By Ann Marie Angebrandt
HENRY Barlow’s dream of State Parliament came to an abrupt end last week after an early- morning phone call telling him he was 129 votes short of an Upper House seat.
“Of course, there was major disbelief and disappointment,” said the Labor Party candidate.
Voting trends had favoured the Wyndham City councillor to win the last of five seats in the 26-candidate Western Metropolitan region for the 25 November election.
The Victorian Electoral Commission had even listed him a winner in provisional results after it completed its laborious system of counting. It involves distributing quota surplusses of winners, and eliminating losers one by one. But after an all-night recount of the 400,000 votes, Greens Party candidate and former Maribyrnong mayor Colleen Hartland emerged the new winner, effectively giving the Greens the balance of power in Victoria’s Legislative Council.
“It was always going to be a close contest,” said Cr Barlow.
The VEC called for the recount when it noticed a margin of fewer than 100 votes between the final candidates.
Party secretary Steven Newnham called Cr Barlow at 6.30am last Thursday to deliver the bad news.
“You don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched, but I was disappointed I lost by so little,” he said.
For the past few years, Cr Barlow’s ambition for State Parliament has been fraught by hurdles.
A long-time loyal party member, the 52-year-old was widely expected to replace local MP Mary Gillett after she did not get pre-selected for a third term as member for Tarneit.
Instead, he was overlooked in favour of Premier Bracks’ then chief-of-staff, Tim Pallas.
Cr Barlow also fell victim to factional favouritism for the metro west seat, with the party ranking him fourth of its five choices.
He said he was not bitter toward the party.
“I don’t believe I’ve been burned and I’m not taking it personally,” he said.
“The ALP gave me an opportunity to represent the people of the upper west and it would have been a great honour,” he said.
Greens win recount, Page 2.
From Page 1.
Instead, Cr Barlow said he was pleased he would now be able to continue on local council until November 2008.
The nine-year local council veteran has previously said he would not throw his hat in the ring for local government after that.
However, he would not rule out running again in the 2010 State Election.
“I can analyse this campaign and, looking back, I’m satisfied I covered all the bases and did everything I possibly could,” he said.
He said many of his supporters were not Labor Party lovers, but voted for him below the line to boost his individual votes.
The father of four last week was fielding and making phone calls to find a job in government, business or the community.
He worked as an adviser for former energy minister Theo Theophanous before the election.
“I’m open to anything right now. One door closes and another one opens,” Cr Barlow said.
