2001 Australian federal election

The 2001 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 10 November 2001. All 150 seats in the House of Representatives and 40 seats in the 76-member Senate were up for election. The incumbent Liberal Party of Australia led by Prime Minister of Australia John Howard and coalition partner the National Party of Australia led by John Anderson defeated the opposition Australian Labor Party led by Kim Beazley.

2001 Australian federal election
10 November 2001 (2001-11-10)
All 150 seats in the House of Representatives
76 seats were needed for a majority in the House
40 (of the 76) seats in the Senate
Registered12,054,664
Turnout94.9%
  First party Second party
 
Leader John Howard Kim Beazley
Party Liberal/National coalition Labor
Leader since 30 January 1995 (1995-01-30) 19 March 1996 (1996-03-19)
Leader's seat Bennelong (NSW) Brand (WA)
Last election 80 seats 67 seats
Seats won 82 seats 65 seats
Seat change 2 2
Popular vote 5,846,289 5,627,785
Percentage 50.95% 49.05%
Swing 1.93 1.93
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

John Howard
Liberal/National coalition

 Subsequent Prime Minister

John Howard
Liberal/National coalition

Results

House of Representatives results
Government (82)
Coalition
     Liberal (68)
     National (13)
     CLP (1)

Opposition (65)
     Labor (65)

Crossbench (3)
     Independent (3)
    The disproportionality of the lower house in the 2004 election was 8.67 according to the Gallagher Index, mainly between the Liberal and Green Parties.
    The disproportionality of the lower house in the 2001 election was 9.43 according to the Gallagher Index, mainly between the Coalition and Labor Parties.
    House of Reps (IRV) — 2001–04 – Turnout 94.85% (CV) — Informal 4.82%
    Party Votes % Swing Seats Change
      Liberal–National coalition 4,924,959 42.92 +3.41 82 +2
      Liberal 4,244,072 36.99 +3.10 68 +4
      National 643,926 5.61 +0.32 13 −3
      Country Liberal 36,961 0.32 –0.00 1 +1
      Labor 4,341,420 37.84 −2.26 65 −2
      Democrats 620,197 5.41 +0.28 0 0
      Greens 569,074 4.96 +2.82 0 0
      One Nation 498,032 4.34 −4.09 0 0
      Christian Democrats 69,294 0.60 +0.02 0 0
      Unity 24,653 0.21 −0.58 0 0
      Citizens Electoral Council 18,352 0.16 +0.09 0 0
      Liberals for Forests 16,042 0.14 +0.14 0 0
      No GST 14,164 0.12 +0.10 0 0
      Against Further Immigration 12,033 0.10 +0.10 0 0
      Save the ADI Site 6,029 0.05 +0.05 0 0
      Progressive Labour 4,467 0.04 −0.02 0 0
      Lower Excise Fuel and Beer 4,292 0.04 +0.04 0 0
      HEMP 3,277 0.03 +0.03 0 0
      Curtin Labor Alliance 2,496 0.02 +0.02 0 0
      Non-Custodial Parents 769 0.01 +0.01 0 0
      Fishing 720 0.01 +0.01 0 0
      Tasmania First 621 0.01 −0.03 0 0
      Outdoor Recreation 485 0.00 +0.00 0 0
      Independents 332,118 2.89 +0.95 3 +2
      Total 11,474,074     150
    Two-party-preferred vote
      Coalition WIN 50.95 +1.93 82 +2
      Labor   49.05 −1.93 65 -2

    Independents: Peter Andren, Tony Windsor, Bob Katter

    Popular Vote
    Labor
     
    		 37.84%
    Liberal
     
    		 37.40%
    National
     
    		 5.61%
    Democrats
     
    		 5.51%
    Greens
     
    		 4.96%
    One Nation
     
    		 4.34%
    CLP
     
    		 0.32%
    Independents
     
    		 2.71%
    Other
     
    		 1.41%
    Two Party Preferred Vote
    Coalition
     
    		 50.95%
    Labor
     
    		 49.05%
    Parliament Seats
    Coalition
     
    		 54.67%
    Labor
     
    		 43.33%
    Independents
     
    		 2.00%

    Senate results
    Government (35)
    Coalition
         Liberal (31)
         National (3)
         CLP (1)

    Opposition (28)
         Labor (28)

    Crossbench (12)
         Democrats (8)
         Greens (2)
         One Nation (1)
         Independent (2)
      Senate (STV GV) — 2002–05 – Turnout 95.20% (CV) — Informal 3.89%
      Party Votes % Swing Seats Won Seats Held
        Australian Labor Party 3,990,997 34.42 -2.99 14 28
        Liberal/National (Joint Ticket) 2,776,052 23.88 +2.00 6  
        Liberal Party of Australia 1,824,745 15.69 +2.06 12 31
        Australian Democrats 843,130 7.25 -1.20 4 8
        One Nation 644,364 5.54 -3.44 0 1
        Australian Greens 574,543 4.94 +2.22 2 2
        National Party of Australia 222,860 1.92 +0.06 1 3
        Christian Democratic Party 129,966 1.12 +0.03 0 0
        liberals for forests 87,672 0.75 * 0 0
        Progressive Labour Party 76,150 0.65 * 0 0
        Democratic Labor Party 66,547 0.57 +0.30 0 0
        Help End Marijuana Prohibition 63,648 0.55 * 0 0
        No GST Party 50,053 0.43 +0.29 0 0
        Country Liberal Party 40,680 0.35 +0.03 1 1
        Phil Cleary – Independent Australia 36,122 0.31 * 0 0
        Unity Party 30,193 0.26 -0.57 0 0
        The Fishing Party 27,591 0.24 * 0 0
        Lower Excise Fuel and Beer Party 23,767 0.20 * 0 0
        Australians Against Further Immigration 21,012 0.18 +0.11 0 0
        Republican Party of Australia 9,939 0.09 +0.08 0 0
        Citizens Electoral Council 8,896 0.08 +0.00 0 0
        Reform the Legal System 8,199 0.07 * 0 0
        Helen Caldicott – Our Common Future 5,358 0.05 * 0 0
        Nuclear Disarmament Party 4,596 0.04 -0.05 0 0
        Non-Custodial Parents Party 4,071 0.04 * 0 0
        Tasmania First Party 3,895 0.03 -0.01 0 0
        Curtin Labor Alliance 3,494 0.03 * 0 0
        Hope Party Australia 2,947 0.03 * 0 0
        Advance Australia Party 1,936 0.02 * 0 0
        Taxi Operators' Political Service 670 0.01 +0.01 0 0
        Other 43,712 0.38 +0.08 0 0
        Harradine Group * * * 0 1
        Shayne Murphy * * * 0 1
        Total 11,627,529     40 76

      House of Representatives preference flows
      • The Nationals had candidates in 14 seats where three-cornered-contests existed, with 87.34% of preferences favouring the Liberal Party.
      • The Democrats contested 145 electorates with preferences favouring Labor (64.13%).
      • The Greens contested 145 electorates with preferences strongly favouring Labor (74.83%).
      • One Nation contested 120 electorates with preferences slightly favouring the Liberal/National Coalition (55.87%).

      Seats changing hands

      The following table indicates seats that changed hands from one party to another at this election. It compares the election results with the previous margins, taking into account redistributions in New South Wales, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and both territories. As a result, it includes the seats of Macarthur and Parramatta, which were held by Liberal members but had notional Labor margins. The table does not include the new seat of Hasluck (retained by Labor); the abolished Northern Territory, which was divided into Lingiari (retained by Labor) and Solomon (retained by the CLP); or Paterson, a Labor seat made Liberal by the redistribution

      Seat Pre-2001 Swing Post-2001
      Party Member Margin[1] Margin Member Party
      Ballarat, Vic   Liberal Michael Ronaldson 2.77 5.50 2.73 Catherine King Labor  
      Canning, WA   Labor Jane Gerick 0.04 0.42 0.38 Don Randall Liberal  
      Dickson, Qld   Labor Cheryl Kernot 0.12 6.09 5.97 Peter Dutton Liberal  
      Dobell, NSW   Labor Hon Michael Lee 1.53 1.91 0.38 Ken Ticehurst Liberal  
      Farrer, NSW   National Tim Fischer 14.18 N/A 16.37 Sussan Ley Liberal  
      Kennedy, Qld   National Bob Katter 11.19 N/A 19.69 Bob Katter Independent  
      Macarthur, NSW   Labor notional 1.69 8.65 6.96 Pat Farmer Liberal  
      New England, NSW   National Stuart St. Clair 13.66 N/A 8.30 Tony Windsor Independent  
      Parramatta, NSW   Labor notional 2.49 3.64 1.15 Ross Cameron Liberal  
      Ryan, Qld   Labor Leonie Short* 0.17 8.79 8.62 Michael Johnson Liberal  
      • *Leonie Short was elected to Ryan in a by-election earlier in 2001.

      Background

      Throughout much of 2001, the Coalition had been trailing Labor in opinion polls, thanks to dissatisfaction with the government's economic reform programme and high petrol prices. The opposition Australian Labor Party had won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote at the previous election and had won a series of state and territory elections. Labor also recorded positive swings in two by-elections, taking the Queensland seat of Ryan and coming close in Aston.

      The September 11 attacks, and the Children Overboard and Tampa affairs, were strong influences in the minds of voters at the election, focusing debate around the issues of border protection and national security. Polls swung strongly toward the coalition after the "Tampa" controversy but before the 11 September attacks.

      In fact, voter concern with terrorism in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in the United States was noted, with the rise in the combined primary votes of the major parties from 79.61% at the previous election in 1998, to 81.17% at this election. There would be further increases in the combined major party primary vote in 2004 and 2007.

      Another major issue was the collapse of the country's second-biggest airline Ansett Australia and the question of whether it should be given a bailout. The Coalition was opposed to any bailout because the collapse was not the government's fault. However, Labor supported a bailout, because the company's collapse was about to result in the biggest mass job loss in Australian history, whilst also arguing that the government was partially responsible for allowing Ansett to be taken over by Air New Zealand, a move which had caused Ansett's failure.[2] Although the two-party preferred result was reasonably close, the ALP recorded its lowest primary vote since 1934.[3]

      Political scientists have suggested that television coverage has subtly transformed the political system, with a spotlight on leaders rather than parties, thereby making for more of an American presidential-style system. In this election, television news focused on international issues, especially terrorism and asylum seekers. Minor parties were largely ignored as the two main parties monopolised the media's attention. The election was depicted as a horse-race between Howard and Beazley, with Howard running ahead and therefore being given more coverage than his Labor rival.[4]

      The election-eve Newspoll forecast that the Liberal/National Coalition would get 53 percent of the two-party-preferred vote.[5]

      gollark: I can't actually tell. I checked in it very briefly, in it the machines tower is 1 floor.
      gollark: I have *parts* of it, plus older copies of it.
      gollark: It was backed up. It's just that my backup retention policy was broken.
      gollark: This latest messup was probably mostly on me (really should test stuff better), but I have no idea how big modded servers run without exploding.
      gollark: This is really awful. I've managed to recover *some* of the new region files (from the corrupted forge-side backup), I think all the nether/end, and the level.dat, but no playerdata. Kind of annoyed at myself for misconfiguring the backup thing... anyway, if anyone has suggestions for getting more data out, or wants their own copy of stuff, you can ask, but I'm going to shut it down.

      See also

      References
      1. "Electoral Newsfile 97: Seat Status including notional seat status for SA, NSW, Tas, WA and NT Divisions". Australian Electoral Commission. 2001.
      2. "Tampa issue improves Coalition election prospects: ABC 7.30 report 4/9/2001". Abc.net.au. Archived from the original on 22 October 2008. Retrieved 13 June 2010.
      3. "australianpolitics.com". australianpolitics.com. Retrieved 13 June 2010.
      4. David Denemark, Ian Ward, and Clive Bean, Election Campaigns and Television News Coverage: The Case of the 2001 Australian Election. Australian Journal of Political Science. (2007) 42#1 pp: 89-109 online
      5. "Newspoll archive since 1987". Polling.newspoll.com.au.tmp.anchor.net.au. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
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