ID 0831

Commonwealth Parliament, Senate election

Election of 18 October 1980

Show only vote and seat summary details

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General election for the Senate
Commonwealth of Australia
Date of election
18 October 1980
Type of Senate election
Half Senate with House of Representatives

Government in office at Senate election

Prime Minister in office at date of Senate election. (check notes to Senate national summary table to see if change of Prime Minister since previous election)
John Malcolm Fraser
Prime Minister's party affiliation
Liberal Party
Government majority in Senate at date of election
No
Change of government
No
Government majority in new Senate
No
If coalition, coalition partner(s)
National Country Party

Senate enrolment and voting

Total number of voters on the roll
9,023,592
Total ballots cast (may differ from number of votes in multiple voting systems)
8,513,992
Turnout (rate of voting in contested seats)
94.35%
Total valid votes
7,692,364
Rate of informal (invalid) voting
9.65%

Electoral composition of the Senate for this election

Total number of seats in the Senate
64
Total number of seats for each state
10
Number of seats for each territory
2
Seats to be filled at this Senate election
34
Casual vacancies/additional seats included in seats to be filled
0
Electoral System
Adult franchise at 18 years (from 1974); multimember districts, proportional representation by the single transferable vote method (STV); compulsory preferences; compulsory voting

Senate votes and seats won, and seats held, national summary

Display Chart

Election held on 18 October 1980
Criteria for the inclusion of parties in this table are set out in the Glossary under listed party

* to view table drag left or right.
Party Name First preference vote nFirst preference vote share %Change from previous election %Seats won by ticket nSeats won by ticket %Seats won by party nSeats won by party %Seats held by party nSeats held by party %
Australian Labor Party  3,250,187  42.25  +5.49 15  44.1215  44.12  27  42.19 
Liberal Party - National Country Party (joint ticket) 1,971,528  25.63  -8.63 4  11.760  0.00  0  0.00 
Liberal Party 1,011,289  13.15  +2.55 9  26.4712  35.29  28  43.75 
Australian Democrats 711,805  9.25  -1.88 3  8.823  8.82  5  7.81 
National Country Party 341,978  4.45  +3.95 1  2.942  5.88  3  4.69 
Independents 86,770  1.13  -.6 1  2.941  2.94  1  1.56 
Country Liberal Party (NT) 19,129  .25  +.04 1  2.941  2.94  0  0.00 
Votes for other than listed parties299,6783.90 0.00       
Totals7,692,364  100    34  100%  34  100%  64  100% 

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Display Chart

Notes

In the table above, see the Glossary distinctions between Seats won by ticket and Seats won by party, and between Seats won by party and Seats held by party.

In Western Australia, the National Party of Western Australia had split from the National Country Party before this election but, in the national summary for the Senate, their combined vote is included in the total for the National Country Party.

From 1979, Senator Bernard Francis Kilgariff, elected as a member of the Country Liberal Party in the Northern Territory, chose to sit with the Liberal Party in the Senate; in the national summary for the Senate for this election, his seat is included with the seats held by the Liberal Party.

Note - 103570

Sources

Colin A Hughes, A Handbook of Australian Government and Politics 1975-1984, Rushcutters Bay, NSW: Australian National University Press, 1986 (ISBN 008033038X); Gerard Newman, Federal Election Results 1949-2001, Canberra: Commonwealth Parliament, Department of the Parliamentary Library, Information and Research Services, Research Paper 9 2001-02, 2002 (ISSN 13287478).

For a general survey of this election, see: Howard R Penniman (editor), Australia at the Polls: The National Elections of 1980 and 1983, Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1983 (084473506X).

Note - 104158


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