- Victorian state election, 1988
Elections for the
Victorian Legislative Assembly and for half the seats in theVictorian Legislative Council were held on Saturday1 October 1988 . John Cain's Laborgovernment maintained a narrow majority on the floor of the Legislative Assembly.The Campaign
The campaign was dominated by the government's handling of the
Victorian Economic Development Corporation scandal but Labor was able limit its losses to just one seat - Warrandyte - due to an effective strategy of targeting Liberal leaderJeff Kennett whose aggressive leadership style was still seen as a liability as well as the instability in the federal Coalition due to theJoh for Canberra campaign. [ B.J Costar & N. Economou, 'Elections and Electoral Change 1982-92' in M. Considine & B. J Costar (eds) "Trials in Power: Cain, Kirner and Victoria 1982-92", Melbourne University Press, 1992, p 255-6. ]Labor also ran a successful strategy of targeting marginal middle class seats, enabling it to win a majority of seats despite winning less than 50% of the two party preferred vote.
Legacy
Jeff Kennett was dumped as Liberal leader in 1989 in a party room coup. Alan Brown led the party until, he too, was deposed in another party room coup which returned Kennett to the leadership.
Due to the narrow result, the belief arose that had the Liberals and the Nationals been in coalition, they would have won government. Despite what
Political Scientist Brian Costar called a 'lack of psephological evidence to support this assertion' this belief led to pressure from the business community that led to the formation of the first Liberal-National Coalition in Victoria over forty years. [ B.J Costar, 'Coalition Government: An Unequal Partnership' in B.J Costar & N. Economou (eds) "The Kennett Revolution: Victorian Politics in the 1990s", UNSW Press, Sydney, 1998, p. 89 ]Results
Australian elections/Title row
title = Victorian state election,1 October 1988
house = Legislative Assembly
enrolled = 2,739,614
total_votes = 2,530,027
turnout % = 92.35%
turnout chg = -0.86%
informal = 98,525
informal % = 3.89%
informal chg = +1.21%Australian elections/Party summary
government = yes
party_id = Labor
votes = 1,131,750
votes % = 46.55%
votes chg = –3.46%
seats = 46
seats chg = – 1Australian elections/Party summary
party_id = Liberal
votes = 986,311
votes % = 40.51%
votes chg = –1.30%
seats = 33
seats chg = + 2Australian elections/Party summary
party_id = Nationals
votes = 188,776
votes % = 7.76%
votes chg = +0.47%
seats = 9
seats chg = – 1Australian elections/Party summary
party_id = Democrats
votes = 25,611
votes % = 1.05%
votes chg = +1.05%
seats = 0
seats chg = ± 0Australian elections/Party summary
party_id = Call to Australia
votes = 25,543
votes % = 1.05%
votes chg = +1.05%
seats = 0
seats chg = ± 0Australian elections/Party summary
party_id = Democratic Labor
votes = 6,018
votes % = 0.25%
votes chg = +0.25%
seats = 0
seats chg = ± 0Australian elections/Party summary
party_id = Independent
votes = 67,493
votes % = 2.78%
votes chg = +1.94%
seats = 0
seats chg = ± 0Australian elections/Total row
total_votes = 2,431,502
total_seats = 88Australian elections/2PP summary
party id 1 = Labor
2pp votes 1 = 1,202,294
2pp % 1 = 49.47%
2pp chg 1 = –1.23%
party id 2 = LibNat Coalition
2pp votes 2 = 1,227,295
2pp % 2 = 50.53%
2pp chg 2 = +1.23%References
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