http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/08/13/first-nt-now-wa-hot-vote-in-08/ now with extra source Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:51:06 +1100 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/08/13/first-nt-now-wa-hot-vote-in-08/#comment-18157 Bernie Masters Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000 #comment-18157 It simply isn't true that the Labor came to power unexpectedly in 2001in WA. As a Liberal member of the WA Parliament at that time, this was the election that we knew we were going to lose no matter what, regardless of what the polls were saying. Working against us were:<br />* Richard Court's refusal to sack or discipline Fair Trading minister Doug Shave over his incompetent handling of the mortgage brokers' scandal<br />* One Nation put us last on their how to vote cards in almost every electorate and their 10 to15% of the primary vote saw their preferences cost us 10 or more seats<br />* the Liberal government was incompetent in handling the PR side of the bell tower, convention centre, maritime museum and diary industry deregulation issues, and<br />* the Regional Forests Agreement debate was high in the public profile and, although the Green vote barely rose at the election, it suggested to voters that it was time to think about changing the government.<br />An equally important factor was the strong anti-Liberal attitude of most WA media outlets, in particular, the West Australian newspaper. Just as the paper is now clearly anti the Carpenter-led government, in 2001 it was strongly (and understandably) against the Court Liberal government.<br />The bottom line was that most people knew the Court government was in serious trouble, even though many political commentators were so out of touch with electors that they weren't aware of the huge change of mood out in the real world. It simply isn’t true that the Labor came to power unexpectedly in 2001in WA. As a Liberal member of the WA Parliament at that time, this was the election that we knew we were going to lose no matter what, regardless of what the polls were saying. Working against us were:
* Richard Court’s refusal to sack or discipline Fair Trading minister Doug Shave over his incompetent handling of the mortgage brokers’ scandal
* One Nation put us last on their how to vote cards in almost every electorate and their 10 to15% of the primary vote saw their preferences cost us 10 or more seats
* the Liberal government was incompetent in handling the PR side of the bell tower, convention centre, maritime museum and diary industry deregulation issues, and
* the Regional Forests Agreement debate was high in the public profile and, although the Green vote barely rose at the election, it suggested to voters that it was time to think about changing the government.
An equally important factor was the strong anti-Liberal attitude of most WA media outlets, in particular, the West Australian newspaper. Just as the paper is now clearly anti the Carpenter-led government, in 2001 it was strongly (and understandably) against the Court Liberal government.
The bottom line was that most people knew the Court government was in serious trouble, even though many political commentators were so out of touch with electors that they weren’t aware of the huge change of mood out in the real world.

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