A federal election was held in Australia on 18 October 1980. All 125 seats in the House of Representatives and 34 of the 64 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Liberal–NCP coalition government, led by Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, was elected to a third term with a reduced majority, defeating the opposition Labor Party led by Bill Hayden. This was the last federal election victory for the Coalition until the 1996 election.
Future Prime Minister Bob Hawke and future opposition leader and future Deputy Prime Minister Kim Beazley entered parliament at this election.
Issues and significance The Fraser Government had lost a degree of popularity within the electorate by 1980. The economy had been performing poorly since the 1973 oil shock. However, Hayden was not seen as having great electoral prospects. Perhaps as evidence of this, then ACTU President Bob Hawke (elected to parliament in the election as the member for Wills) and then Premier of New South Wales Neville Wran featured heavily in the campaign, almost as heavily as Hayden.
Results House of Representatives
+ House of Reps (IRV) — 1980–83—Turnout 94.35% (CV) — Informal 2.45% Party First preference votes % Swing Seats Change Liberal–NCP coalition 3,853,585 46.40 –1.71 74 –12 Liberal 3,108,517 37.43 −0.66 54 −13 National Country 726,263 8.74 −1.07 19 +1 Country Liberal 18,805 0.23 +0.02 1 0 Labor 3,749,565 45.15 +5.50 51 +13 Democrats 546,032 6.57 −2.81 0 0 Democratic Labor 25,456 0.31 −1.12 0 0 Progress 17,040 0.21 −0.39 0 0 Socialist Workers 16,920 0.20 +0.20 0 0 Communist 11,318 0.14 −0.04 0 0 Socialist Labour 10,051 0.12 +0.12 0 0 NPWA 8,915 0.11 +0.11 0 0 Progressive Conservative 3,620 0.04 +0.04 0 0 United Christian 2,050 0.02 +0.02 0 0 Imperial British Conservative 1,515 0.02 +0.02 0 0 Australia 701 0.01 +0.01 0 0 Marijuana 486 0.01 +0.01 0 0 Independent 58,338 0.70 +0.07 0 0 Total 8,305,633 125 +1 Two-party-preferred Coalition Win 50.40 −4.20 74 −12 Labor 49.60 +4.20 51 +13
Senate
+ Senate (STV) — 1980–83—Turnout 94.35% (CV) — Informal 9.65% Party First preference votes % Swing Seats won Total seats Change Liberal–NCP coalition 3,352,521 43.58 –1.98 15 31 –3 Liberal–NCP joint ticket 1,971,528 25.63 −8.63 4 * * Liberal 1,011,289 13.15 +2.55 9 27 0 National Country 341,978 4.45 +3.95 1 3 –3 Country Liberal 19,129 0.25 +0.04 1 1 0 Labor 3,250,187 42.25 +5.49 15 27 0 Democrats 711,805 9.25 −1.88 3 5 +3 Call to Australia 118,535 1.54 +0.42 0 0 0 Democratic Labor 31,766 0.41 –1.26 0 0 0 Marijuana 28,337 0.37 –0.23 0 0 0 Australia 27,404 0.36 +0.25 0 0 0 Socialist 15,412 0.20 –0.38 0 0 0 Progress 8,252 0.11 –1.08 0 0 0 NPWA 7,597 0.10 +0.10 0 0 0 Progressive Conservative 6,247 0.07 +0.07 0 0 National Front of Australia 1,467 0.01 +0.01 0 0 Other 56,128 0.73 +0.73 0 0 0 Independent 86,770 1.13 –0.60 1 1 0 Total 7,692,364 34 64 Notes
Independent: Brian Harradine
Seats changing hands Seat Pre-1980 Swing Post-1980 Party Member Margin Margin Member Party Ballarat, Vic Liberal Jim Short 7.5 8.2 0.7 John Mildren Labor Brisbane, Qld Liberal Peter Johnson 3.2 5.0 1.8 Manfred Cross Labor Canberra, ACT Liberal John Haslem 1.0 6.7 5.7 Ros Kelly Labor Henty, Vic Liberal Ken Aldred 2.7 5.5 2.8 Joan Child Labor Holt, Vic Liberal William Yates 1.8 8.7 6.9 Michael Duffy Labor Hotham, Vic Liberal Roger Johnston 1.7 5.7 4.0 Lewis Kent Labor Isaacs, Vic Liberal Bill Burns 7.3 9.1 1.8 David Charles Labor Kalgoorlie, WA Liberal Mick Cotter 8.5 8.1 0.6 Graeme Campbell Labor La Trobe, Vic Liberal Marshall Baillieu 0.8 3.1 2.3 Peter Milton Labor Lilley, Qld Liberal Kevin Cairns 6.0 6.8 0.8 Elaine Darling Labor Macquarie, NSW Liberal Reg Gillard 1.7 4.5 2.8 Ross Free Labor McMillan, Vic Liberal Barry Simon 4.8 6.2 1.4 Barry Cunningham Labor Riverina, NSW Labor John FitzPatrick 0.1 0.6 0.5 Noel Hicks National Country St George, NSW Liberal Maurice Neil 2.0 8.1 6.1 Bill Morrison Labor Swan, WA Liberal John Martyr 0.5 8.1 7.6 Kim Beazley Labor Members listed in italics did not contest their seat at this election.
Aftermath
In the election, Labor finished only 0.8 percent behind the Coalition on the two-party-preferred vote—a four-percent swing from 1977. However, due to the uneven nature of the swing, Labor came up 12 seats short of a majority, giving the Coalition a third term in government. Hayden, however, did manage to regain much of what Labor had lost in the previous Coalition landslides of 1975 and 1977. Notably, he managed to more than halve Fraser's majority, from 23 seats at dissolution to 11.
In the subsequent term, the government delivered budgets significantly in deficit, and Fraser was challenged for the Liberal leadership by Andrew Peacock. The Australian Democrats made further gains, winning the balance of power in the Senate. From July 1981 (when those senators elected at the 1980 election took up their positions) no Federal Government in Australia had a Senate majority until the Howard government won such a majority in 2004.
See also Candidates of the Australian federal election, 1980 Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1980–1983 Members of the Australian Senate, 1981–1983
Notes
References AustralianPolitics.com election details University of WA election results in Australia since 1890 AEC 2PP vote Prior to 1984 the AEC did not undertake a full distribution of preferences for statistical purposes. The stored ballot papers for the 1983 election were put through this process prior to their destruction. Therefore, the figures from 1983 onwards show the actual result based on full distribution of preferences.