1974 Australian federal election

Government (66)
  Labor (66)

Opposition (61)
Coalition
  Liberal (40)
  Country (21)

Notes

• The National Alliance was an electoral alliance of the Country Party and the Democratic Labor Party in Western Australia. It defended two seats that had elected the Country Party in 1972 but lost them both.

Government (29)
  Labor (29)

Opposition (29)
Coalition
  Liberal (23)
  Country (6)

Crossbench (2)
  Liberal Movement (1)
  Independent (1)

Notes

• The Country Party (CP) contested the elections in Western Australia as the National Alliance (NA), which was a merger of the CP and the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) in that state. The NA won a single Senate seat in WA, its elected representative being Tom Drake-Brockman, who sat with the CP on election to parliament.
• Independent: Michael Townley (Liberal Party from Feb 1975)

The Whitlam Government had been re-elected with their majority in the House of Representatives reduced from 9 to 5 seats, while they gained 5 seats in the Senate. The ALP and the coalition each won 29 seats in the 60 member Senate, with the balance of power held by Steele Hall of the Liberal Movement, and Michael Townley, a conservative independent. The Democratic Labor Party, which had been rendered obsolete by the election of the Whitlam government in 1972, lost all five of its Senate seats.[1]

Al Grassby who served as Minister for Immigration in the Labor Whitlam Government lost his seat. Grassby's actions as immigration minister attracted criticism from anti-immigration groups, led by the Immigration Control Association, which targeted his electorate in a campaign at the May 1974 election. Partly as a result, Grassby was defeated by the National Party candidate, John Sullivan, by just 792 votes. Grassby and his supporters accused these groups of mounting a smear campaign against him.[2]

The re-elected Whitlam government's failure again to gain a majority in the Senate led to the 1974 joint sitting, Australia's only joint sitting, pursuant to section 57 of the Constitution. It was approved by the new governor-general Sir John Kerr after the bills were presented to the new parliament and were rejected a third time. It was held three months after the election, on 6–7 August, and it enabled the six bills that had been thrice rejected by the Senate to be passed. The Health Insurance bills were both passed on party lines, 95–92, the Petroleum and Minerals Authority legislation also passed on party lines, though with one Liberal Party member absent. Liberal Movement Senator Steele Hall supported the three Electoral bills, citing his experience as Liberal Premier of South Australia, where he had fought his own party in an effort to improve unequal electoral arrangements dubbed the Playmander. Northern Territory Country Party MP Sam Calder supported the Territory Senators legislation, though he opposed the ACT being given added representation.[3]

In February 1975, the independent senator Michael Townley joined the Liberal party. This gave the Coalition 30 out of 60 Senators, with 29 Labor and 1 Liberal Movement (Steele Hall).

Later in 1975, two Coalition premiers would break longstanding convention in the replacement of two ALP senators. Lionel Murphy, who had resigned to take up an appointment to the High Court, was replaced by independent Cleaver Bunton; and Bertie Milliner, who had died, was replaced by Albert Field, an ALP member who was opposed to Whitlam. Bunton (along with Hall) refused to vote against supply, but Field was prepared to. Field took his seat in the Senate as an Independent on 9 September. Due to a High Court challenge to his appointment, he was on leave from the Senate, unable to exercise a vote, from 1 October 1975, which reduced the number of sitting senators to 59. This gave the Coalition an effective majority, holding 30 of the 59, allowing them to block supply in the Senate to pave the way for the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis.