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
18 October 1980
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
  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 12 13
Percentage 50.37% 49.63%
Swing 4.23% 4.23%
Popular vote by state and territory with graphs indicating the number of seats won. As this is an IRV election, seat totals are not determined by popular vote by state or territory but instead via results in each electorate.
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

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

House of Representatives
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
    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 Seats Held 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
        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
        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 in italics did not contest their seat at this election.

        Aftermath
        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 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

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

        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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