1984 Australian federal election

The 1984 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 1 December 1984. All 148 seats in the House of Representatives (24 of them newly created) and 46 of 76 seats in the Senate (12 of them newly created) were up for election. The incumbent Labor Party led by Prime Minister Bob Hawke defeated the opposition Liberal–National coalition, led by Andrew Peacock.

1984 Australian federal election
1 December 1984 (1984-12-01)
All 148 seats in the House of Representatives
75 seats were needed for a majority in the House
46 (of the 76) seats in the Senate
  First party Second party
 
Leader Bob Hawke Andrew Peacock
Party Labor Liberal/National coalition
Leader since 3 February 1983 (1983-02-03) 11 March 1983 (1983-03-11)
Leader's seat Wills (Vic.) Kooyong (Vic.)
Last election 75 seats 50 seats
Seats won 82 seats 66 seats
Seat change 7 16
Percentage 51.77% 48.23%
Swing 1.46% 1.46%
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

Bob Hawke
Labor

 Subsequent Prime Minister

Bob Hawke
Labor

The election was held in conjunction with two referendum questions, neither of which were carried.

Background and issues

The election had a long campaign and a high rate of informal voting for the House of Representatives, but decreased rate in the Senate (due to the introduction of the Group voting ticket). The election was held 18 months ahead of time, partly to bring the elections for the House of Representatives and Senate back into line following the double dissolution election of 1983.

The legislated increase in the size of the House of Representatives by 24 seats and the Senate by 12 seats came into effect at the 1984 election. Prior to 1984 the electoral commission did not undertake a full distribution of preferences for statistical purposes. The stored ballot papers for the previous 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.

Results

House of Representatives
Government (82)
  Labor (82)

Opposition (66)
Coalition
  Liberal (44)
  National (21)
  CLP (1)
    House of Reps (IRV) — 1984–87 – Turnout 94.19% (CV) — Informal 6.78%
    Party Votes % Swing Seats Change
      Labor 4,120,130 47.55 −1.93 82 +7
      Liberal–National coalition 3,900,042 45.01 –1.40 66 +16
      Liberal 2,951,556 34.06 −0.06 45 +12
      National 921,151 10.63 +1.42 21 +4
      Country Liberal  27,335 0.32 +0.08 0 0
      Democrats 472,204 5.45 +0.42 0 0
      Democratic Labor 49,121 0.57 +0.37 0 0
      Nuclear Disarmament 17,978 0.21 +0.21 0 0
      Socialist Workers 9,460 0.11 –0.42 0 0
      Deadly Serious 2,826 0.03 –0.01 0 0
      Pensioner 1,645 0.02 +0.02 0 0
      Communist 1,213 0.01 –0.06 0 0
      Independent 90,333 1.04 +0.07 0 0
      Total 8,664,952     148 +23
    Two-party-preferred
      Australian Labor Party WIN 51.77 −1.46 82 +7
      Liberal–National coalition   48.23 +1.46 66 +16
    Popular Vote
    Labor
     
    		 47.55%
    Liberal
     
    		 34.06%
    National
     
    		 10.63%
    Democrats
     
    		 5.45%
    CLP
     
    		 0.32%
    Other
     
    		 1.99%
    Two Party Preferred Vote
    Labor
     
    		 51.77%
    Coalition
     
    		 48.23%
    Parliament Seats
    Labor
     
    		 55.41%
    Coalition
     
    		 44.59%

    Senate
    See also: Results of the 1984 Australian federal election (Senate)
    Government (34)
      Labor (34)

    Opposition (33)
    Coalition
      Liberal (27)
      National (5)
      CLP (1)

    Crossbench (9)
      Democrats (7)
      NDP (1)
      Independent (1)
      Senate (STV GV) — 1984–87 – Turnout 94.55% (CV) — Informal 4.68%
      Party Votes % Swing Seats Won Total Seats Change
        Labor 3,750,789 42.17 −3.32 20 34 +4
        Liberal–National coalition 3,516,857 39.54 –0.41 20 33 +5
        Liberal 1,831,006 20.59 +8.58 14 27 +4
        Liberal–National joint ticket 1,130,601 12.71 −11.49 3 N/A N/A
        National 527,278 5.93 +0.87 2 5 +1
        Country Liberal 27,972 0.31 +0.04 1 1 0
        Democrats 677,970 7.62 −2.32 5 7 +2
        Nuclear Disarmament 643,061 7.23 +7.23 1 1 +1
        Call to Australia 162,272 1.82 −0.04 0 0 0
        Democratic Labor 32,472 0.37 +0.37 0 0 0
        Pensioner 23,974 0.27 +0.27 0 0 0
        Family Movement 18,841 0.21 +0.21 0 0 0
        Referendum First 5,807 0.07 +0.07 0 0 0
        Conservative 4,731 0.05 +0.05 0 0 0
        Independent 57,326 0.64 +0.64 0 1 0
        Total 8,894,100     46 76 +12

      Seats changing hands
      Seat Pre-1984 Swing Post-1984
      Party Member Margin Margin Member Party
      Farrer, NSW   Liberal Wal Fife N/A N/A 13.0 Tim Fischer National  
      Flinders, Vic   Labor Bob Chynoweth 1.0 1.5 1.2 Peter Reith Liberal  
      Forde, Qld   Labor notional – new seat 2.7 2.7 0.0 David Watson Liberal  
      Gilmore, NSW   Labor notional – new seat 0.5 1.7 1.2 John Sharp National  
      Hinkler, Qld   Labor notional – new seat 0.6 0.8 0.2 Bryan Conquest National  
      Hume, NSW   National Stephen Lusher N/A N/A 7.7 Wal Fife Liberal  
      Macquarie, NSW   Labor Ross Free 0.5 1.9 1.4 Alasdair Webster Liberal  
      Northern Territory, NT   Labor John Reeves 1.9 3.3 1.4 Paul Everingham Country Liberal  
      Petrie, Qld   Labor Dean Wells 0.5 2.1 0.6 John Hodges Liberal  
      Riverina-Darling, NSW   Labor notional – new seat 1.3 5.9 4.6 Noel Hicks National  
      • Members in italics did not contest their seat at this election.

      Analysis
      The Gallagher Index result: 7.79

      The results of the election surprised most analysts; the expectation had been that Bob Hawke – who had been polling a record ACNielsen approval rating of 75 percent[1] on the eve of the election – would win by a significantly larger margin. Labor instead suffered a 2-point swing against it and had its majority cut from 25 to 16. Hawke blamed the result on the changes to Senate vote cards, which he believed confused people regarding their House of Representatives votes and contributed to the relatively high informal vote, the majority of which apparently was Labor votes.[2] Andrew Peacock did well from a good performance in the one leaders' debate, held on 26 November 1984.[3] This was the first televised leaders' debate in Australia.[4]

      See also

      Notes
      1. "The biggest hammering in history". The Sydney Morning Herald. 20 May 2008. Retrieved 20 May 2008.
      2. Hawke, RJL (1996). The Hawke Memoirs. Port Melbourne: Mandarin. pp. 275–276. "Attracted to the simplicity of the Senate ballot, a number of voters thought they could mark their Lower House ballot in exactly the same way. Unfortunately for both them and us the informal vote for the House of Representatives swelled from 2 per cent to nearly 7 per cent. On the best surmise the bulk of the informals were Labor votes."
      3. Fraser, Bryce (1998). The Macquarie Reference Series: Government in Australia. Sydney: The Macquarie Library Pty Ltd. p. 44. ISBN 1-876429-02-X.
      4. "1984 Federal Election". AustralianPolitics.com. Retrieved 30 July 2016.

      References
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