Climate Change Coalition

The Climate Change Coalition (CCC) is an Australian political party, which was formed in 2006 with a view to accelerate action by politicians from all parties on climate change. Its position on working towards addressing climate change, stresses cooperation with big business in order to achieve significant progess on the issue. The party therefore advocates a close working relationship between environmentalists and the business community. The CCC was registered as a political party with the Australian Electoral Commission in September 2007.

2007 New South Wales state election

At its conception, the CCC was not initially a political party, but rather a grouping of independents. It contested its first election in the state of New South Wales, the NSW March 2007 state election. The CCC ran a group of 21 candidates (dubbed by detractors the "Gang of 21" an allusion to the Gang of Four) standing for the Legislative Council, the NSW Upper House of Parliament . Heading this group was Patrice Newell, an author and biodynamic beef farmer. The CCC received criticism from some groups, for refusing to advocate preferences, under the Australian preferential voting system, to other political parties, with strong environmental credentials.

The group were not registered as a political party in NSW and so under NSW electoral law could not display a party name on the ballot paper at the top of the group column. This may have reduced their voting support. The 21 "Group F" candidates polled 18,999 votes in total, or 0.50% of the total formal vote, and were therefore well short of the quota of 173,239 (4.55%) required for election of any [NSW Electoral Commission: [http://vtr.elections.nsw.gov.au/LCProgressiveTotals/02_LC2007_SummaryFirstPref.pdf Legislative Council First Preference Summary] ] .

2007 Australian federal election

The [http://www.climatechangecoalition.com.au Climate Change Coalition] was registered as a political party by the Australian Electoral Commission on 4 September 2007. [ [http://www.aec.gov.au/Parties_and_Representatives/Party_Registration/Registered_parties/ccc.htm Climate Change Coalition] , Australian Electoral Commission.] [ [http://www.aec.gov.au/Parties_and_Representatives/Party_Registration/Registration_Decisions/climate_change.htm Party Registration Decision: Climate Change Coalition] , Australian Electoral Commission.] The party announced it intended to run candidates for the Australian Senate in the 2007 federal election.

The party's NSW Senate candidates were Patrice Newell and Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, a well-known scientist and media personality. [Doherty, Ben: [http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/dr-karls-senate-experiment/2007/09/27/1190486482979.html Dr Karl's Senate experiment] , "The Age", 28 September 2007.] The party fielded candidates for the senate in each of the other states with the exception of Tasmania, and also fielded a candidate in the ACT. The candidates were; in Western Australia [http://gmarkets.wordpress.com/2007/10/11/fledgling-climate-change-coalition-runs-high-profile-candidates-from-industry-and-science-in-wa-nsw/ Gary Warden] , and [http://www.wwf.org.au/articles/one-giant-walk/ Sarah Bishop] ; in South Australia, Dr Colin Edean and Vidas Kublilus; in Queensland, Phil Johnson and Steven Posselt; and in Victoria, Ainslie Howard. The ACT senate candidate was Michael Fullam-Stone.

With a favourable ballot paper placement (column E) and with the party's name shown on the ballot paper the party scored 0.83% of the vote in NSW (a 0.33% increase on its NSW state election result) but failed to secure the election of any of its candidates. Results in other states were in the range 0.27% (in Western Australia) to 0.78% (in Victoria). Nationwide, the party received 78,710 votes (0.62%) [Australian Electoral Commission: [http://results.aec.gov.au/13745/website/SenateStateFirstPrefsByGroup-13745-NAT.htm Senate first preferences by Group, 2007] ] .

Preferences

During the 2007 Federal election, the Climate Change Coalition was criticized for the way it distributed its preferences, with some parties antithetical to the policies of the Climate Change Coalition placed higher on Senate group voting tickets than others with more similar positions on the issue [Australian Electoral Commission: [http://www.aec.gov.au/Elections/federal_elections/2007/candidates/gvt.htm 2007 Federal Election - group voting tickets] ] . Political journalist Malcolm Farr observed that "Hanson, the Queensland political relic standing for the Senate, has managed a preference deal with the snooty CCC..."cite news |first=Malcolm |last=Farr |authorlink=Malcolm Farr |title=Green ... with envy |url=http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22741445-5001031,00.html |publisher="The Daily Telegraph" |date=2007-11-12 |accessdate=2007-11-13 ] .

The CCC preferenced the Australian Democrats highest in all States and placed the Greens ahead of the Liberal and Labor Parties in all States. CCC preferences eventually flowed to the Greens except in Western Australia where they finished with the Christian Democrats. The flow of preferences did not affect the election of the Greens' Scott Ludlam to the final Senate position in WA [Australian Broadcasting Corporation: [http://www.abc.net.au/elections/federal/2007/results/senate/wa.htm Antony Green's 2007 WA Senate preference flow analysis] ] . According to the Party, the allocation of preferences was determined to give the greatest chance of electoral success, but may have worked to reduce its primary vote support.

References

External links

* [http://www.climatechangecoalition.com.au Climate Change Coalition website]