1990 Australian federal election

The 1990 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 24 March 1990. All 148 seats in the House of Representatives and 40 seats in the 76-member Senate were up for election. The incumbent Australian Labor Party led by Bob Hawke defeated the opposition Liberal Party of Australia led by Andrew Peacock with coalition partner the National Party of Australia led by Charles Blunt despite losing the two party preferred popular vote. The election saw the reelection of a Hawke government, the fourth successive term. This was the first time the Labor party won a fourth consecutive election.

1990 Australian federal election
24 March 1990 (1990-03-24)
All 148 seats in the House of Representatives
75 seats were needed for a majority in the House
40 (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 9 May 1989
Leader's seat Wills (Vic.) Kooyong (Vic.)
Last election 86 seats 62 seats
Seats won 78 seats 69 seats
Seat change 8 7
Percentage 49.90% 50.10%
Swing 0.93% 0.93%
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

Background

John Howard lost the 1987 election to Hawke, and Andrew Peacock was elected Deputy Leader in a show of party unity. In May 1989 Peacock's supporters mounted a party room coup which returned Peacock to the leadership. Hawke's Treasurer, Keating, ridiculed him by asking: "Can the soufflé rise twice?" and calling him "all feathers and no meat". Hawke's government was in political trouble, with high interest rates and a financial crisis in Victoria.

Results

House of Representatives results
Government (78)
     Labor (78)

Opposition (69)
Coalition
     Liberal (55)
     National (14)

Crossbench (1)
     Independent (1)
    House of Reps (IRV) — 1990–93 — Turnout 95.31% (CV) — Informal 3.19%
    Party Votes % Swing Seats Change
      Liberal–National coalition 4,302,127 43.46 –2.44 69 +7
      Liberal  3,440,902 34.76 +0.35 55 +12
      National  833,557 8.42 –3.10 14 –5
      Country Liberal  27,668 0.28 +0.05 0 +0
      Labor 3,904,138 39.44 –6.46 78 –8
      Democrats 1,114,216 11.26 +5.26 0 0
      Greens* (state-based) 137,351 1.37 +1.37 0 0
      Call to Australia 96,497 0.97 +0.97 0 0
      Grey Power 20,984 0.21 +0.21 0 0
      Democratic Socialist 20,668 0.21 +0.20 0 0
      Rex Connor Labor 8,277 0.08 +0.08 0 0
      New Australia 7,043 0.07 +0.07 0 0
      Nuclear Disarmament 5,578 0.06 –0.05 0 0
      Environment Independents 4,866 0.05 +0.05 0 0
      Socialist 2,255 0.02 +0.02 0 0
      Conservative 1,734 0.02 +0.02 0 0
      Pensioner 1,170 0.01 –0.03 0 0
      Independents 272,770 2.76 +0.90 1 +1
      Total 9,899,674     148  
    Two-party-preferred vote
      Labor WIN 49.90 −0.93 78 −8
      Liberal–National coalition   50.10 +0.93 69 +7
    Popular Vote
    Labor
     
    		 39.44%
    Liberal
     
    		 35.04%
    Democrats
     
    		 11.26%
    National
     
    		 8.42%
    Independents
     
    		 2.55%
    Other
     
    		 3.30%
    Two Party Preferred Vote
    Coalition
     
    		 50.10%
    Labor
     
    		 49.90%
    Parliament Seats
    Labor
     
    		 52.70%
    Coalition
     
    		 46.62%
    Independents
     
    		 0.68%

    Senate results
    Government (32)
         Labor (32)

    Opposition (34)
    Coalition
         Liberal (29)
         National (4)
         CLP (1)

    Crossbench (10)
         Democrats (8)
         WA Greens (1)
         Independent (1)
      Senate (STV GV) — 1990–93 — Turnout 95.81% (CV) — Informal 3.40%
      Party Votes % Swing Seats Won Seats Held Change
        Liberal–National coalition 4,162,633 41.92 –0.12 19 34 0
        Liberal–National joint ticket 2,429,552 24.47 +10.71 5 N/A N/A
        Liberal 1,445,872 14.56 –6.41 12 29 +2
        National 258,164 2.60 −4.49 1 4 –2
        Country Liberal 29,045 0.29 +0.08 1 1 0
        Labor 3,813,547 38.41 −4.42 15 32 0
        Democrats 1,253,807 12.63 +4.15 5 8 +1
        Greens[lower-alpha 1] 208,157 2.10 +1.66 1 1 +1
        Call to Australia 136,522 1.37 –0.09 0 0 0
        Environment Independents 74,668 0.75 +0.75 0 0 0
        Independent EFF 63,378 0.64 +0.64 0 0 0
        Nuclear Disarmament 38,079 0.38 –0.71 0 0 –1
        Grey Power 37,600 0.38 +0.38 0 0 0
        Democratic Socialist 36,140 0.36 +0.36 0 0 0
        Against Further Immigration 19,439 0.20 +0.20 0 0 0
        Pensioner 18,235 0.18 +0.00 0 0 0
        Democratic Labor 14,744 0.15 –0.39 0 0 0
        New Australia 8,332 0.08 +0.08 0 0 0
        Conservative 7,381 0.07 +0.07 0 0 0
        Citizens Electoral Council 7,129 0.07 +0.07 0 0 0
        Independent 29,974 0.30 –1.59 0 1 –1
        Total 9,929,765     40 76
      Notes
      1. There was no nation-wide Greens party. The total includes 76,381 votes for the Greens Western Australia (who elected one senator), 64,583 votes for the Green Alliance (NSW), 23,420 votes for the Victorian Greens, 19,499 votes for the Greens South Australia, 14,160 votes for the United Tasmania Group, 5,288 votes for the ACT Green Democratic Alliance, and 4,826 votes for the Greens New South Wales.

      Seats changing hands

      Members in italics did not contest their seat at this election. Where redistributions occurred, the pre-1990 margin represents the redistributed margin.

      Seat Pre-1990 Swing Post-1990
      Party Member Margin Margin Member Party
      Adelaide, SA   Liberal Mike Pratt 6.5* N/A 3.7 Bob Catley Labor  
      Aston, Vic   Labor John Saunderson 2.6 7.2 4.6 Peter Nugent Liberal  
      Ballarat, Vic   Labor John Mildren 2.1 4.0 1.9 Michael Ronaldson Liberal  
      Bendigo, Vic   Labor John Brumby 4.0 5.1 1.1 Bruce Reid Liberal  
      Corinella, Vic   Labor notional – new seat 5.3 6.0 0.7 Russell Broadbent Liberal  
      Dunkley, Vic   Labor Bob Chynoweth 5.6 6.8 1.2 Frank Ford Liberal  
      Fairfax, Qld   National Evan Adermann N/A N/A 7.5 Alex Somlyay Liberal  
      Hawker, SA   Labor Elizabeth Harvey 1.2 1.2 0.0 Chris Gallus Liberal  
      Kennedy, Qld   National Bob Katter 3.0 4.4 1.4 Rob Hulls Labor  
      La Trobe, Vic   Labor Peter Milton 4.2 4.6 1.4 Bob Charles Liberal  
      McEwen, Vic   Labor Peter Cleeland 2.9 6.1 3.2 Fran Bailey Liberal  
      McMillan, Vic   Labor Barry Cunningham 3.0 7.4 4.4 John Riggall Liberal  
      Moreton, Qld   Liberal Don Cameron 0.7 3.0 2.3 Garrie Gibson Labor  
      North Sydney, NSW   Liberal John Spender N/A N/A 7.7 Ted Mack Independent  
      Page, NSW   National Ian Robinson 4.5 5.2 0.7 Harry Woods Labor  
      Richmond, NSW   National Charles Blunt 6.6 7.1 0.5 Neville Newell Labor  

      Notes
      • Adelaide, SA, won by Labor at the previous election, was won by Liberal in a by-election. The margin listed above is the by-election margin.
      • Deakin, Vic, won by Liberal at the previous election, was made notionally Labor in the redistribution and is considered a Liberal gain.
      • Isaacs, Vic and Moore, WA, won by Labor at the previous election, were made notionally Liberal in the redistribution and are considered Liberal retains.
      • Henty, Vic and Streeton, Vic, won by Labor at the previous election, were abolished.

      Outcome
      The Gallagher Index result: 12.7

      The 1990 election resulted in a modest swing to the opposition Coalition. Though Labor had to contend with the late 80s/early 90s recession, they won a record fourth successive election and a record 10 years in government with Bob Hawke as leader, a level of political success not previously seen by federal Labor. The election was to be Hawke's last as Prime Minister and Labor leader, he was replaced by Paul Keating on 20 December 1991 who would go on to lead Labor to win a record fifth successive election and a record 13 years in government resulting from the 1993 election.

      At the election, the Coalition won a slim majority of the two-party vote, and slashed Labor's majority from 24 seats to nine. However, it only managed a two-party swing of 0.9 percent, which was not nearly enough to deliver the additional seven seats the Coalition needed to make Peacock Prime Minister. Despite having regained much of what the non-Labor forces had lost three years earlier, Peacock was forced to resign after the election.

      This election saw the peak of the Australian Democrats' popularity under Janine Haines, and a WA Greens candidate won a seat in the Australian Senate for the first time – although the successful candidate, Jo Vallentine, was already a two-term senator, having previously won a seat for the Nuclear Disarmament Party at the 1984 election, and the Vallentine Peace Group at the 1987 election. Until 2010, this was the only post-war election where a third party (excluding splinter state parties and the Nationals) has won more than 10% of the primary vote for elections to the Australian House of Representatives.

      Since the 1918 Swan by-election which Labor unexpectedly won with the largest primary vote, a predecessor of the Liberals, the Nationalist Party of Australia, changed the lower house voting system from first-past-the-post to full-preference preferential voting as of the subsequent 1919 election which has remained in place since, allowing the Coalition parties to safely contest the same seats. Full-preference preferential voting re-elected the Hawke government, the first time in federal history that Labor had obtained a net benefit from preferential voting.[1]

      It also saw the Nationals' leader, Charles Blunt, defeated in his own seat of Richmond by Labor challenger Neville Newell—only the second time that a major party leader had lost his own seat. Newell benefited from the presence of independent and anti-nuclear activist Helen Caldicott. Her preferences flowed overwhelmingly to Newell on the third count, allowing Newell to win despite having been second on the primary vote.

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      See also

      Notes
      1. Antony Green (23 September 2015). "The Origin of Senate Group Ticket Voting, and it didn't come from the Major Parties". Blogs.abc.net.au. Retrieved 30 July 2016.

      References
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