2016 Australian Capital Territory election


A general election for the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly was held on Saturday, 15 October 2016.
The 15-year incumbent Labor Party, led by Chief Minister Andrew Barr, won a fifth term over the main opposition Liberal Party, led by opposition leader Jeremy Hanson. On election night, ABC analyst Antony Green predicted that Labor would once again form a minority government with the support of the Greens, with Liberal leader Hanson saying in a speech it would be very difficult for the Liberals to win government. On 22 October, the final list of elected candidates was confirmed; the Labor Party winning 12 seats, the Liberal Party 11 seats and the Greens 2 seats. Labor and the Greens subsequently signed off on a formal Parliamentary Agreement, which outlined shared policy priorities and allowed Greens leader Shane Rattenbury to retain a seat in the Cabinet whilst mandating that the Greens not move or support any motion of no confidence in the Labor Government, except in instances of gross misconduct or corruption.
Prior to this election, candidates were elected to fill all 17 Legislative Assembly seats in the unicameral parliament which consisted of three multi-member electorates, Brindabella, Ginninderra and Molonglo, using a proportional representation single transferable vote method known as the Hare-Clark system. On 5 August 2014, the Assembly voted to increase the size of the Assembly to 25 members, elected from five electorates of five seats each. The Hare-Clark system continued. The election was conducted by the ACT Electoral Commission.
Of the 25 elected members, 13 were women, representing the first female parliamentary majority in Australian history.

Results

Primary vote by electorate

Final distribution of seats

New MLAs

Since the 2012 election, the total number of seats in the assembly had increased from 17 seats to 25 seats. This has resulted in twelve new MPs being elected.

Key dates

  • Last day to lodge applications for party register: 30 June 2016
  • Party registration closed: 8 September 2016
  • Pre-election period commenced and nominations opened: 9 September 2016
  • Rolls close: 16 September 2016
  • Nominations close: 21 September 2016
  • Nominations declared and ballot paper order determined: 22 September 2016
  • Pre-poll voting commences: 27 September 2016
  • Polling day: 15 October 2016
  • Last day for receipt of postal votes: 21 October 2016

    Background

The incumbent Labor Party led by Chief Minister Andrew Barr attempted to win re-election for a fifth term in the unicameral ACT Legislative Assembly. Labor, led by Katy Gallagher, formed a minority coalition government with the Greens after the 2012 election, where Labor won 8 seats, Liberal 8 seats, Greens 1 seat. The Greens retained their balance of power in the election despite losing the majority of their 4-seat representation, with sole remaining representative Shane Rattenbury entering the cabinet to form a coalition government. Gallagher resigned as Chief Minister and Labor leader on 5 December 2014 to enter the Senate in the vacancy left by Kate Lundy. She was replaced by her deputy Andrew Barr on 11 December 2014.
The opposition, the Liberal Party, also had a change in leadership. Zed Seselja, the leader of the party since 2007, stood down on 11 February 2013, to challenge Liberal Party pre-selection for the Senate at the 2013 federal election. Seselja eventually won his pre-selection bid, and was elected Senator for the Australian Capital Territory at the federal election. He was replaced as leader of the Liberal Party by Jeremy Hanson.
All members of the unicameral Assembly faced re-election, with members being elected by the Hare-Clark system of proportional representation. The Assembly was previously divided into three electorates: five-member Brindabella and Ginninderra and seven-member Molonglo. These electorates, were redistributed following the increase in the size of the Assembly to 25 seats.
At the end of May 2015, the following electorates were announced:
Election dates are set in statute with four-year fixed terms, to be held on the third Saturday of October every four years.

Campaign

The opposition Liberal Party opposed the Light rail in Canberra project, so did the Like Canberra and Sustainable Australia. In April 2015, the Liberal party announced it would cancel any contracts for the light rail if it won the 2016 ACT election. A year out from the poll, the light rail project was already predicted to be the election's major issue. As predicted, the light rail project was the major issue of the campaign. The election saw the Labor government returned, with the party claiming the result as an endorsement of the project.

Candidates

Registered parties

Twelve parties were registered with the ACT Electoral Commission as eligible for the October 2016 election, ten of which nominated candidates for the election.

Labor

Five seats were up for election.
Labor candidatesLiberal candidatesGreens candidatesAnimal Justice candidatesLiberal Democrats candidates

Joy Burch*

Angie Drake

Mick Gentleman*

Karl Maftoum

Taimus Werner-Gibbings
Ed Cocks

Annette Fazey-Southwell

Nicole Lawder*

Mark Parton*

Andrew Wall*
Johnathan Davis

Michael Mazengarb

Ben Murphy
Sarah O'Brien

Robyn Soxsmith
Matt Donnelly

Jacob Gowor

Greg Renet

Vera Saragih

Matt Straschko
Like Canberra candidatesSex Party candidatesSustainable candidatesUngrouped candidates-
-

Timothy Friel

Richard Tuffin
Steven Bailey

Monique Shepherd
Claude Hastir

Melissa Kemp
Andrew Holt

Joel McKay 		-

Ginninderra">Ginninderra electorate">Ginninderra

Five seats were up for election.
Labor candidatesLiberal candidatesGreens candidatesCCV candidatesLiberal Democrats candidates

Yvette Berry*

Chris Bourke

Tara Cheyne*

Kim Fischer

Gordon Ramsay*
Vicki Dunne*

Denise Fisher

Elizabeth Kikkert*

Ignatius Rozario

Paul Sweeney
Jason Chappel

Indra Esguerra

Richard Merzian
Beth Gooch

Mick Kaye

Geoff Kettle

Gilbert Reilly

Alan Tutt
Naomi Gowor

Guy Jakeman
Like Canberra candidatesSustainable candidatesUngrouped candidates--
--

Richard Harriss

Sam Huggins
Geoff Buckmaster

Martin Tye
Bernie Brennan

Ian Coombes

Vijay Dubey

David Edwards

Emmanuel Ezekiel-Hart

Kim Huynh

Vanessa Jones

Leigh Watson

Lea Zangl 		--

Kurrajong">Kurrajong electorate">Kurrajong

Five seats were up for election.
Labor candidatesLiberal candidatesGreens candidatesCCV candidatesLiberal Democrats candidates

Andrew Barr*

Josh Ceramidas

Leah Dwyer

Richard Niven

Rachel Stephen-Smith*
Candice Burch

Brooke Curtin

Steve Doszpot*

Elizabeth Lee*

Peter McKay
Shane Rattenbury*

Jill Thomsen

Rebecca Vassarotti
Richard Farmer

Mike Hettinger

Lucinda Spier
Mark Ellis

Michael O'Rourke

Hugh Upton
Like Canberra candidatesSustainable candidatesUngrouped candidates--
--

Chris Bucknell

Maryann Mussared
John Haydon

Oliver Tye
Jeff Isaacs

Marea Fatseas

Peter Robinson

Graeme Strachan 		--

Murrumbidgee">Murrumbidgee electorate">Murrumbidgee

Five seats were up for election.
Labor candidatesLiberal candidatesGreens candidatesAnimal Justice candidatesCommunity Alliance candidates

Bec Cody*

Mark Kulasingham

Brendan Long

Jennifer Newman

Chris Steel*
Jessica Adelan-Langford

Jeremy Hanson*

Peter Hosking

Paul House

Giulia Jones*
Emma Davidson

Jennifer Faerber

Caroline Le Couteur*
Deborah Field

Jessica Montagne
Michael Lindfield

Nancy-Louise Scherger
Liberal Democrats candidatesLike Canberra candidatesSustainable candidatesUngrouped candidates-
-

Fergus Brown

Brendan Cumpston

Roman Gowor

Tom Hamer

Alexander Klinkon
Shelley Dickerson

Rod Vickers
Jill Mail

Mark O'Connor
Robbie Swan

Margaret Webber

Brendan Whyte 		-