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.^[1]

1984 Australian federal election

← 1983 1 December 1984 (1984-12-01) 1987 →
← outgoing members elected members →
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
Registered	9,869,217 5.30%
Turnout	9,295,421 (94.19%) (0.45 pp)
First party Second party   Leader Bob Hawke Andrew Peacock Party Labor Liberal–National Coalition Leader since 8 February 1983 (1983-02-08) 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 Primary vote 4,120,130 3,900,042 Percentage 47.55% 45.01% Swing 1.93% 1.40% TPP 51.77% 48.23% TPP swing 1.46% 1.46%
Results by division for the House of Representatives, shaded by winning party's margin of victory.
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 was 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). Although a House election was not due until 1986, Hawke opted to call an election 18 months early in part to bring the elections for the House and Senate back into line following the double dissolution election of 1983.

The legislated increase in the size of the House 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

See also: Post-election pendulum for the 1984 Australian federal election

Government (82)
  Labor (82)

Opposition (66)
Coalition
  Liberal (44)
  National (21)
  CLP (1)

This section is an excerpt from 1984 Australian House of Representatives election § Australia.[edit]

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	2,951,556	34.06	−0.06	44	11
		National	921,151	10.63	+1.42	21	4
		Country Liberal	27,335	0.32	+0.08	1	1
	Liberal–National Coalition		3,900,042	45.01	+1.40	66	16
	Democrats		472,204	5.45	+0.42
	Others		172,576	1.99
Total			8,664,952			148	23
Two-party-preferred
	Labor		4,484,622	51.77	−1.46	82	7
	Liberal–National Coalition		4,178,572	48.23	+1.46	66	16
Invalid/blank votes			630,469	6.8	+4.7
Turnout			9,295,421	94.2
Registered voters			9,869,217
Source: Federal Election Results 1949-1993

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

Government (34)
  Labor (34)

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

Crossbench (9)
  Democrats (7)
  NDP (1)
  Independent (1)

This section is an excerpt from 1984 Australian Senate election § Australia.[edit]

Senate (STV GV) — 1984–87 – Turnout 94.55% (CV) — Informal 4.68%

Party			Votes	%	Swing	Seats won	Total seats	Change
	Australian Labor Party		3,750,789	42.17	−3.32	20	34	4
		Liberal/National joint ticket	1,130,601	12.71	−11.49	3	*	*
		Liberal Party of Australia	1,831,006	20.59	+8.58	14	27	4
		National Party of Australia	527,278	5.93	+0.87	2	5	1
		Country Liberal Party	27,972	0.31	+0.04	1	1
	Liberal/National Coalition		3,516,857	39.54	–0.41	20	33	5
	Australian Democrats		677,970	7.62	−2.32	5	7	2
	Nuclear Disarmament Party		643,061	7.23	*	1	1	1
	Harradine Group		22,992	0.26	−0.32		1
	Others		282,431	3.18	+0.73
Total			8,894,100			46	76	12
Invalid/blank votes			437,065	4.7	–5.2
Turnout			9,331,165	94.5
Registered voters			9,869,217
Source: Federal Election Results 1949-1993

Seats changing hands

Seat	Pre-1984				Swing	Post-1984
	Party		Member	Margin		Margin	Member	Party
Farrer, NSW		Liberal	Wal Fife	7.4	N/A	12.95	Tim Fischer	National
Flinders, Vic		Labor	Bob Chynoweth	0.3	1.47	1.17	Peter Reith	Liberal
Forde, Qld		Labor	notional – new seat	2.7	2.74	0.04	David Watson	Liberal
Gilmore, NSW		Labor	notional – new seat	0.5	1.72	1.22	John Sharp	National
Hinkler, Qld		Labor	notional – new seat	0.6	0.79	0.19	Bryan Conquest	National
Hume, NSW		National	Stephen Lusher	4.3	N/A	7.65	Wal Fife	Liberal
Macquarie, NSW		Labor	Ross Free	0.5	1.89	1.39	Alasdair Webster	Liberal
Northern Territory, NT		Labor	John Reeves	1.9	3.29	1.39	Paul Everingham	Country Liberal
Petrie, Qld		Labor	Dean Wells	1.5	2.13	0.63	John Hodges	Liberal
Riverina-Darling, NSW		Labor	notional – new seat	1.3	5.90	4.60	Noel Hicks	National

• Members listed 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;^{[citation needed]} the expectation had been that Bob Hawke – who had been polling a record ACNielsen approval rating of 75 percent^[2] 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.^[3] However, analysis by the Australian Electoral Commission found that informal voting only slightly reduced Labor's primary vote and did not change the result in any division.^[4]

Andrew Peacock did well from a good performance in the one leaders' debate, held on 26 November 1984,^[5] which was the first televised leaders' debate in Australia.^[6] It was because of Peacock's performance at the leaders' debate that Hawke refused to debate John Howard for the 1987 election. Ironically when Hawke agreed to do the leaders' debate for the 1990 election it was again with Peacock.

See also

• Candidates of the 1984 Australian federal election
• Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1984-1987
• Members of the Australian Senate, 1985-1987