1976 Australian Labor Party leadership spill

A leadership spill in the Australian Labor Party, the party of opposition in the Parliament of Australia, was held on 27 January 1976, the date of the first Caucus meeting following the 1975 election.

1976 Australian Labor Party
Leadership spill
27 January 1976
 
Candidate Gough Whitlam Lionel Bowen Frank Crean
Caucus vote 36 14 13
Percentage 57.14 22.22 20.63
Leader before election

Gough Whitlam

 Elected Leader

Gough Whitlam

Dismissed Prime Minister Gough Whitlam was comfortably re-elected leader of the ALP ahead of senior MPs Lionel Bowen and Frank Crean on the first ballot. A much more extensive series of ballots was required to fill the deputy leadership with eight contenders narrowed down to a final ballot seeing Tom Uren narrowly defeat Paul Keating 33 votes to 30.[1]

To date, this is the last Australian Labor Party leadership spill at the federal level to be contested by more than two candidates.

Results

Leader

The following table gives the ballot results:

Name Votes Percentage
Gough Whitlam 36 57.14
Lionel Bowen 14 22.22
Frank Crean 13 20.63

Deputy leader

The following table gives the ballot results:[2]

Candidate 1st ballot 2nd ballot 3rd ballot
Tom Uren 15 26 33
Paul Keating 13 21 30
Mick Young 13 16 Eliminated
Kim Beazley 6 Eliminated
Gordon Bryant 5 Eliminated
Gordon Scholes 4 Eliminated
Moss Cass 4 Eliminated
Les Johnson 3 Eliminated

See also

References
  1. "Clear win to Whitlam". The Canberra Times. 28 January 1976. p. 1.
  2. "Voting for Party Leaders". The Canberra Times. 28 January 1976. p. 9.
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