Andrew Wilkie - Political Career

Political Career

Wilkie stood as the Australian Greens candidate for Bennelong against John Howard in the Australian House of Representatives in the 2004 federal election. He was a supporter of the 'Not happy John!' campaign which ran during the election campaign. Polling 16 per cent of the primary vote, Wilkie achieved the fifth-highest Green vote percentage across the nation. This result was a considerable increase from the Greens' previous (2001) election figure of 5%. Although Wilkie's vote was nowhere near enough to win the seat, there was a swing of 3.18% against John Howard, the sitting Liberal Party member and Prime Minister, who achieved a primary vote of 49.89%, which resulted in the seat being decided on preferences. The seat reverted to a margin of 5% in 2007, but Green votes were amongst the preferences that saw Labor's Maxine McKew defeat Howard.

He was nominated as the Greens' second Tasmanian candidate for the Australian Senate at the 2007 federal election, behind the Greens federal leader, Bob Brown.

Wilkie ran as an independent candidate in the state Division of Denison in the 2010 Tasmanian state election. He won 8.44 per cent of first preference votes, and was beaten by 315 votes by Liberal candidate Elise Archer after distribution of preferences.

Wilkie stood as an independent for the federal Division of Denison in the 2010 federal election and won more than 20 per cent of the primary vote. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation declared Wilkie the winner on election night, predicting that Wilkie would be vaulted into second place on Green preferences and ultimately take the seat on Liberal preferences. On the third count, he picked up enough Green preferences to put him in second place, ahead of the Liberal candidate. On the fourth count, more than 79 percent of the Liberal candidate's preferences flowed to Wilkie, allowing him to win the seat with just over 51 per cent of the two-candidate-preferred vote. Following the election, he declared that he would back the Australian Labor Party minority government, in return for the Gillard government committing A$340 million to the Royal Hobart Hospital and a commitment to reduce problem gambling. In contrast the Coalition offered one billion funding for the same hospital in their offer to Wilkie, which was perceived by Wilkie as "almost reckless". Wilkie described this as being part of the evidence that Labor would better be able to offer a more stable, competent and ethical government than the Coalition. The agreement to support the government only extended to issues of supply and no confidence motions.

Wilkie was unexpectedly admitted to hospital on 12 November 2010 to have his gallbladder removed. This did not interfere with his ability to attend Parliamentary sittings and he was present at the debate on same-sex marriage on 15 November, where he seconded the motion raised by Greens member Adam Bandt.

In April 2011 during push for gambling reform initiated by Wilkie, News Limited media reported allegations by a former Duntroon army cadet that in 1983 Wilkie had forced junior cadets to salute to Adolf Hitler on the 50th anniversary of the latter's rise to power. In response, Wilkie said he had been "involved in bastardisation of teenage army cadets" at Duntroon during the 1980s and apologised for this "inappropriate behaviour" but could not recall the specific incident alleged. With regard to the allegation and its publication, he accused pro-Pokies advocates of running a smear campaign against him.

On 21 January 2012 Wilkie announced that he was withdrawing his support for the Labor Government after it broke the agreement he had signed with Julia Gillard to implement mandatory pre-commitment for all poker machines by 2014. He stated that he would support the government's alternative plan to trial pre-commitment in the ACT and require that pre-commitment technology be installed in all poker machines built from 2013, but that this fell short of what he had been promised in return for supporting the government. Gillard and Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs Jenny Macklin argued that there was not enough support in the House of Representatives for Wilkie's preferred option for it to be passed, and that they had been advised it was technically unfeasible to implement mandatory commitment within the time frame he had specified. In making his announcement, Wilkie stated that he would only support motions of no confidence against the government "in the event of serious misconduct" and would "consider budget measures on their merits".