John Anderson (Australian politician): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 08:03, 1 November 2004

Revision as of 02:50, 18 November 2004

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Among the issues facing Anderson as National Party leader were the Liberal Party's desire to [[privatization|privatise]] the state telephone company, Telstra, which many rural Australians fear will lead to higher charges and reduced services. Anderson succeeded in delaying any action on this until an inquiry had been held, and until a guarantee would be given that there would be no reduction in services.

Nevertheless, at the [[Australian legislative election, 2001|2001 federal elections]], the National Party lost three seats, two of them to independent MPs, while the Liberals gained seats. As a result, the party had to give up a place in the coalition Cabinet formed after the elections. During [[2003]] there was speculation that Anderson would soon be quitting politics, but in September he announced that he would stay and fight the [[Australian legislative electonelection, 2004|2004 election]]. Despite a coalition victory, the party lost one seat in the House of Representitives. They did however pick up two seats in the Senate, one as part of the joint Coalition ticket in NSW, which saw [[Fiona Nash]] elected, and as part of a seperate ticket in Queensland, which saw [[Barnaby Joyce]] elected.

==Quotations==