ID 0832

Commonwealth Parliament, Senate election

Election of 5 March 1983

Show only vote and seat summary details

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General election for the Senate
Commonwealth of Australia
Date of election
5 March 1983
Type of Senate election
Double Dissolution of Senate and 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 Party

Senate enrolment and voting

Total number of voters on the roll
9,372,064
Total ballots cast (may differ from number of votes in multiple voting systems)
8,870,175
Turnout (rate of voting in contested seats)
94.64%
Total valid votes
7,995,045
Rate of informal (invalid) voting
9.87%

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
64
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 5 March 1983
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  3,637,316  45.49  +3.24 30  46.8830  46.88  30  46.88 
Liberal Party - National Party (joint ticket) 1,861,618  23.28  * 8  12.500  0.00  0  0.00 
Liberal Party 923,571  11.55  -1.6 16  25.0023  35.94  24  37.50 
Australian Democrats 764,911  9.57  +.32 5  7.815  7.81  5  7.81 
National Party 388,802  4.86  * 3  4.694  6.25  4  6.25 
Independents 193,454  2.42  +1.29 1  1.561  1.56  1  1.56 
Country Liberal Party (NT) 21,406  .27  +.02 1  1.561  1.56  0  0.00 
Votes for other than listed parties203,9672.55 0.00       
Totals7,995,045  100    64  100%  64  100%  64  100% 

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Display Chart


* Party did not contest previous election or did not meet criteria for listing, or contested previous election under a different party name.

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 the national summary for the Senate for this election, the votes cast for the National Country Party include the votes for the National Party of Western Australia and seats held by the Liberal Party include the seat won by Country Liberal Party in the Northern Territory.

Note - 104082

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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