1984 Australian federal election

none February 2018 August 2020 1984 Australian federal election Australia parliamentary no Results of the 1983 Australian federal election (House of Representatives) 1983 Results of the 1987 Australian federal election (House of Representatives) 1987 Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1983–1984 Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1984–1987 9,869,217 5.30% 9,295,421 (94.19%)(0.45 pp) 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 yes 1984 12 1 Primary File:Hawke Bob BANNER.jpg 190x190px Bob Hawke yes 1983 2 8 Australian Labor Party Wills (Vic.) 75 seats 82 seats 7 4,120,130 47.55% 1.93% Image:Andrew Peacock 1974 (cropped).jpg Andrew Peacock yes 1983 3 11 Liberal Party of Australia Liberal–National Coalition Kooyong (Vic.) 50 seats 66 seats 16 3,900,042 45.01% 1.40% TPP 51.77% 48.23% TPP swing 1.46% 1.46% 1984 Australian federal election.svg 350px Results by division for the House of Representatives, shaded by winning party's margin of victory. Prime Minister Bob Hawke Australian Labor Party Subsequent Prime Minister Bob Hawke Australian Labor Party A 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.Maley Michael 1985 The Australian general election of 1984 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0261379485900320 Electoral Studies 4 1 69–71 10.1016/0261-3794(85)90032-0 0261-3794 subscription 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 Post-election pendulum for the 1984 Australian federal election right|thumb|250px|Government (82) Labor darkgray Labor (82) Opposition (66) Coalition Liberal darkgray Liberal (44) National darkgray National (21) Country Liberal Party darkgray CLP (1) Results of the 1984 Australian federal election (House of Representatives) Australia First preference vote var(--background-color-interactive) 600px 410px Labor Australian Labor Party 47.55 Liberal Liberal Party of Australia 34.06 National National Party of Australia 10.63 Democrats #F4940D 5.45 CLP #ff9933 0.32 Other #777777 1.99 Two-party-preferred vote var(--background-color-interactive) 600px 410px Labor Australian Labor Party 51.77 Coalition Coalition (Australia) 48.23 Parliament seats var(--background-color-interactive) 600px 410px Labor Australian Labor Party 55.41 Coalition Coalition (Australia) 44.59 Senate right|thumb|250px|Government (34) Labor darkgray Labor (34) Opposition (33) Coalition Liberal darkgray Liberal (27) National darkgray National (5) Country Liberal Party darkgray CLP (1) Crossbench (9) Democrats darkgray Democrats (7) Nuclear Disarmament darkgray NDP (1) Independent darkgray Independent (1) Results of the 1984 Australian federal election (Senate) Australia yes 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 right|thumb|300px|The Gallagher Index result: 7.79 The results of the election surprised most analysts;October 2008 the expectation had been that Bob Hawke – who had been polling a record ACNielsen approval rating of 75 percent The biggest hammering in history http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/05/19/1211182705614.html Coorey Phil The Sydney Morning Herald 20 May 2008 2008-05-20 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. The Hawke Memoirs Hawke RJL Bob Hawke 1996 Mandarin Port Melbourne 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." 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.https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-12/past-research-on-the-intended-party-vote-of-informal-ballot-pape/9390138 Past Research on the Intended Party Vote of Informal Ballot Papers Green Antony ABC News 11 January 2013 2023-07-23 Andrew Peacock did well from a good performance in the one leaders' debate, held on 26 November 1984, The Macquarie Reference Series: Government in Australia Fraser Bryce 1998 The Macquarie Library Pty Ltd Sydney 1-876429-02-X 44 which was the first televised leaders' debate in Australia.http://australianpolitics.com/elections/1984/ 1984 Federal Election AustralianPolitics.com 2016-07-30 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 References External links University of WA https://web.archive.org/web/20150118085343/http://elections.uwa.edu.au/ 18 January 2015 election results in Australia since 1890 AEC 2PP vote AustralianPolitics.com election details Federal Federal election Category:Federal elections in Australia Category:Bob Hawke