• Peter Browne

10 September 2010... and other minority governments. In Inside Story, Peter Browne surveys a surprisingly strong field

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IT’S ALMOST seventy years since Australia’s last federal minority government collapsed in internal disunity and scandal, having gone through two leaders kept afloat by two independent Victorian MPs. But minority governments have been much more common in the states and territories in the intervening years, particularly over the past two decades. Since 1990, minority governments have held office for at least a short period in all six states and in both territories. Tasmania, Western Australia, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory are currently governed by parties that don’t have an absolute majority of MPs.

Over the past week in Inside Story we’ve published articles about three well-known minority governments – Victoria’s (1999–2002), South Australia’s (2002–06) and Tasmania’s (since March this year). Each of the three was – or, in Tasmania’s case, has so far been – more successful than expected, and in at least one case significant long-term parliamentary reform has resulted. Some other minority governments have been just as successful; a few have ended in failure and acrimony. Here’s an overview of those governments…

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Photo: NSW parliament. Multitude/ Flickr