Peter Sypkens, Hobart
On May 14, the final tally of votes for the Tasmanian upper house seat of Elwick was declared, with Socialist Alliance candidate Kamala Emanuel receiving 936 votes — 5.21% of the total count.
This was the best result for a socialist election campaign in Tasmania in decades and — when combined with 14.75% received by Greens candidate Helen Burnett — represents a significant protest against the policies of the state Labor government.
The electorate of Elwick covers the city of Glenorchy, traditionally a very safe Labor seat. It has one of the lowest average household incomes in the country.
The seat was previously held by state Labor treasurer David Crean, who gave payroll tax cuts to business and was closely associated with the architects of the government's much-detested forest policies.
The Socialist Alliance campaign centred on increasing taxes on big business to fund social services, such as health care and child care, ending the logging of old-growth forests and immediately withdrawing Australian troops from Iraq.
Emanuel said: "Our campaign took the politics of Socialist Alliance to the streets — literally, in the case of the car rally, where we made a big splash, driving through the electorate in eight cars decked out with flags, banners and placards.
"We stopped at two of the major shopping centres, chanting 'Tax the rich, not the poor — money for jobs, not for war', handed out leaflets and discussed our policy proposals.
"We campaigned every week at the Sunday market at Elwick showground. It was easy to talk socialist politics, with many in the electorate clearly having had a gutful of Labor's pro-business policies."
The Socialist Alliance will be fielding candidates in the seats of Denison, Franklin and Bass in this year's federal elections. If you would like to help us, phone (03) 6234 6397 or 0438 279 451.
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, May 19, 2004.
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