The Western Australian State Election 1986 and the Aboriginal Vote in the Kimberley

Abstract

A survey provided most of the data used in this report. The survey questionnaire was similar to that used in the surveys of Aboriginal voters in the Northern Territory election of 1983 and in the Commonwealth election in the Territory in 1984. The basic questions concerned enrolment, knowledge of parties and candidates, past voting behaviour and present voting intention, electoral education, sources of information about the election and problems which the government should do something about. There has been very little systematic study of Aboriginal participation and interest in electoral processes in remote areas of Western Australia apart from the work of Bulger and Romley. In Western Australia, as in the Northern Territory, we have found that Aboriginal interest in, and knowledge and understanding of the electoral process is substantial. Show more