Australian federal election, 1980

Australian federal election, 1980

18 October 1980

All 125 seats in the Australian House of Representatives 63 seats were needed for a majority in the House 34 (of the 64) seats in the Australian Senate   First party Second party   Leader Malcolm Fraser Bill Hayden Party Liberal/National coalition Labor Leader since 21 March 1975 22 December 1977 Leader's seat Wannon Oxley Last election 86 seats 38 seats Seats won 74 seats 51 seats Seat change 12 13 Percentage 50.40% 49.60% Swing 4.20 4.20

Prime Minister before election Malcolm Fraser Liberal/National coalition Subsequent Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser Liberal/National coalition

Federal elections were held in Australia on 18 October 1980. All 125 seats in the House of Representatives, and 34 of the 64 seats in the Senate, were up for election. The incumbent Liberal Party of Australia led by Malcolm Fraser with coalition partner the National Country Party led by Doug Anthony was elected to a third term in government, defeating the Australian Labor Party led by Bill Hayden.

Results

Independent: Brian Harradine

Seats changing hands

• Members in italics did not contest their seat at this election.

Issues and significance

The Gallagher Index result: 8.61

The Fraser Government had lost a degree of popularity within the electorate by 1980. The economy had been performing poorly since the 1973 oil shock. However, Hayden was not seen as having great electoral prospects.^[1] Perhaps as evidence of this, then ACTU President Bob Hawke (elected to Parliament in the election as the Member for Wills) and then Premier of New South Wales Neville Wran featured heavily in the campaign, almost as heavily as Hayden.

In the election, Labor finished only 0.8 percent behind the Coalition on the two-party vote—a four-percent swing from 1977. However, due to the uneven nature of the swing, Labor came up 12 seats short of a majority, giving the Coalition a third term in government. Hayden, however, did manage to regain much of what Labor had lost in the previous two elections. Notably, he managed to more than halve Fraser's majority, from 48 seats at dissolution to 23.

In the subsequent term, the government delivered budgets significantly in deficit, and Fraser was challenged for the Liberal leadership by Andrew Peacock. The Australian Democrats made further gains, winning the balance of power in the Senate. From July 1981 (when those senators elected at the 1980 election took up their positions) no Federal Government in Australia had a Senate majority until the Howard Government won such a majority in 2004.

See also

• Candidates of the Australian federal election, 1980
• Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1980–1983
• Members of the Australian Senate, 1981–1983

Notes

References

• AustralianPolitics.com election details
• University of WA election results in Australia since 1890
• AEC 2PP vote
• Prior to 1984 the AEC did not undertake a full distribution of preferences for statistical purposes. The stored ballot papers for the 1983 election were put through this process prior to their destruction. Therefore, the figures from 1983 onwards show the actual result based on full distribution of preferences.

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