Helen Caldicott - Australian Politics

Australian Politics

Caldicott contested the New South Wales seat of Division of Richmond in the House of Representatives at the 1990 federal election, a seat held by conservatives since the inaugural 1901 election, and by the National Party since it first contested elections at the 1922 election. Caldicott polled very well for a federal independent candidate, receiving 23.3 percent of the primary vote. On the sixth count, Caldicott had 27.4 percent of the vote, with Nationals incumbent (and then leader of the Nationals) Charles Blunt at 43.2 percent and Labor candidate Neville Newell at 29.4 percent. Caldicott was eliminated, and her preferences flowed heavily to Newell. This enabled Labor to take the seat for the first time in its history, on 50.5 percent of the two party preferred vote, a swing of 7.1 percent. This saw only one of three times a major party leader was defeated in his own seat at an election, the others being Stanley Bruce at the 1929 election and John Howard at the 2007 election.

Caldicott wished to enter the Australian Senate in 1991 and attempted to win Democrat support to replace New South Wales Senator Paul McLean, who had recently resigned. However, the party chose the highest unelected person on their New South Wales Senate ticket from the previous election and Karin Sowada took the position.