The 2010 Victorian state election, held on Saturday, 27 November 2010, was for the 57th
Parliament of Victoria. The election was to elect all 88 members of the
Legislative Assembly and all 40 members of the
Legislative Council. The incumbent
centre-left
Centre-left politics lean to the left on the left–right political spectrum but are closer to the centre than other left-wing politics. Those on the centre-left believe in working within the established systems to improve social justice. The ...
Labor Party government, led by
John Brumby, was defeated by the
centre-right
Centre-right politics lean to the right of the political spectrum, but are closer to the centre. From the 1780s to the 1880s, there was a shift in the Western world of social class structure and the economy, moving away from the nobility and ...
Liberal/
National Coalition opposition, led by
Ted Baillieu. The election gave the Coalition a one-seat majority in both houses of parliament.
Voting is
compulsory in Victoria. Elections for the
Legislative Assembly use
instant-runoff voting (called preferential voting in Australia) in
single-member electorates (called districts). Elections for the
Legislative Council use partial
proportional representation
Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...
, using
single transferable vote
Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate p ...
(also called preferential voting) in multi-member electorates (called regions). Members of the Legislative Council are elected from eight electoral regions each returning five members, making the quota for election in each region 16.67 percent of valid votes cast in that region. The election was conducted by the
Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC).
Background
At the
1999 election, the Labor Party led by
Steve Bracks
Stephen Phillip Bracks (born 15 October 1954) is a former Australian politician and was the 44th Premier of Victoria. He first won the electoral district of Williamstown in 1994 for the Labor Party and was party leader and premier from 1999 ...
was able to form a
minority government with the parliamentary support of 3 Independents, displacing the incumbent
Jeff Kennett Liberal/National Coalition government. Labor was returned with a
majority government after a landslide win at the
2002 election. Labor was elected for a third term at the
2006 election with a substantial but reduced majority. Labor won 55 of the 88 seats, a decrease of 7, and 54.4% of the
two-party preferred
In Australian politics, the two-party-preferred vote (TPP or 2PP) is the result of an election or opinion poll after preferences have been distributed to the highest two candidates, who in some cases can be independents. For the purposes of TPP ...
vote, a decrease of 3.4%. Brumby replaced Bracks as Labor leader and Premier of Victoria in 2007.
Political changes
The previous elections took place on Saturday, 25 November 2006. At the
2006 election, the
Labor Party won 55 of the 88 seats, the
Liberal Party won 23, the
National Party won 9, and there was 1 Independent. Since that date a number of political changes took place.
Both Premier Bracks and
Deputy Premier
A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, ...
John Thwaites resigned on 27 July 2007.
By-elections
Between the 2006 and 2010 elections, four
by-election
A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election ( Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to ...
s took place. In Bracks' seat of
Williamstown and Thwaites' seat of
Albert Park in 2007, former minister
Andre Haermeyer
Andre Haermeyer (born 20 February 1956, in Oberhausen, West Germany) is a former Australian politician. He was the Labor Party member for Kororoit in the Victorian Legislative Assembly
The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house ...
's seat of
Kororoit in 2008, and former minister
Lynne Kosky's seat of
Altona in 2010. All four seats were retained by Labor. Labor MP
Craig Langdon resigned from his seat of
Ivanhoe in August 2010, however the by-election writ was discharged by the Parliamentary Speaker due to the proximity of the state election coupled with the cost of holding a by-election.
Campaign
The Liberal and National Parties contested the election as a
Coalition, which they had not done since the previous agreement lapsed in 2000. The Liberal Party departed from tradition and gave their preferences to Labor ahead of the Greens, thereby decreasing the chances of the Greens winning up to four inner city seats from Labor.
The Coalition launched their campaign on 14 November 2010 at the
Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre in the
electoral district of Melbourne, with the slogan: "Fix the problems. Build the future." Labor launched their campaign on 16 November 2010 in the
electoral district of Bendigo East
Bendigo East is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Victoria. It covers an area of covering the part of the city of Bendigo east of the Yungera railway line and surrounding rural areas to the north, e ...
, using the slogan: "For the times ahead." The Greens ran with the slogan "This time, I'm voting Green".
Issues
The Coalition campaigned heavily against the Brumby Government's new
Myki
Myki ( ), stylised as myki, is a reloadable credit card-sized contactless smart card ticketing system used for electronic payment of fares on most public transport services in Melbourne and regional Victoria, Australia. Myki replaced th ...
ticketing system, which had been delivered at triple the projected cost and years behind schedule, as well as its construction of an expensive
desalination plant that many claimed was unnecessary. Other issues included health, education, and law and order. Ted Baillieu promised to restore the budget to surplus, employ more nurses and police, make Victorian teachers the highest paid in the country, and abolish
suspended sentence
A suspended sentence is a sentence on conviction for a criminal offence, the serving of which the court orders to be deferred in order to allow the defendant to perform a period of probation. If the defendant does not break the law during that ...
s which were seen as out of touch with community standards.
Retiring MPs
Labor
*
Peter Batchelor
Peter John Batchelor (born 21 September 1950) is a former Australian politician who served as an Australian Labor Party member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly seat of Thomastown from 1990 until 2010.
Batchelor was born in western Sydne ...
MLA (
Thomastown
Thomastown (), historically known as Grennan, is a town in County Kilkenny in the province of Leinster in the south-east of Ireland. It is a market town along a stretch of the River Nore which is known for its salmon and trout, with a number of ...
)
*
Bob Cameron MLA (
Bendigo West)
*
Carlo Carli MLA (
Brunswick)
*
Judy Maddigan
Judith Marilyn Maddigan (; born 3 February 1948), Australian politician, was Speaker of the Victorian Legislative Assembly from 2003 to 2005. She was the member for the seat of Essendon Essendon may refer to:
Australia
*Electoral district of ...
MLA (
Essendon Essendon may refer to:
Australia
*Electoral district of Essendon
*Electoral district of Essendon and Flemington
*Essendon, Victoria
**Essendon railway station
**Essendon Airport
*Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League
United King ...
)
*
Karen Overington
Karen Marie Overington (16 November 1951 – 11 August 2011) was an Australian politician. She was a Labor Party member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly from 1999 to 2010, representing the electorate of Ballarat West.
Overington was born ...
MLA (
Ballarat West)
*
George Seitz MLA (
Keilor
Keilor is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Brimbank and Hume local government areas. Keilor recorded a population of 5,906 at the 2021 census.
W ...
)
Liberal
*
Helen Shardey MLA (
Caulfield)
*
John Vogels
John Adrian Vogels (born 14 June 1946, in the Netherlands) has been the Chairman of Wannon Water, a regional Water Authority in Victoria Australia, since 2011. He was an Australian politician. He was a Liberal member of the Victorian Parliamen ...
MLC (
Western Victoria Region
Western Victoria Region is one of the eight electoral regions of Victoria, Australia, which elects five members to the Victorian Legislative Council (also referred to as the upper house) by proportional representation. The region was created i ...
)
National
*
Ken Jasper
Kenneth Stephen Jasper AM (born 5 June 1938) is a former Nationals member for Murray Valley in the Victorian Legislative Assembly. He was first elected in 1976 and announced his retirement from the Legislative Assembly effective from the 201 ...
MLA (
Murray Valley)
Results
Legislative Assembly
Labor suffered a swing of 5.96 percent, a larger swing than the
1992 landslide that brought the
Jeff Kennett-led Coalition to power.
However, much of that swing was wasted on landslide victories in the Coalition's heartland. As a result, the Coalition only just managed the 13-seat swing it needed to make Baillieu premier, netting it a bare majority of two seats.
On 29 November, with the result beyond doubt, Brumby conceded defeat. He resigned as state Labor leader the next day. The new Liberal/National government was sworn in on 2 December 2010, and former Health Minister
Daniel Andrews was elected Labor leader on 3 December.
Legislative Council
Legislative Council seats
In the 40-member upper house where all members are up for re-election every term, the Coalition won a majority of 21 seats, with 16 seats won by Labor and 3 won by the Greens.
Seats changing hands
¶ In 2006, the final Gippsland East 2PP count included Independent and Liberal, however in 2010 the final 2PP count included Independent and Nationals
Key dates
Terms are fixed at four years. Elections occur in line with the fixed term provisions laid out in the ''Electoral Act 2002''.
Key dates for the election were:
*2 November: Dissolution of Parliament and lodgement of election writs
*9 November: Close of rolls
*11 November: Close of nominations for party candidates
*12 November: Close of nominations for independents
*15 November: Early voting commences
*25 November: Close of postal voting
*26 November: Early voting closes
*27 November: Election day (polls open 8am to 6pm)
Polling
Polling conducted by
Newspoll and published in ''
The Australian
''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...
'' is performed via random telephone number selection in city and country areas.
Sampling sizes usually consist of over 1000 electors, with the declared
margin of error at ±3 percent.
Sky News exit polls in marginal seats recorded a Coalition 54-46 Labor result.
Newspaper endorsements
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:2010 Victorian state election
Elections in Victoria (Australia)
2010 elections in Australia
2010s in Victoria (Australia)
November 2010 events in Australia