The 2002 Victorian state election, held on Saturday, 30 November 2002, was for the 55th Parliament of Victoria. It was held to elect the 88 members of Victorian Legislative Assembly and 22 members of the 44-member Legislative Council.
The Labor government led by Premier Steve Bracks was returned for a second term in a landslide victory, taking 62 seats, a gain of 20. It was easily the biggest majority that Labor had ever won in Victoria, and one of Labor's best-ever performances at the state level in Australia. Additionally, it was only the third time that a Labor government had been reelected in Victoria. Labor also recorded 57.8 percent of the two-party preferred vote, their highest on record for a Victorian election. Labor also won a majority of seats in the Legislative Council for the first time in its history.
Jeff Kennett had resigned as Liberal leader soon after his shock defeat in 1999, and was succeeded by former Health Minister Denis Napthine. However, Napthine was unable to get the better of Bracks, and was ousted in August 2002 by Shadow Health Minister Robert Doyle. With just a few months before the writs were dropped, Doyle was unable to recover any significant ground. The Liberals saw their seat tally more than halved, to 17 seats — their worst result since the 1952 election.
The Nationals (who after breaking off their Coalition with the Liberals rebranded themselves the 'VicNats') retained the seven seats they held from 1999.
Labor was assisted by a strong economy and by the popularity of Steve Bracks, while the Liberal Party was badly divided between the Kroger and Kennett factions. The Liberal campaign was also damaged by the revelation that the shadow treasurer, Robert Dean, was ineligible to run. Dean's electorate of Berwick had been abolished and merged into the new electorate of Gembrook. Dean won Liberal preselection for Gembrook, but failed to update his address after moving to his new electorate. As a result, he was no longer on the electoral roll; Victorian law requires candidates to be registered voters. Treasurer John Brumby loudly wondered if the Liberals could be trusted to manage Victoria's economy if their shadow treasurer could not manage his own affairs.
This was the last Victorian election where the Legislative Council was elected using preferential voting in single-member districts (while each province has two members, they were elected at alternate elections). The Constitution (Parliamentary Reform) Act 2003 abolished the electoral provinces and divided Victoria into eight regions each electing five members using proportional representation, with all seats being vacated each election.
Future Premier Daniel Andrews entered parliament at this election.
Results
Legislative Assembly
Legislative Council
The following voting statistics exclude the two mid-term by-elections held on the same day, at which one seat each was retained by the Liberal and National parties.
Electoral maps Metropolitan Melbourne: ALP held seats are marked in red. Liberal seats are coloured blue. Country Victoria: ALP seats are coloured in red, Liberal in blue, Nationals in green and independents in yellow.
Seats changing hands Seat Pre-2002 Swing Post-2002 Party Member Margin Margin Member PartyBass Independent Susan Davies 3.6 -4.2 0.6 Ken Smith Liberal Bayswater Liberal Gordon Ashley 6.3 -9.0 2.7 Peter Lockwood Labor Bellarine Liberal Garry Spry 1.1 -9.3 8.2 Lisa Neville Labor Benalla* Labor Denise Allen 0.4 -2.4 2.0 Bill Sykes National Bentleigh Liberal Inga Peulich 1.9 -6.6 4.7 Rob Hudson Labor Cranbourne Liberal Gary Rowe -1.1 -9.7 10.8 Jude Perera Labor Eltham Liberal Wayne Phillips 3.7 -8.5 4.8 Steve Herbert Labor Evelyn Liberal Christine Fyffe 12.3 -12.6 0.3 Heather McTaggart Labor Ferntree Gully Liberal Hurtle Lupton 7.6 -9.9 2.3 Anne Eckstein Labor Forest Hill Liberal John Richardson 6.2 -12.0 5.8 Kirstie Marshall Labor Frankston Liberal Andrea McCall 3.2 -9.0 5.8 Alistair Harkness Labor Gembrook Liberal notional - new seat 6.7 -8.3 1.6 Tammy Lobato Labor Hastings Liberal notional - new seat 7.1 -8.0 0.9 Rosy Buchanan Labor Kilsyth Liberal Lorraine Elliott 7.9 -10.0 2.1 Dympna Beard Labor Monbulk Liberal Steve McArthur 2.4 -10.7 8.3 James Merlino Labor Mordialloc Liberal Geoff Leigh 2.5 -7.0 4.5 Janice Munt Labor Mount Waverley Liberal Ron Wilson 9.0 -11.3 2.3 Maxine Morand Labor Narre Warren North Liberal notional - new seat 5.1 -14.8 9.7 Luke Donnellan Labor Narre Warren South Liberal notional - new seat 1.3 -13.9 12.6 Dale Wilson Labor Prahran Liberal Leonie Burke 4.7 -9.1 4.4 Tony Lupton Labor South Barwon Liberal Alister Paterson 4.7 -9.7 5.0 Michael Crutchfield Labor
Results for Benalla are based from the 2000 by-election, which Labor won from the Nationals. Cranbourne became a notionally Labor seat after the redistribution. Members listed in italics did not recontest their seats.
See also Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly, 2002–2006 Candidates of the 2002 Victorian state election
Notes
References Victorian Electoral Commission,