Victorian Election 1999

The 1999 Victorian election was one of the most remarkable State elections of the last 50 years. It removed the apparently impregnable Liberal-National Coalition Government, it produced the retirement of two of the three party leaders, and it pitchforked into office a party that was remarkably unprepared-a number of its new ministers were sworn into executive office before being sworn in as parliamentarians. It was also an election that was unusually prolonged. This paper gives a brief assessment of the major parties prior to polling day. It concludes that there were signs of the Kennett Government being in some danger but that these were largely ignored by the media