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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/219559
- Title
- Seventeen days to power: making a minority
- Author(s)
- Costar, Brian
- Abstract
- The 2010 federal election produced two major surprises. A first-term government whose electoral position had seemed unassailable as recently as six months earlier was almost defeated; had it been, it would have been the first to suffer that fate since the Great Depression election of 1931. And Australia witnessed the first 'hung' parliament--an 'unavoidable idiom' (Justice Committee 2010, 2; 7)--and subsequent minority government since the one that emerged from the 1940 election when the nation was at war. The first of these surprises is the subject of detailed analyses in the earlier chapters of this volume. This chapter's purpose is to examine the dynamics of the 17 days from 21 August to 7 September, which produced a minority Labor administration supported by three Independents and one Greens MP. Tempting as it is to provide a day-by-day account, this chapter emphasises the major issues and developments during those days against the background of political and personal ambition and established constitutional principles--with many of the latter appearing novel to some of the contestants and commentators.
- Publication type
- Book chapter
- Research centre
- Swinburne University of Technology
- Source
- Julia 2010: the caretaker election / Marian Simms and John Wanna (eds.), Chapter 28, pp. 357-370
- Publication year
- 2012
- Keyword(s)
- Australia; Commonwealth of Australia; Elections; First-term governments; Government of Australia; Labor administation; Minority government
- Publisher
- ANU E Press
- ISBN
- 9781921862632, 1921862637
- Publisher URL
- http://epress.anu.edu.au/titles/julia-2010-the-caretaker-election/pdf-download
- Copyright
- Copyright © 2011.
- Peer reviewed
