HOW WE VOTED IN THE OCTOBER 2004 FEDERAL ELECTION

Australia’s environmental and social justice communities had contemplated the October 2004 Federal election with heavy hearts. Fear and greed looked to be on the winning side. Our fears came true despite the Greens making a big effort locally and nationally.

Our Greens candidate for Cowper, John Carty, received 9.3% of the vote - a swing of 3.8%. We haven't quite worked out where all these came from (the reduced votes for the Democrats and the ALP only total 1.1%). Highlights for the Greens in Clarence were Glenreagh, Mullaway, Red Rock and Yamba (all recording >11% of the vote) and Wooli (>12% of voters gave their first preferences to the Greens).

In Page, Greens candidate Mark Jackson received 10.8% of the primary votes - a swing of 3.6% compared to the 2001 election. Unlike the 2001 election, there was no Australian Democrat or Help End Marijuana Prohibition Party candidates standing, and presumably a large proportion of their voters voted for Mark. Mark Jackson won the booth at Nimbin outright (i.e. got more than 50% of the vote.). Unfortunately, some voters were misled by the so-called "Liberals for Forests" party which also stood a candidate in Page. This candidate was a resident of Sydney, did not even provide any photos or biography information for the local papers and paid foreign back-packers to hand out how-to-votes - but still quite a few people voted for her.

Nymboida remains the greenest booth in the Clarence, with a whopping 29.8% of voters putting their '1' against Mark's name (and also remembering to number all other squares so that it was a formal vote!). Other Greenish booths were Dundurrabin (16.9%), Whiporie (15.6%), Harwood Island (11.1%) and Maclean (10.5%) (the latter is where most of the Ashby people would vote. Maclean residents vote in Cowper).

Yet again, the Greens were struggling to get decent votes percentage wise in the booths in Grafton. But, due to their size, these booths can't be dismissed. At the main Grafton booth at Grafton High School, 112 people voted Green - a 2% swing to the Greens.

We are also building our vote at the largest booth, South Grafton Primary School in Vere St - 84 people voted Green at that booth (4.1%). One worrying fact is that a greater number of votes (5%) were informal at Vere St but we are making headway into this margin.

While the election can be considered a positive outcome for The Greens (overall an increased number of votes and, from July, the existing 2 Senators will be joined by another 2 (one each from Tasmania and Western Australia), the outcome of the election was not to our liking. Another 3 years of a John Howard Coalition Government was not something we wanted. Our campaigning efforts were not matched by those of the Labor Party. Locally their weak candidates did nothing to cut into the sitting National Party member's margins.

In 2004, we had brilliant candidates in both Cowper and Page. Both were professionals, could articulate Green policies well to the general public and were eager to attend events and show their faces in the Clarence. If folk don't think they saw enough of the candidates, it is probably because we couldn't organise enough events. So - we'll be looking for ideas and especially volunteers next time round.

Many thanks to Mark Jackson, John Carty. Thanks to all our booth workers. You are much appreciated. And thanks Karin for organising the booth workers so well. Our next meeting will be held on 18 March because 25 March is a public holiday. Otherwise, meeting are generally held on 4th Friday of the month at the CEC.

-Janet