[Australia]: 1999 Australian Labor Party leadership elections

[Owen]

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1 August 1999​

All 110 members of the federal parliamentary Labor caucus 56 caucus members needed for a majority​

Leader of the Australian Labor Party​

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Candidate:	Paul Keating	Kim Beazley
Candidate's seat:	Blaxland	Swan
Caucus vote:	43	67
Percentage:	39.1%	60.9%

Deputy Leader of the Australian Labor Party​

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Candidate:	Carmen Lawrence	Jenny Macklin
Candidate's seat:	Fremantle	Jagajaga
Caucus vote:	52	58
Percentage:	47.3%	52.7%

 

[Owen]

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After a lengthy party-room meeting, at about 8pm, a group of Labor caucus members exited the party room, led by the Minister for Employment, Education and Training, Simon Crean. He would be blanked by several Parliamentary Security Officers.

He would wait a bit before speaking, making sure the media was giving him their full undivided attention. Cameras would be flashing, clicking, the TV cameras were rolling. Microphones shoved in his face.

"At 7pm tonight, a ballot for the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Labor Party was held....

The candidates for Leader were The Honourable Paul Keating, MP and The Honourable Kim Beazley, MP. The results are as follows....... Mr. Keating.... 43 votes. Mr. Beazley..... 67 votes. Mr. Kim Beazley has been elected as Leader of the Labor Party."

The cameras began flashing ferociously.

"The candidates for Deputy Leader were The Honourable Carmen Lawrence, MP and The Honourable Jenny Macklin, MP. The results are as follows... Dr. Lawrence... 52 votes. Ms. Macklin..... 58 votes. Ms. Jenny Macklin has been elected as Deputy Leader of the Labor Party.

Thank you."

Simon Crean would walk away back down the halls of Parliament. He now had a huge fight on his hand if he was to retain his Ministerial Portfolio. A short while later, Kim Beazley would emerge from the party room and head to the Press Conference room where he would give a short address with Jenny Macklin.

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"Firstly I just want to say..... Thank you.

Thank you to the federal parliamentary Labor caucus for electing as the Leader of the Labor Party. Thank you to Jenny for all of her support and I congratulate her for being elected to the Deputy Leadership. I want to thank my wife and kids for being the most tremendous support to me in my career. Finally I want to thank of course the Prime Minister. Since 1991, Paul Keating has changed the landscape of this country, something he was doing the decade prior as a phenomenal Treasurer. He has spent the past 30 years in public life, serving his country, the people of Blaxland and being one of the best Prime Minister's and Treasurer's that this country has ever seen.

I am tremendously grateful to become the 25th Prime Minister of this country. We will move Australia into the 21st century. I am committed to fully realising the potential of our economy to be prosperous and strong. We will formulate free trade agreements with many nations of the world, re-affirm our alliance to the United States and to likeminded friends such as the United Kingdom, Israel and more. We will bring about much needed social and economic reform in this country. We will build infrastructure, new roads and rail. Fresh leadership in the Labor Party will bring fresh ideas and will allow us to revitalise this country as we move into the new milennium. And of course, we will fight the upcoming election and we will WIN. John Howard seeks to destroy everything that we have built up in this country. He wants to strip away the rights of workers and he wants to change our world view to being incompassionate. We will fight him all the way to the ballot box. Tomorrow when I am sworn in I will also inform the Governor-General that I will seek the dissolution of Parliament so that an election can be held. This will be a tough campaign, a long campaign, but I believe that Australians will vote Labor in for an unprecendented 7th term. But this will not be the same Hawke-Keating Government of the past 20 years. This will be a new Beazley-Macklin Government. Fresh faces, fresh ideas. We expect a lot of resignations inside the party at the upcoming election, but this will allow for fresh blood to come into the party. I look forward to seeing which candidates we can elect at the next election. I am excited about the future and Australians should be too.

Here comes the 21st century, let's do it. Thank you."

Paul Keating wouldn't have a press conference, but he would pass on his congratulations to Kim Beazley and would announce his intentions not to run again for the seat of Blaxland at the election. Carmen Lawrence would commit to staying on as the member for Fremantle at the next election.

 

[Owen]

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The next morning, Prime Minister-designate Kim Beazley would head to Government House to get sworn in, bringing along his cabinet. There was not a huge shift in the Cabinet, notably Jenny Macklin becomes the Deputy Prime Minister with the Treasurer portfolio, Carmen Lawrence would stay on as Minister for Foreign Affairs and would absorb Leader of the House and Janice Crosio would absorb Jenny Macklin's portfolios of Minister for Human Services and Health and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women. Kim Beazley has said after the election was held there would be a much more thorough cabinet reshuffle and that this cabinet was purely caretaker. Governor-General Bob Hawke would greet Kim Beazley, Jenny Macklin and Janice Crosio to Government House as they all required swearing in to their new cabinet positions. They would sit around the small coffee, signing the required documents and swearing their oath to the Queen.

"I, (name), do swear that I will well and truly serve the people of Australia in the office of (position) and that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Australia."

After being sworn in, the new Prime Minister would then request to the Governor-General that parliament be dissolved and the writs for the election of the House of Representatives and half of the Senate be issued. The Governor-General would comply with the request and would issue notice that parliament was being dissolved and that the writs for the election would be written.

Office(s):	Officeholder:
Deputy Prime Minister Treasurer	Jenny Macklin, MP
Minister for Foreign Affairs Leader of the House	Dr. Carmen Lawrence, MP
Minister for Defence Manager of Government Business in the Senate	Senator John Faulkner
Minister for Housing, Infrastructure and Regional Development	Brian Howe, MP
Minister for Home Affairs Minister for Immigration and Citizenship Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Multicultural Affairs	Senator Robert Ray
Minister for Employment, Education and Training	Simon Crean, MP
Minister for Industry, Science and Technology	Barry Jones, MP
Minister for Primary Industries and Energy	Senator Peter Cook
Minister for Communications and the Arts	Marjorie Henzell, MP
Minister for Social Security Minister for Human Services and Health Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women	Janice Crosio, MP
Minister for Transport	Laurie Brereton, MP
Minister for Industrial Relations	Michael Lavarch, MP
Attorney-General Leader of the Government in the Senate	Senator Gareth Evans
Minister for the Environment, Sport and Territories	Ros Kelly, MP
Minister for Resources	Senator Kim Carr
Minister for Trade	Senator Bob McMullan
Minister for Finance	Ralph Willis, MP
Minister for Tourism	Alan Griffiths, MP

 

[Joe]

That morning, the Italian Royal Ambassador to the Commonwealth of Australia, Lady Francesca Tardioli, would contact Kim Beazley and express her dearest congratulations to the Prime Minister, hoping to assist any way she can into ushering in a new era in Italian and Australian relations.