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
Registered	9,023,592 5.55%
Turnout	8,513,992 (94.35%) (0.73 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 12 13 Popular vote 3,853,585 3,749,565 Percentage 46.40% 45.15% Swing 1.71 5.50 TPP 50.40% 49.60% TPP swing 4.20 4.20
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

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. 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

Main article: Results of the 1980 Australian federal election (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

See also: Results of the 1980 Australian federal election (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	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

• Independent: Brian Harradine

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 listed 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 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

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

References

• 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.