resulting in the informal vote going up from 8% at the general election to 13% at the by-election.
. Hayes polled 55.5% of the primary vote, with his nearest challenger being independent Liberal Young on 7.8%, ahead of Green Raue on 5.5%. Locke, despite some predictions of an upset victory, polled only 3.1%. Hayes was able to claim victory on the day of the by-election, and was subsequently sworn in as a member of the Australian House of Representatives
. Steven Chaytor, who had stepped aside for Hayes in preselection, later served as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
from 2005 to 2007.
Division of Werriwa
The Division of Werriwa is a Federal Electoral Division for the Australian House of Representatives.The name Werriwa derives from a local Aboriginal name for Lake George, which was located in the division when it was established in 1900. The division was one of the original 75 divisions first...
electorate in south-western Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
on 19 March 2005, after the resignation of Labor
Australian 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...
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,...
Mark Latham
Mark Latham
Mark William Latham , an author and former Australian politician, was leader of the Federal Parliamentary Australian Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition from December 2003 to January 2005....
, who had represented the electorate since 1994. Latham, who at the time was also serving as federal Opposition Leader, had become increasingly disenchanted with political life and was struggling with recurring pancreatitis
Pancreatitis
Pancreatitis is inflammation of the pancreas. It occurs when pancreatic enzymes that digest food are activated in the pancreas instead of the small intestine. It may be acute – beginning suddenly and lasting a few days, or chronic – occurring over many years...
, had announced his resignation on 18 January.
The governing Liberal Party of Australia
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...
chose not to contest the by-election, as Werriwa has long been considered a safe Labor seat; Labor has held it for all but nine years since 1906. Nevertheless, the by-election received substantial public attention, due to both the surprise nature of Latham's resignation and a brutal Labor preselection battle between two potential candidates. This resulted in the drafting of a compromise candidate, industrial mediator Chris Hayes
Chris Hayes (politician)
Christopher Patrick "Chris" Hayes , Australian Labor Party politician, was elected to the Australian House of Representatives on 19 March 2005 in a by-election for the Division of Werriwa, New South Wales, succeeding former party leader Mark Latham.Hayes was educated at De La Salle College,...
. With the by-election only being contested by minor parties, Hayes was ultimately successful, taking 55.4% of the primary vote, an increase on the vote polled by Latham at the 2004 federal election.
Background
Mark Latham had been first elected at a 1994 by-electionWerriwa by-election, 1994
A by-election for the Australian House of Representatives division of Werriwa was held on 28 January 1994. It was triggered by the resignation of sitting Labor Party member and former minister John Kerin....
following the retirement of former Treasurer
Treasurer of Australia
The Treasurer of Australia is the minister in the Government of Australia responsible for government expenditure and revenue raising. He is the head of the Department of the Treasury. The Treasurer plays a key role in the economic policy of the government...
John Kerin
John Kerin
John Charles Kerin, AM is an Australian economist and former Australian Labor Party politician.-Career in politics:...
, and had been easily re-elected four times, in 1996, 1998, 2001 and 2004.
Latham had served as Shadow Minister for Education from 1997 to 1998, but had resigned from the Shadow Cabinet in 1998 after a policy dispute with then-leader Kim Beazley
Kim Beazley
In the October 1998 election, Labor polled a majority of the two-party vote and received the largest swing to a first-term opposition since 1934. However, due to the uneven nature of the swing, Labor came up eight seats short of making Beazley Prime Minister....
, and had been a dissident backbencher for five years thereafter. He rose to sudden prominence again in 2003 after the forced resignation of Beazley's successor and Latham's friend and ally, Simon Crean
Simon Crean
Simon Findlay Crean is an Australian politician, and the current Minister for the Arts and Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government in the Australian Federal Government. He was leader of the Australian Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition at the Federal level,...
, as leader. It was widely assumed that Beazley would retake his former position as Labor leader, but Latham nominated for the position, and in a surprise result, was successful by 47 votes to 45.
Latham served as Opposition Leader for a stormy thirteen months, initially revitalising the party and opening an election-winning lead in the polls before the October 2004 election, but slipping behind during the election campaign after a series of gaffes and a successful government scare campaign on interest rates. This resulted in a net loss of seats, and the party's worst result in some years. A devastated Latham largely disappeared from public life in the wake of the election defeat, and was widely criticised for failing to reappear or make any public comment in the wake of the December 2004 tsunami
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on Sunday, December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The quake itself is known by the scientific community as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake...
. It was revealed that he was suffering from pancreatitis, a condition which had dogged him through his time as leader, but after repeatedly failing to reappear in public and after nearly a month of questions as to his whereabouts, he announced his resignation from politics on 18 January, thus creating the need for a by-election in his seat of Werriwa
Division of Werriwa
The Division of Werriwa is a Federal Electoral Division for the Australian House of Representatives.The name Werriwa derives from a local Aboriginal name for Lake George, which was located in the division when it was established in 1900. The division was one of the original 75 divisions first...
.
Preselection
The local branches in and around Werriwa had been the scene of major branch-stacking battles throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, due largely to preselection battles over the state seat of Liverpool, and as such, Labor's Werriwa Federal Electorate Council, which would normally select the candidate, had been "put on ice" since 2003. As a result, the party's left and right factions agreed to hold a ballot among the state's 34-member administrative committee to select the candidate.Two main candidates were touted for the Labor nomination: Brenton Banfield, the then-mayor of Campbelltown, and Steven Chaytor
Steven Chaytor
Steven John Chaytor is an Australian politician. He was an Australian Labor Party member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 2005 to 2007, representing the southwest Sydney electorate of Macquarie Fields....
, a City of Campbelltown councillor and aide to former Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Australia
The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...
Gough Whitlam
Gough Whitlam
Edward Gough Whitlam, AC, QC , known as Gough Whitlam , served as the 21st Prime Minister of Australia. Whitlam led the Australian Labor Party to power at the 1972 election and retained government at the 1974 election, before being dismissed by Governor-General Sir John Kerr at the climax of the...
. Paul Lynch
Paul Lynch (politician)
Paul Gerard Lynch MP, an Australian politician, is a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly representing Liverpool since 1995 for the Australian Labor Party.-Early career and background:...
, the state MP for Liverpool
Electoral district of Liverpool
Liverpool is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Australian state of New South Wales in Sydney's West. It is currently represented by Paul Lynch of the Australian Labor Party....
, and former federal minister Michael Lee
Michael Lee (Australian politician)
Michael John Lee is an Australian Labor politician. He was a member of the House of Representatives 1984–2001, a minister in Paul Keating's government, and a member of the City of Sydney Council 2004–08....
were both briefly touted as potential candidates, but were soon ruled out.
Banfield emerged as an early favourite in the preselection, having been a popular mayor with a high profile in the area, and having been reportedly asked to nominate by the party's head office. The campaign got increasingly nasty, with supporters of Banfield and Chaytor clashing, which reached a peak when supporters of Chaytor launched a public attack on Banfield for having defended sex offenders through his work as a solicitor, though Banfield had been professionally obligated to do so. This reportedly raised concerns among party insiders that Banfield could become a liability after doing polling on the issue, and began looking for a consensus candidate instead.
This emerged in the form of Chris Hayes
Chris Hayes (politician)
Christopher Patrick "Chris" Hayes , Australian Labor Party politician, was elected to the Australian House of Representatives on 19 March 2005 in a by-election for the Division of Werriwa, New South Wales, succeeding former party leader Mark Latham.Hayes was educated at De La Salle College,...
, an industrial mediator and former assistant secretary of the Australian Workers Union with no prior political background. He nominated at the end of January, receiving strong support from the party's head office, and Banfield and Chaytor came under pressure to withdraw before the close of nominations on 1 February; Banfield doing so on 31 January, and Chaytor following the next day. Hayes was thus the sole nominee at the close of nominations, and was confirmed as the party's candidate on 2 February.
Campaign
Although early polling in January had suggested that there was a reasonable possibility of a Liberal win should the party contest the seat, the party refused to speculate if they would nominate a candidate until mid-February, and finally ruled it out on 18 February. There had been some speculation that former rugby player Paul LangmackPaul Langmack
Paul Langmack is an Australian former rugby league coach and representative and premiership-winning player.-Playing Career:While attending Fairfield Patrician Brothers, Langmack played for the Australian Schoolboys team in 1982....
would nominate as a star candidate for the Liberals, but he had announced that he would not run on 7 February. The decision by the Liberal Party not to run changed the dynamics of the race significantly, as with the only threat now from minor parties and independents, Labor became the solid favourite to retain the seat.
In total, 16 candidates nominated for the by-election - the most in a federal by-election since 1992. They included candidates from the Australian Greens
Australian Greens
The 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...
, Family First Party
Family First Party
The Family First Party is a socially conservative minor political party in Australia. It has two members in the South Australian Legislative Council...
, Christian Democratic Party
Christian Democratic Party (Australia)
The Christian Democratic Party is a right-wing political party in Australia. Its leader is Fred Nile, a Congregational Church minister and a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council.-Formation:...
, One Nation, Progressive Labour Party and Australians Against Further Immigration
Australians Against Further Immigration
Australians Against Further Immigration was an Australian political party who described themselves as "eco-nationalists" and were against positive net immigration. The party was founded in 1989 and registered in 1990 by Rodney and Robyn Spencer, the parents of actor Jesse Spencer...
. Nine independents were among them, including independent Liberal James Young, self-confessed former Labor branchstacker Sam Bargshoon, and radio presenter Mal Lees, who ran on a joke platform of free beer. Police whistleblower Deborah Locke, an endorsed People Power Party
People Power Party
People Power is a populist political movement in Australia that was Federally registered as a political party in March 2006. The party contested its first election in the Victorian state election, 2006.- Policies :...
candidate, was forced to run as an independent due to her party's failure to re-register in time. Most of the independent and minor candidates joined in an "anyone but Labor" campaign, with Young and Locke considered the most likely challengers during the campaign.
A variety of issues were raised in the campaign; the poor state of public transport in the region, hospital waiting lists, the state of the region's high schools, interest rates, a lack of infrastructure in newer suburbs, and anger over the then-recent 2005 Macquarie Fields riots
2005 Macquarie Fields riots
The Macquarie Fields riots were a series of disturbances across southwest Sydney in February 2005 which were referred to as a riot by both the Parliament of New South Wales and the media....
. Much of the campaign was focused on personality and name recognition; Greens candidate Ben Raue commented "There really haven't been any debates about policies - it's been more about getting your face out to the people." The by-election was also marked by a high rate of apathy and disinterest, resulting in the informal vote going up from 8% at the general election to 13% at the by-election.
Results
The by-election, as largely expected in the absence of a Liberal candidate, resulted in an easy victory for Labor candidate Chris HayesChris Hayes (politician)
Christopher Patrick "Chris" Hayes , Australian Labor Party politician, was elected to the Australian House of Representatives on 19 March 2005 in a by-election for the Division of Werriwa, New South Wales, succeeding former party leader Mark Latham.Hayes was educated at De La Salle College,...
. Hayes polled 55.5% of the primary vote, with his nearest challenger being independent Liberal Young on 7.8%, ahead of Green Raue on 5.5%. Locke, despite some predictions of an upset victory, polled only 3.1%. Hayes was able to claim victory on the day of the by-election, and was subsequently sworn in as a member of the Australian House of Representatives
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....
. Steven Chaytor, who had stepped aside for Hayes in preselection, later served as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
New South Wales Legislative Assembly
The Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The other chamber is the Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney...
from 2005 to 2007.