They assumed that in a Labor town they would get a greater percentage of the vote than the Liberals and therefore get more seats. The therefore would retain government, even if in minority.
Labor might still retain government, but only after being put on the rack by the Greens and having to make concessions to them for the next three years. The seeds of the voter revolt against Labor were sown over three years _ failure to deal with the health issue. Everyone in town had a horror story or a relative’s horror story about the health system. It may not be very much worse in other states, but it was seen as bad management in the ACT, and compounded by the fact that Labor is supposed to be good at health. Indeed, it was one of the factors that saved Paul Keating. Unfortunately for Labor, health was one of the strong points of the Liberals leader Kate Carnell. She appeared to have got the message that it is a question of management. Roughly translated that meant Labor was unwilling to take on health administration and cut it down to size.
It was unwilling to take on health unions. Sure, Labor was willing to take on the doctors who are earning more than the national average, but as Carnell pointed out, overspending on visiting medical officers (11 per cent over the average) is the least problem. Overhead (87 per cent) and administration (45 per cent) are more urgent. Both leader were right in citing health and economic management as the main issues. Labor went wrong on health. The Liberals did well on economic management. The Liberals did well on that on two counts. Their staff got the material together well and Kate Carnell sold the message well. Rosemary Follett was quite right last night when she said that the Liberals had only one candidate _ Kate Carnell. Perhaps the Liberals deliberately ran their campaign that way. In any event the campaign has given Carnell practice for what may come: being head of a minority Government relying on Michael Moore on the left and keeping some of the social right in her own party at bay. During the campaign the social right-wingers, after a few out-on-a-limb press releases, remained quiet. One might have expected some Liberal blues over social policies like abortion, euthanasia and cannabis, but they did not happen. There was a slight one over the last. But the real glitch in the Liberal campaign came with rates _ with maverick candidate Lucinda Spier going off at a tangent. Carnell managed that reasonably well in the circumstances, but ignoring it rather than calling for a show-down. The ACT has again showed its like for independents and minors. The test for the next three years is not only for the minority government, of whatever complexion, but also for the voters. Voters have to get better informed of not just the issues, but the candidates. I suspect that in the next three years, the ACT will continue to have some odd politics, this time through the Greens and Paul Osborne. They appear to be coming from opposite directions which will mean inevitable strife for the government in the middle.