30 November 2002 (2002-11-30) 2006 → 20 August 2002 December 1999 36 seats 7 seats Start date November 30, 2002 | 22 March 1999 20 August 2002 42 seats 36 seats 62 seats 17 seats | |
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Victorian state election 2002 liberal hospitals
The 2002 Victorian state election, held on Saturday, 30 November 2002, was for the 55th Parliament of Victoria. It was held to elect the 88 members of Victorian Legislative Assembly and 22 members of the 44-member Legislative Council.
Contents
The Labor government led by Premier Steve Bracks was returned for a second term with a landslide, taking 62 seats. It was easily the biggest majority that Labor had ever won in Victoria, and one of Labor's best-ever performances at the state level in Australia. Additionally, it was only the third time that a Labor government had been reelected in Victoria. The Liberal opposition, led by Robert Doyle, was reduced to 17 seats — their worst result since the 1952 election. Labor also won a majority of seats in the Legislative Council for the first time in its history. The Nationals (who after breaking off their Coalition with the Liberals renamed themselves the 'VicNats') retained the seven seats they held from the 1999 election.
Labor was assisted by a strong economy and by the popularity of Steve Bracks, while the Liberal Party was badly divided between the Kroger and the Kennett factions. The Liberal campaign was also damaged by the revelation that the shadow treasurer, Robert Dean, was ineligible to run. Dean's electorate of Berwick had been abolished and merged into the new electorate of Gembrook. However, he failed to update his address after moving to his new electorate. As a result, he was no longer on the electoral roll; Victorian law requires candidates to be registered voters.
This was the last Victorian election where the Legislative Council was elected using preferential voting in single-member districts (while each province has two members, they were elected at alternate elections). The Constitution (Parliamentary Reform) Act 2003 abolished the electoral provinces and divided Victoria into eight regions each electing five members using proportional representation, with all seats being vacated each election.
Legislative Council
The following voting statistics exclude the two mid-term by-elections held on the same day, at which one seat each was retained by the Liberal and National parties.