Shane Rattenbury - Political Career

Political Career

Rattenbury first ran for election to the ACT Legislative Assembly in the 2001 ACT Election, for the ACT Greens in the electorate of Ginninderra. After the distribution of preferences, Rattenbury was defeated by both Labor's Wayne Berry and the Australian Democrats', Roslyn Dundas.

In June 2008, the ACT Greens announced that Rattenbury would again stand for election in the electorate of Molonglo. Independent polling released in October suggested the Green vote had doubled to tripled since the last election at the expense of Labor, with the Liberal vote remaining relatively unchanged. Commentators predicted the Greens would hold the balance of power and decide who forms government. The Greens stated they were willing to court both major parties. At the close of counting on election night, with 82.1 per cent of the vote counted, Labor had obtained 37.6 per cent of the vote across the ACT, with the Liberals at 31.1 per cent and the Greens at 15.8 per cent. Swings were recorded against both the Labor (-9.3 per cent) and Liberal (-3.7 per cent) parties with a +6.6 per cent swing towards the Greens. This resulted in the election of Rattenbury, Meredith Hunter, Amanda Bresnan, and Caroline Le Couteur.