Research Brief Index

Research Brief no.11 2004–2005

Federal election results 1949–2004

Gerard Newman
Statistics Section
7 March 2005

Contents

Introduction
Executive summary
Notes on individual elections
Detailed results: House of Representatives 1949–1955, 1958–1966, 1969–1975, 1977–1984, 1987–1996, 1998–2004
Detailed results: Senate 1949–1955, 1958–1967, 1970–1977, 1980–1987, 1990–1998, 2001–2004
State summary: House of Representatives elections 1949–2004 NSW, Victoria, Queensland, SA, WA, Tasmania, NT, ACT, Australia
State summary: Senate elections 1949–2004 NSW, Victoria, Queensland, SA, WA, Tasmania, NT, ACT, Australia
House of Representatives elections 1949–2004: Two-party preferred vote
Senate elections 1949–2004: Senate composition after election
Informal votes: elections 1949–2004
Turnout: elections 1949–2004

Introduction

This brief contains a summary of federal elections held from 1949 to 2004. Details are provided for each House of Representatives and Senate election together with tables summarising the results in each state and territory. A comment on each election is provided in the Executive Summary of the brief.

Tables showing detailed results for each House of Representatives and Senate election contain figures for the number of electors enrolled, the number and percentage of votes received by party, and seats won by party, for each state and territory. Votes received by party are expressed as a percentage of formal votes, while formal and informal votes are expressed as a percentage of total votes, and total votes are expressed as a percentage of electors enrolled.

Summary tables showing informal votes and turnout at each Senate and House of Representatives election in the period are also included.

Election dates

Unless otherwise specified, elections were held for the House of Representatives and half of the Senate on the following dates:

Sources

A number of published sources have been used in the compilation of this brief. These include:

C. A. Hughes and A. D. Graham, A Handbook of Australian Government and Politics 1890–1964, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1968.

C. A. Hughes, A Handbook of Australian Government and Politics 1965–1974, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1977.

M. Mackerras, Australian General Elections, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1972.

M. Mackerras, Elections 1980, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1980.

Australasian Political Studies Association, Australian Two-Party-Preferred Votes 1949-1982, APSA, Canberra, 1982.

Australian Electoral Commission, Election Statistics (various issues), Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra.

Department of the Parliamentary Library, Parliamentary Handbook of the Commonwealth of Australia (various editions), AGPS, Canberra.

Party abbreviations

Executive summary

During the period 1949 to 2004, there have been 23 general elections for the House of Representatives and 22 Senate elections. The average length of time between House of Representatives elections during the period has been 2 years and 6 months.

Of the House of Representatives elections, the Liberal/National (Country) Party Coalition has won 16 and the Australian Labor Party (ALP) seven. Up to the 2004 election, the Liberal National Party Coalition had held government for 39 years compared to the time in government of the ALP of just 16 years. The period was characterised by relatively long terms in government by either party, with only five changes of government during the 55 years (1949, 1972, 1975, 1983 and 1996).

Double dissolutions of both houses were obtained five times during the period, resulting in full Senate elections being held in 1951, 1974, 1975, 1983 and 1987. Separate half-Senate elections were held in 1953, 1964, 1967 and 1970.

During the period under consideration, the government of the day has had control in the Senate only from 1951 to 1956, 1959 to 1962 and 1975 to 1981. At the 2004 election the coalition parties gained control of the Senate. On each occasion the Liberal/National (Country) Party Coalition was in government. The ALP has not controlled the Senate while in government during the period under consideration, however it did control the Senate from 1949 to 1951 while in opposition.

Notes on individual elections

1949

The 1949 election saw R. G. Menzies lead the Liberal Party, in close cooperation with the Country Party, to victory. The House of Representatives had been enlarged from 74 to 121 members (123 including members from NT and ACT) and the Senate from 36 to 60. A new method of electing senators was introduced for the 1949 election which resulted in a more equitable distribution of seats. The previous method tended to produce a ‘winner-takes-all’ result. The number of senators elected in 1949 (seven from each state) included two supernumerary senators from each state to bring the Senate up to its full complement of 60 members. The ALP retained control of the Senate.

1951

The 1951 election occurred after Menzies secured a double dissolution resulting from the ALP-controlled Senate refusing to pass the Government’s banking legislation. The 1951 election saw the ALP lose control of the Senate.

1953

The 1953 separate half-Senate election was held as a consequence of the 1951 simultaneous dissolution and the Constitutional provision (section 13) backdating the terms of senators elected at a simultaneous dissolution election, to the preceding 1 July.

1954

Although the Liberal/Country Party Coalition Government was returned at the 1954 election there was a 1.4 per cent swing to the ALP, giving the ALP a majority of the estimated two-party preferred vote (50.7 per cent). The ALP received 50.1 per cent of the first preference vote, the only election in the post-war period where any party has achieved more than 50 per cent of the first preference vote.

1955

The 1955 election saw the first electoral consequences of the split in the ALP. Anti-communist Labor (ACL) candidates stood against ALP candidates in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. The effects of the strength of the ACL were most notably felt in Victoria where the ALP vote in the House of Representatives fell by 13.2 per cent to 37.1 per cent. In the Senate, one ACL candidate was elected from Victoria where the ALP vote fell by 15.9 per cent to 35.0 per cent.

1958

The full effects of the split in the ALP were felt in the 1958 election with the Demogratic Labor Party (DLP) standing candidates in all states. The DLP polled more votes than the Country Party and its preferences helped the Liberal/Country Party Coalition achieve a then post-war record majority in the House of Representatives (32 seats). A DLP senator was elected from Tasmania giving the DLP two Senators. The Coalition Government regained control of the Senate.

1961

The Liberal/Country Party Coalition Government came close to defeat in the 1961 election held after the 1960–61 ‘credit squeeze’. The ALP and the coalition actually had equal numbers on the floor of the House of Representatives after the election, but two of the ALP number were members from the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory who had restricted voting rights in the chamber at the time. The Coalition Government lost effective control of the Senate, requiring support of either the DLP or independent senators for a majority. The 1961 election was only one of five occasions in the post-war period where the party winning government has not received more than 50 per cent of the two-party preferred vote. The Liberal/Country Party Coalition received an estimated 49.5 per cent of the two-party preferred vote.

1963

The 1963 election was held following the early dissolution of the House of Representatives. The Liberal/Country Party Coalition Government was returned with an increased majority. The Country Party vote was higher than the DLP vote for the first time since 1955.

1964

The 1964 separate half-Senate election was held because only the House of Representatives was dissolved in 1963 and it was three years after the preceding Senate election.

1966

The 1966 election resulted in a landslide victory for the Liberal/Country Party Coalition Government with a majority of 40 in a House of Representatives of 124 members. The number of Liberal Party members elected (61) was a then post-war record high while the number of ALP members elected (41) was a then post-war record low. The estimated two-party preferred vote received by the Liberal/Country Party, 56.9 per cent, is the highest in the post-war period. The 1966 election saw the first election of an independent member to the House of Representatives (S Benson, Batman, Victoria) since 1949.

1967

The continuing success of the DLP and independent candidates at the 1967 separate half-Senate election increased their number to five, a then post-war record number.

1969

The ALP made substantial gains in the 1969 election to recover ground lost in the 1966 election. The Liberal/Country Party Coalition Government majority in the House of Representatives was reduced from 40 to 7. The estimated two-party preferred swing to the ALP (7.1 per cent) is the highest recorded swing to the ALP in the post-war period. The Coalition Government was returned with less than 50 per cent of the estimate two-party preferred vote (49.8 per cent).

1970

The election of five minor party and independent senators at the 1970 separate half-Senate elections raised their number to eight, a then post-war record. The continuing success of minor parties and independents at the ‘by-election atmosphere’ of separate half-Senate elections convinced the two major parties of the futility of holding such elections and the 1970 election was the last separate half-Senate election held.

1972

Australia experienced its first change of federal government in 23 years with the defeat of the Liberal/Country Party Coalition Government by the ALP at the 1972 House of Representatives election. The estimated ALP two-party preferred vote, 52.7 per cent, was the second highest recorded since the war. However, the incoming ALP government faced a hostile Senate, reflecting Senate election results in 1967 and 1970.

1974

The 1974 double dissolution election synchronised elections for the House of Representatives and the Senate for the first time since 1961. The 1974 election saw the demise of the DLP as a political power in the Senate. The DLP lost all five Senate positions it held going into the election and has not seriously threatened to win a Senate seat since. Even with the lower quota requirements of a full Senate election, minor parties and independents could only manage to win two seats.

1975

Following the dismissal of the Whitlam ALP Government, a double dissolution was granted. The resultant 1975 election saw the worst result for the ALP in the post-war period. The ALP received only 44.3 per cent of the estimated two-party preferred vote, a swing against the ALP of 7.4 per cent, and won 36 seats in the House of Representatives. The Liberal Party won 68 seats, its third best result, while the National Country Party won 22 seats, its best ever result. The ALP returned only one member from each of Queensland and Western Australia in the House of Representatives. In the Senate, the incoming Liberal/National Country Party Coalition Government became the first government since before the 1961 election to hold a majority. Senators were elected from the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory for the first time.

1977

The ALP failed to recover substantial ground in the 1977 House of Representatives election. The ALP’s strength in the House of Representatives increased from 36 to 38 in a slightly reduced chamber (from 127 to 124 members) and the ALP share of the estimated two-party preferred vote increased slightly to 45.4 per cent. The Australian Democrats fielded candidates for the first time and achieved immediate success in the Senate with the election of two senators.

1980

The ALP made substantial gains at the 1980 election but the Liberal/National Country Party Coalition remained firmly in control of the House of Representatives with a majority of 23 seats. For the first time since the Second World War, the ALP won a majority of House of Representatives seats from Victoria. In the Senate, further increases in the strength of the Australian Democrats meant that the Government lost control of the Senate. National Country Party strength in the Senate fell to three, the lowest since the war.

1983

The 1983 election was a triumph for the ALP, with the defeat of the Fraser Government and a record result. The ALP achieved its best result in the House of Representatives with 75 members elected and a two-party preferred vote of 53.2 per cent, the highest recorded by the party in the period under consideration. Tasmania was the only state to hold out against the ALP tide: all five seats were won by the Liberal Party. In the Senate, Australian Democrat candidates were elected from all states, except Tasmania where the independent Senator, Brian Harradine, was re-elected.

1984

The 1984 elections were held for an enlarged House of Representatives, increased from 125 to 148, and Senate, increased from 64 to 76. A supernumerary senator was elected from each state to bring the size of the Senate up to its full complement of members. In terms of members elected, all major parties gained from the enlarged House of Representatives, with the Liberal Party recording the largest gain of 12 members from 33 to 45. The 1984 Senate election was the first conducted under the group ticket or ‘above-the-line’ system. Under this system, voters have a choice of voting above the line on a ballot paper by simply placing a ‘1’ in the party box of their choice or numbering the boxes for each candidate below the line. The effect of this change was to reduce greatly the incidence of informal votes in the Senate from 9.9 per cent in 1983 to 4.7 per cent in 1984. However, the resultant confusion in voting methodologies had the perverse consequence of increasing the informal vote in the House of Representatives from 2.1 per cent in 1983 to 6.8 per cent in 1984.

1987

The 1987 election saw the two-party preferred vote for the ALP decline by 1.0 per cent to 50.8 per cent, but the number of seats won by the ALP in the House of Representatives increase by four to 86, the highest representation of the ALP ever. In the Senate, the lower quotas occasioned by the double dissolution resulted in a new record of ten minor party and independent senators being elected. The 1987 Senate election saw the first candidates standing on a green or environmental platform.

1990

The 1990 election was only one of five occasions in the period 1949–2004 when a party was elected to government with less than 50 per cent of the two-party preferred vote. The ALP received 49.9 per cent of the two-party preferred vote yet won 78 (or 52.7 per cent) of the seats in the House of Representatives. The National Party were the big losers in this election, with a net loss of five seats, giving them their then lowest number of seats, 14, in the House of Representatives since 1949. For the first time since 1966, an independent member (E. Mack, North Sydney, NSW) was elected to the House of Representatives. In the Senate, minor parties and independents maintained their position, and the first green senator was elected (J. Vallentine, WA). Senator Vallentine had been first elected at the 1984 election as a Nuclear Disarmament Party (NDP) candidate.

1993

The re-election of the ALP government, with an increased majority from 8 to 13, at the 1993 election was the first occasion since 1966 that an incumbent government achieved a positive two-party preferred swing (1.5 per cent to ALP). The election was notable for the election of two independents to the House of Representatives (E. Mack, North Sydney, NSW; P. Cleary, Wills, Victoria), the then lowest National Party vote recorded (7.2 per cent) since the Second World War, and the decline in the vote for the Australian Democrats. In the House of Representatives, the Democrat vote declined from 11.3 per cent at the 1990 election to 3.8 per cent, while in the Senate, the Democrat vote went from 12.6 per cent to 5.3 per cent. The decline in votes for the Australian Democrats meant that only two Democrat Senators were elected, the then smallest number since the party’s first election in 1977. However, the strength of the minor parties and independents in the Senate was maintained with the success of a second green senator (D. Margetts, WA) and the re-election of Senator Harradine from Tasmania.

1996

The Liberal/National Party Coalition was returned to government at the 1996 election after 13 years in opposition. The Liberal Party won 75 seats in the House of Representatives, their largest ever level of representation, while the National Party won 18 seats. The ALP performed poorly in Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia, retaining only seven of the 52 seats in those states, winning a total overall of 49 seats. The recent success of independents continued with five independents being elected, the largest number in the post-war period. The Coalition received 53.6 per cent of the two-party preferred vote (a swing of 5.0 per cent), the highest vote since 1977 and the largest swing since 1975. In the Senate, minor parties continued to hold the balance of power, despite a strong result by the Coalition. The Coalition won 20 of the 40 Senate places up for election. The Democrats improved on their 1993 result and returned five senators while one green Senator (B. Brown) was elected.

1998

Despite receiving less than 50 per cent of the two-party preferred vote the Liberal/National Party Coalition was returned at the 1998 election with a comfortable majority. The success of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party in appealing to conservative voters resulted in the lowest first preference vote (33.9 per cent) for the Liberal Party since 1972 and the lowest first preference vote for the National Party (5.3 per cent) during the post-war period. The combined first preference vote for the three major parties (79.6 per cent) was the lowest recorded in the period. In two-party preferred vote terms, support for the Coalition fell by 4.6 per cent to 49.0 per cent, only the fifth time in the post-war period that a government was elected with less than 50 per cent of the vote. Of the five independent members elected at the 1996 election, only one (P. Andren, Calare, NSW) retained his seat. In the Senate, minor parties continued to hold the balance of power. The Australian Democrats won four seats to bring their number to nine senators, their highest ever level of representation in the Senate. In Queensland, One Nation candidate, H. Hill was elected (but was subsequently found to be ineligible and was replaced by L. Harris), while in Tasmania, Senator Harradine was re-elected.

2001

The Liberal/National Party Coalition Government was returned with an increased majority. The swing to the government of 2.0 per cent in two-party preferred vote terms was the largest swing to an incumbent government since 1966 and only one of six times that a positive swing to a government has occurred in the period. Swings to the government were recorded in all states except Tasmania and the Northern Territory. However, the election was one of contrasting results for the Coalition partners: 69 Liberal Party members were elected to the House of Representatives, the third largest number ever elected, while 13 National Party members were elected, the second smallest number in the post-war period. Part of the National Party’s problem lay in the success of independent candidates, with three being elected from rural areas, the second largest number of independents elected in the period. The ALP performed poorly, recording its lowest first preference vote during the period in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. In the Senate, minor parties continued to hold the balance of power, although the Australian Democrats now had to share the balance of power with the other parties and the two independents. In NSW, a Green senator (K. Nettle) was elected for the first time.

2004

For the second successive election, the Liberal/National Party Coalition Government was returned with an increased majority. The Liberal Party won 74 seats in the House of Representatives, their second highest result, while the National Party won 12 seats, their lowest number in the post-war period. For only the sixth time in the period, a positive two-party preferred swing was recorded to the incumbent government. Two-party preferred swings to the government occurred in all states except the Northern Territory. In terms of first preference votes the Liberal Party recorded over 40 per cent for the first time since 1975, while the Labor Party’s vote was the lowest recorded in the post-war period. The three sitting independent members were returned. In the Senate, the Coalition won 38 seats and won control of the chamber for the first time since 1980. The Coalition parties won four seats in Queensland, the first time this had been achieved in a non-double dissolution election. The election was one of contrasting results for the minor parties: the Australian Democrats’ vote collapsed and they failed to win a seat, but on the other hand the Greens won two seats to give them four in the new Senate, the same as the Democrats. A Family First Senator was elected from Victoria. In a worrying trend for electoral administrators, the informal vote in the House of Representatives continued to increase and, at 5.2 per cent, was the second highest on record since 1949.

Comments to: web.library@aph.gov.auweb.library@aph.gov.au
Last reviewed 7 March, 2005 by the Parliamentary Library Web Manager
© Commonwealth of Australia

Except to the extent of the uses permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means including information storage and retrieval systems, without the prior written consent of the Department of Parliamentary Services, other than by senators and members of the Australian Parliament in the course of their official duties.

This paper has been prepared to support the work of the Australian Parliament using information available at the time of production. The views expressed do not reflect an official position of the Information and Research Service, nor do they constitute professional legal opinion.

Parliament of Australia Web Site Privacy Statement
Images courtesy of AUSPIC