1977 Australian federal election

The 1977 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 10 December 1977. All 124 seats in the House of Representatives and 34 of the 64 seats in the Senate were up for election.

1977 Australian federal election
10 December 1977
All 124 seats of the House of Representatives
63 seats were needed for a majority in the House
34 (of the 64) seats of the Senate
  First party Second party
 
Leader Malcolm Fraser Gough Whitlam
Party Liberal/NCP coalition Labor
Leader since 21 March 1975 8 February 1967
Leader's seat Wannon (Vic.) Werriwa (NSW)
Last election 91 seats 36 seats
Seats won 86 seats 38 seats
Seat change 5 2
Percentage 54.60% 45.40%
Swing 1.10% 1.10%
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

Malcolm Fraser
Liberal/NCP coalition

 Subsequent Prime Minister

Malcolm Fraser
Liberal/NCP coalition

The incumbent Liberal-National Country Coalition led by Malcolm Fraser, in government since 1975, was elected to a second term over the opposition Labor Party led by Gough Whitlam. While the Coalition suffered a five-seat swing, it still had a substantial 35-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
The Gallagher Index result: 15.16

The government offering tax cuts to voters and ran advertisements with the slogan "fistful of dollars". The tax cuts were never delivered; instead a "temporary surcharge" was imposed in 1978. The election coincided with the retirement of the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr. Kerr had appeared drunk at the Melbourne Cup in November and the public outcry resulted in the cancellation of his appointment as Ambassador to UNESCO.

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 the middle of 1978, since the double dissolution election of 1975 had resulted in the terms of senators being backdated to July 1975.

Results

House of Representatives results
Government (86)
Coalition
     Liberal (67)
     NCP (18)
     CLP (1)

Opposition (38)
     Labor (38)
    House of Reps (IRV) — 1977–80—Turnout 95.08% (CV) — Informal 2.52%
    Party 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 Country  776,982 9.81 −1.44 18 −4
      Country Liberal  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
    Popular Vote
    Labor
     
    		 39.65%
    Liberal
     
    		 38.09%
    National
     
    		 10.01%
    Democrats
     
    		 9.38%
    Other
     
    		 2.87%
    Two Party Preferred Vote
    Coalition
     
    		 54.60%
    Labor
     
    		 45.40%
    Parliament Seats
    Coalition
     
    		 69.35%
    Labor
     
    		 30.65%

    Senate results
    Government (34)
    Coalition
         Liberal (27)
         National (6)
         CLP (1)

    Opposition (27)
         Labor (27)

    Crossbench (3)
         Democrats (2)
         Independent (1)
      Senate (STV) — 1977–80—Turnout 95.08% (CV) — Informal 9.00%
      Party 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 Country  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

      Seats changing hands
      Seat Pre-1977 Swing Post-1977
      Party Member Margin Margin Member Party
      Capricornia, Qld   National Country Colin Carige 0.1 2.7 1.2 Doug Everingham Labor  
      Griffith, Qld   Liberal Don Cameron 8.0 5.0 3.5 Ben Humphreys Labor  
      Indi, Vic   National Country Mac Holten N/A 22.3 5.1 Ewen Cameron Liberal  
      • Members 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 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.

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      See also

      References
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