1980 Australian federal election

Template:Short description Template:Use Australian English Template:Use dmy dates 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.

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

File:Australian House of Representatives elected members, 1980.svg

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

Opposition (51)
  Labor (51)
Template:Notelist

House of Reps (IRV) — 1980–83—Turnout 94.35% (CV) — Informal 2.45%

File:1980 Australian House.svg

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

File:Australian Senate elected members, 1980.svg

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

Opposition (27)
  Labor (27)

Crossbench (6)
  Democrats (5)
  Independent (1)
Template:Notelist

Senate (STV) — 1980–83—Turnout 94.35% (CV) — Informal 9.65%

File:1980 Australian Senate.svg

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	*	*
	Template:Australian party style |	Liberal	1,011,289	13.15	+2.55	9	27	0
	Template:Australian party style |	National Country	341,978	4.45	+3.95	1	3	–3
	Template:Australian party style |	Country Liberal	19,129	0.25	+0.04	1	1	0
Template:Australian party style |	Labor		3,250,187	42.25	+5.49	15	27	0
Template:Australian party style |	Democrats		711,805	9.25	−1.88	3	5	+3
Template:Australian party style |	Call to Australia		118,535	1.54	+0.42	0	0	0
Template:Australian party style |	Democratic Labor		31,766	0.41	–1.26	0	0	0
Template:Australian party style |	Marijuana		28,337	0.37	–0.23	0	0	0
Template:Australian party style |	Australia		27,404	0.36	+0.25	0	0	0
Template:Australian party style |	Socialist		15,412	0.20	–0.38	0	0	0
Template:Australian party style |	Progress		8,252	0.11	–1.08	0	0	0
Template:Australian party style |	NPWA		7,597	0.10	+0.10	0	0	0
Template:Australian party style |	Progressive Conservative		6,247	0.07	+0.07	0	0
Template:Australian party style |	National Front of Australia		1,467	0.01	+0.01	0	0
	Other		56,128	0.73	+0.73	0	0	0
Template:Australian party style |	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	Template:Australian party style|	Liberal	Jim Short	7.5	8.2	0.7	John Mildren	Labor	Template:Australian party style|
Brisbane, Qld	Template:Australian party style|	Liberal	Peter Johnson	3.2	5.0	1.8	Manfred Cross	Labor	Template:Australian party style|
Canberra, ACT	Template:Australian party style|	Liberal	John Haslem	1.0	6.7	5.7	Ros Kelly	Labor	Template:Australian party style|
Henty, Vic	Template:Australian party style|	Liberal	Ken Aldred	2.7	5.5	2.8	Joan Child	Labor	Template:Australian party style|
Holt, Vic	Template:Australian party style|	Liberal	William Yates	1.8	8.7	6.9	Michael Duffy	Labor	Template:Australian party style|
Hotham, Vic	Template:Australian party style|	Liberal	Roger Johnston	1.7	5.7	4.0	Lewis Kent	Labor	Template:Australian party style|
Isaacs, Vic	Template:Australian party style|	Liberal	Bill Burns	7.3	9.1	1.8	David Charles	Labor	Template:Australian party style|
Kalgoorlie, WA	Template:Australian party style|	Liberal	Mick Cotter	8.5	8.1	0.6	Graeme Campbell	Labor	Template:Australian party style|
La Trobe, Vic	Template:Australian party style|	Liberal	Marshall Baillieu	0.8	3.1	2.3	Peter Milton	Labor	Template:Australian party style|
Lilley, Qld	Template:Australian party style|	Liberal	Kevin Cairns	6.0	6.8	0.8	Elaine Darling	Labor	Template:Australian party style|
Macquarie, NSW	Template:Australian party style|	Liberal	Reg Gillard	1.7	4.5	2.8	Ross Free	Labor	Template:Australian party style|
McMillan, Vic	Template:Australian party style|	Liberal	Barry Simon	4.8	6.2	1.4	Barry Cunningham	Labor	Template:Australian party style|
Riverina, NSW	Template:Australian party style|	Labor	John FitzPatrick	0.1	0.6	0.5	Noel Hicks	National Country	Template:Australian party style|
St George, NSW	Template:Australian party style|	Liberal	Maurice Neil	2.0	8.1	6.1	Bill Morrison	Labor	Template:Australian party style|
Swan, WA	Template:Australian party style|	Liberal	John Martyr	0.5	8.1	7.6	Kim Beazley	Labor	Template:Australian party style|

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

Aftermath

File:1980 Election Australia Gallagher Index.png

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 Template:Webarchive 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.