1980 Australian federal election

The 1980 Australian federal election was 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–NCP coalition government, led by Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, was elected to a third term with a much reduced majority, defeating the opposition Labor Party led by Bill Hayden. This was the last federal election victory for the Coalition until the 1996 election.

1980 Australian federal election

← 1977 18 October 1980 1983 →

All 125 seats in the House of Representatives
63 seats were needed for a majority in the House
34 (of the 64) seats in the Senate
Registered9,023,592 Increase 5.55%
Turnout8,513,992 (94.35%)
(Decrease0.73 pp)
  First party Second party
 
Leader Malcolm Fraser Bill Hayden
Party Liberal/NCP coalition Labor
Leader since 21 March 1975 22 December 1977
Leader's seat Wannon (Vic.) Oxley (Qld.)
Last election 86 seats 38 seats
Seats won 74 seats 51 seats
Seat change Decrease12 Increase13
Popular vote 3,853,585 3,749,565
Percentage 46.40% 45.15%
Swing Decrease1.71 Increase5.50
TPP 50.40% 49.60%
TPP swing Decrease4.20 Increase4.20

Results by division for the House of Representatives, shaded by winning party's margin of victory.

Prime Minister before election

Malcolm Fraser
Liberal/NCP coalition

Subsequent Prime Minister

Malcolm Fraser
Liberal/NCP coalition

Future Prime Minister Bob Hawke and future opposition leader and future Deputy Prime Minister Kim Beazley entered parliament at this election.

Issues and significance

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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.

Results

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House of Representatives

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Government (74)
Coalition
  Liberal (54)
  NCP (19)
  CLP (1)

Opposition (51)
  Labor (51)
House of Reps (IRV) — 1980–83—Turnout 94.35% (CV) — Informal 2.45%
 
Party Votes % Swing Seats Change
  Liberal–NCP coalition 3,853,585 46.40 –1.71 74 –12
  Liberal 3,108,517 37.43 −0.66 54 −13
  National Country  726,263 8.74 −1.07 19 +1
  Country Liberal 18,805 0.23 +0.02 1 0
  Labor 3,749,565 45.15 +5.50 51 +13
  Democrats 546,032 6.57 −2.81 0 0
  Democratic Labor 25,456 0.31 −1.12 0 0
  Progress 17,040 0.21 −0.39 0 0
  Socialist Workers 16,920 0.20 +0.20 0 0
  Communist 11,318 0.14 −0.04 0 0
  Socialist Labour 10,051 0.12 +0.12 0 0
  NPWA 8,915 0.11 +0.11 0 0
  Progressive Conservative 3,620 0.04 +0.04 0 0
  United Christian 2,050 0.02 +0.02 0 0
  Imperial British Conservative 1,515 0.02 +0.02 0 0
  Australia 701 0.01 +0.01 0 0
  Marijuana 486 0.01 +0.01 0 0
  Independent 58,338 0.70 +0.07 0 0
  Total 8,305,633     125 +1
Two-party-preferred (estimated)
  Coalition Win 50.40 −4.20 74 −12
  Labor   49.60 +4.20 51 +13
Popular vote
Labor
45.15%
Liberal
37.43%
National
8.97%
Democrats
6.57%
Other
1.88%
Two-party-preferred vote
Coalition
50.40%
Labor
49.60%
Parliament seats
Coalition
59.20%
Labor
40.80%

Senate

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Government (31)
Coalition
  Liberal (27)
  NCP (3)
  CLP (1)

Opposition (27)
  Labor (27)

Crossbench (6)
  Democrats (5)
  Independent (1)
Senate (STV) — 1980–83—Turnout 94.35% (CV) — Informal 9.65%
 
Party Votes % Swing Seats won Total seats Change
  Liberal–NCP coalition 3,352,521 43.58 –1.98 15 31 –3
  Liberal–NCP joint ticket 1,971,528 25.63 −8.63 4 * *
  Liberal 1,011,289 13.15 +2.55 9 27 0
  National Country 341,978 4.45 +3.95 1 3 –3
  Country Liberal 19,129 0.25 +0.04 1 1 0
  Labor 3,250,187 42.25 +5.49 15 27 0
  Democrats 711,805 9.25 −1.88 3 5 +3
  Call to Australia 118,535 1.54 +0.42 0 0 0
  Democratic Labor 31,766 0.41 –1.26 0 0 0
  Marijuana 28,337 0.37 –0.23 0 0 0
  Australia 27,404 0.36 +0.25 0 0 0
  Socialist 15,412 0.20 –0.38 0 0 0
  Progress 8,252 0.11 –1.08 0 0 0
  NPWA 7,597 0.10 +0.10 0 0 0
  Progressive Conservative 6,247 0.07 +0.07 0 0
  National Front of Australia 1,467 0.01 +0.01 0 0
  Other 56,128 0.73 +0.73 0 0 0
  Independent 86,770 1.13 –0.60 1 1 0
  Total 7,692,364     34 64
Notes

Seats changing hands

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Seat Pre-1980 Swing Post-1980
Party Member Margin Margin Member Party
Ballarat, Vic   Liberal Jim Short 7.5 8.2 0.7 John Mildren Labor  
Brisbane, Qld   Liberal Peter Johnson 3.2 5.0 1.8 Manfred Cross Labor  
Canberra, ACT   Liberal John Haslem 1.0 6.7 5.7 Ros Kelly Labor  
Henty, Vic   Liberal Ken Aldred 2.7 5.5 2.8 Joan Child Labor  
Holt, Vic   Liberal William Yates 1.8 8.7 6.9 Michael Duffy Labor  
Hotham, Vic   Liberal Roger Johnston 1.7 5.7 4.0 Lewis Kent Labor  
Isaacs, Vic   Liberal Bill Burns 7.3 9.1 1.8 David Charles Labor  
Kalgoorlie, WA   Liberal Mick Cotter 8.5 8.1 0.6 Graeme Campbell Labor  
La Trobe, Vic   Liberal Marshall Baillieu 0.8 3.1 2.3 Peter Milton Labor  
Lilley, Qld   Liberal Kevin Cairns 6.0 6.8 0.8 Elaine Darling Labor  
Macquarie, NSW   Liberal Reg Gillard 1.7 4.5 2.8 Ross Free Labor  
McMillan, Vic   Liberal Barry Simon 4.8 6.2 1.4 Barry Cunningham Labor  
Riverina, NSW   Labor John FitzPatrick 0.1 0.6 0.5 Noel Hicks National Country  
St George, NSW   Liberal Maurice Neil 2.0 8.1 6.1 Bill Morrison Labor  
Swan, WA   Liberal John Martyr 0.5 8.1 7.6 Kim Beazley Labor  
  • Members listed in italics did not contest their seat at this election.

Aftermath

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The Gallagher Index result: 8.61

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 Coalition landslides of 1975 and 1977. Notably, he managed to more than halve Fraser's majority, from 23 seats at dissolution to 11.

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

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Notes

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  1. ^ "australianpolitics.com". australianpolitics.com. Retrieved 30 July 2016.

References

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  • AustralianPolitics.com election details
  • University of WA Archived 18 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine 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.