1977 Australian federal election

none June 2023 December 2018 1977 Australian federal election Australia parliamentary no 1975 Australian federal election 1975 1980 Australian federal election 1980 Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1975–1977 Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1977–1980 8,548,779 3.47% 8,127,762 (95.08%)(0.31 pp) All 124 seats in the House of Representatives63 seats needed for a majority34 of 64 seats in the Senate 10 December 1977 Malcolm Fraser 1977 (3x4 cropped).jpg 138 120 170 0 8 190x190px Malcolm Fraser 21 March 1975 Liberal Party of Australia LiberalNational Country Wannon (Vic.) 91 seats 86 seats 5 3,811,340 48.11% 4.95 Gough Whitlam headshot.jpg 122 120 170 1 0 Gough Whitlam 8 February 1967 Australian Labor Party Werriwa (NSW) 36 seats 38 seats 2 3,141,051 39.65% 3.20 TPP TPP swing 54.60% 1.10 45.40% 1.10 1977 Australian federal election.svg 350px Results by division for the House of Representatives, shaded by winning party's margin of victory. Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser Liberal–NCP Coalition Subsequent Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser Liberal–NCP Coalition Primary A federal election was held on 10 December 1977 to elect members of the 31st Parliament of Australia. All 124 seats in the House of Representatives were up for election, along with 34 of the 64 seats in the Senate. The incumbent Coalition government, led by Malcolm Fraser, was re-elected, defeating the Labor Party led by Opposition Leader Gough Whitlam. While the Coalition suffered a five-seat swing, it still had a substantial 48-seat majority in the House. The Liberals retained an outright majority, with 67 seats. Although Fraser thus had no need for the support of the National Country Party, the Coalition was retained. Whitlam became the first and only person to contest four federal elections as leader of the Opposition. He was unable to recover much of the ground Labor had lost in its severe defeat two years prior, and resigned as leader shortly after the election. Background and issues right|thumb|300px|The Gallagher Index result: 15.16 The government offering tax cuts to voters and ran advertisements with the slogan "fistful of dollars".Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House The Australian people will not accept a return to high taxes. The Government will bring taxes down further - not increase them. Malcolm Fraser https://electionspeeches.moadoph.gov.au/speeches/1977-malcolm-fraser 14 February 2024 21 November 1977 14 February 2024 https://web.archive.org/web/20240214073317/https://electionspeeches.moadoph.gov.au/speeches/1977-malcolm-fraser live The tax cuts were never delivered; instead a "temporary surcharge" was imposed in 1978.October 2014 The 1977 election was held a year earlier than required, partly to bring elections for the House and Senate back into line. A half-Senate election had to be held by July 1978, since the double dissolution election of 1975 had resulted in the terms of senators being backdated to 1 July 1975, as per Section 13 of the Constitution of Australia. The months before the 1977 election were marked by a substantial increase in the number of "boat people" arriving in northern Australia as a result of the Indochina refugee crisis, primarily of Vietnamese origin from the former South Vietnam. Immigration historian Klaus Neumann has identified the 1977 election as "the first in Australian history in which one of the major parties appealed to the public's unease about unauthorised boat arrivals".https://insidestory.org.au/queue-jumpers-and-the-perils-of-crossing-sydney-harbour-on-a-manly-ferry/ 'Queue jumpers' and the perils of crossing Sydney Harbour on a Manly ferry Inside Story Klaus Neumann 1 October 2014 12 April 2026 Results House of Representatives results Results of the 1977 Australian federal election (House of Representatives) right|thumb|250px|Government (86) Coalition Liberal darkgray Liberal (67) National darkgray NCP (18) Country Liberal Party darkgray CLP (1) Opposition (38) Labor darkgray Labor (38) + House of Reps (IRV) — 1977–80—Turnout 95.08% (CV) — Informal 2.52%alt=|center|300x300px Party First preference votes % Swing Seats Change   Liberal–NCP Coalition 3,811,340 48.11 –4.95 86 –5   Liberal 3,017,896 38.09 −3.71 67 −1   National Country100px 776,982 9.81 −1.44 18 −4   Country Liberal100px 16,462 0.21 +0.00 1 0   Labor 3,141,051 39.65 −3.20 38 +2   Democrats 743,365 9.38 +9.38 0 0   Democratic Labor 113,271 1.43 +0.11 0 0   Progress 47,567 0.60 –0.18 0 0   Communist 14,098 0.18 +0.06 0 0   Socialist 1,895 0.02 +0.02 0 0   Independents 50,267 0.63 –0.19 0 0   Total 7,922,854     124 −3 Two-party-preferred (estimated)   Liberal–NCP Coalition Win 54.60 −1.10 86 –5   Labor   45.40 +1.10 38 +2 First preference vote var(--background-color-interactive) 600px 410px Labor Australian Labor Party 39.65 Liberal Liberal Party of Australia 38.09 National National Party of Australia 10.01 Democrats #F4940D 9.38 Other #777777 2.87 Two-party-preferred vote var(--background-color-interactive) 600px 410px Coalition Coalition (Australia) 54.60 Labor Australian Labor Party 45.40 Parliament seats var(--background-color-interactive) 600px 410px Coalition Coalition (Australia) 69.35 Labor Australian Labor Party 30.65 Senate results right|thumb|250px|Government (34) Coalition Liberal darkgray Liberal (27) National darkgray National (6) Country Liberal Party darkgray CLP (1) Opposition (27) Labor darkgray Labor (27) Crossbench (3) Democrats darkgray Democrats (2) Independent darkgray Independent (1) + Senate (STV) — 1977–80—Turnout 95.08% (CV) — Informal 9.00%alt=|center|300x300px Party First preference votes % Swing Seats won Seats held Change   Liberal–NCP Coalition (total) 3,369,843 45.56 –5.18 18 34 –1   Liberal–NCP joint ticket 2,533,882 34.26 −5.60 7 * *   Liberal 783,878 10.60 −0.48 10 27 +1   National Country100px 36,619 0.50 −0.04 0 6 –2   Country Liberal 15,463 0.21 −0.01 1 1 0   Labor 2,718,876 36.76 −4.15 14 27 0   Democrats 823,550 11.13 +11.13 2 2 +2   Democratic Labor 123,192 1.67 –1.00 0 0 0   Progress 88,203 1.19 +0.32 0 0 0   Call to Australia 49,395 1.12 +1.12 0 0 0   Marijuana 44,276 0.60 +0.60 0 0 0   Socialist 42,740 0.58 +0.57 0 0 0   Australia 8,283 0.11 –0.37 0 0 0   Independents 127,850 1.73 +0.13 0 1 0   Total 7,396,207     34 64 Independent: Brian Harradine (Tasmania) The Progress Party was the renamed "Workers Party" from the 1975 election. Seats changing hands Seat 1975NotionalmarginNotional For seats that were affected by the redistribution the Australian Electoral Commission calculated "notional" margins for the redistributed divisions by modelling the outcome of the previous election as if the new boundaries had been in place.National seat status https://www.aec.gov.au/media/national-seat-status.htm Australian Electoral Commission 13 May 2019 Swing 1977 Party Member Margin Margin Member Party Angas, SA  Liberal Geoffrey Giles 21.5 District abolished Capricornia, Qld  National Country Colin Carige 0.1 1.5 +2.7 1.2 Doug Everingham Labor  Darling, NSW  Labor John FitzPatrick 7.5District abolished Dundas, NSWNew district 10.0 +0.1 10.1 Philip Ruddock Liberal  Evans, NSW  Liberal John Abel 2.0 District abolished Fadden, QldNew district 12.5 –6.5 6.0 Don Cameron Liberal  Griffith, Qld  Liberal Don Cameron 8.0 1.5 +5.0 3.5 Ben Humphreys Labor  Indi, Vic  National Country Mac Holten 17.2Margin is over Labor. Indi N/A N/A 5.1 Ewen Cameron Liberal  Lang, NSW  Labor Frank Stewart 7.4 District abolished Parramatta, NSW  Liberal Philip Ruddock 9.2 –2.5Notional Labor Had become a notional Labor seat as a result of the redistribution. +3.6 6.1 John Brown Labor  Riverina, NSW National CountryJohn Sullivan 11.8 –2.4Notional Labor –2.3 0.1 John FitzPatrick Labor  Wimmera, Vic  National Country Robert King 14.2District abolished Members listed in italics did not contest their seat at this election. Significance This election marks the effective parliamentary debut of the Australian Democrats. The former Liberal minister Don Chipp had resigned his seat to leave politics but was soon invited to lead the new party and decided to run as a senator for Victoria. The party's Janine Haines had briefly inherited a South Australian Senate seat when Liberal Movement senator Steele Hall had resigned to contest a lower-house seat. Haines was, however, not preselected to recontest the seat. Don Chipp was elected in Victoria and Colin Mason in New South Wales (Haines returned to the Senate at the following election.) The second Fraser Government had the second-largest parliamentary majority in Australian history (at the time) after the majority it won in the 1975 election. Gough Whitlam resigned as the leader of the ALP in 1978, and was replaced by Bill Hayden. This was the last Australian federal election for the House of Representatives at which no women were elected, although there were a number of women candidates. Women have been elected at every federal election from 1980 onwards. See also Candidates of the 1977 Australian federal election Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1977–1980 Members of the Australian Senate, 1978–1981 Notes References External links AustralianPolitics.com election details 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 Federal Federal election Category:Federal elections in Australia Category:Gough Whitlam Category:Malcolm Fraser