A federal election was held on 2 March 1996 to elect members of the 38th Parliament of Australia. All 148 seats of the House of Representatives were up for election, along with 40 of the 76 seats in the Senate. The Liberal–National Coalition led by Opposition Leader John Howard defeated the incumbent Labor government led by Prime Minister Paul Keating in a landslide victory. The Coalition won 94 seats in the House of Representatives, at the time the largest number of seats won by a federal government to date (since tied with Labor's win in 2025). It was also only the second time that a party or alliance had won over 90 seats at a federal election; the first occurred in the Coalition's 1975 victory.
The election marked the end of the five-term, 13-year Hawke-Keating Government that began in 1983. Howard was sworn in as the new prime minister of Australia on 11 March 1996, along with the First Howard Ministry. This election was the start of the 11-year Howard Government; Labor would remain in opposition until the 2007 election.
This was the first federal election that future prime minister Tony Abbott contested as a member of parliament, having entered parliament at the 1994 Warringah by-election. Future prime minister Anthony Albanese and future opposition leader Brendan Nelson also entered parliament at this election.
Future prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard were unsuccessful candidates for the House of Representatives and Senate respectively, but were elected to the House of Representatives at the next election, in 1998.
Howard became the first Liberal leader to win an election from opposition since Robert Menzies in 1949. (Malcolm Fraser was caretaker prime minister in the 1975 election.) The victory also saw the Liberal Party gain enough seats to not require the support of the National Party, though John Howard opted to stay in the Coalition. As of 2025, this is the last time the Liberal Party has won an overall majority of seats in federal parliament. It is also the last where both major party leaders were born prior to 1946, the first year of the Post-war era.
Background John Howard, who had previously led the Liberal Party from 1985 to 1989, returned to the leadership in January 1995 following the party's disastrous eight months under the leadership of Alexander Downer. Downer and deputy PM Peter Costello had succeeded John Hewson and Michael Wooldridge early in 1994 and were touted as the leaders of the new-generation Liberals. In the end the party opted for the seasoned Howard, perhaps an acknowledgement that he was the only one left standing after a decade of party infighting.
Campaign Howard focussed the Coalition's attacks mainly on the governing record of the long-serving Labor government, refusing to detail specific policy proposals. Keating's handling of the recession was particularly unpopular, exemplified by his infamous description of it as "a recession that Australia had to have." Although Keating's big-picture approach to republicanism, reconciliation with Australia's Indigenous peoples and engagement with Asia galvanised support within Labor's urban constituencies, Howard was able to attract support amongst disaffected mainstream Australians, uniting middle-class suburban residents with traditionally Labor-voting blue-collar workers. He also promised to retain Medicare and hold a constitutional convention to decide whether Australia would become a republic.
The election-eve Newspoll reported the Liberal/National Coalition held an estimated 53.5 percent two-party-preferred vote.
In the final week of the campaign, Treasurer Ralph Willis released a letter purporting to be secret correspondence between Howard and Liberal Premier of Victoria, Jeff Kennett. After Howard denounced the letter as a forgery, the news was dominated by the narrative that Labor was dishonestly seeking to undermine Howard. The letter was subsequently revealed to be the work of university students.
Results
House of Representatives results
Senate results
House of Representatives preference flows
The Democrats contested 138 electorates with preferences slightly favouring Labor (54.02%) The Greens contested 102 electorates with preferences favouring Labor (67.10%)
Seats changing hands
Seat Pre-1996 Swing Post-1996 Party Member Margin Margin Member Party Bass, Tas Labor Silvia Smith 0.03 4.60 4.57 Warwick Smith Liberal Bowman, Qld Labor Con Sciacca 8.14 9.03 0.89 Andrea West Liberal Calare, NSW Labor David Simmons N/A N/A 13.32 Peter Andren Independent Canberra, ACT Ros Kelly 9.56 2.04 7.52 Bob McMullan Brendan Smyth 6.58 14.1 Canning, WA Labor George Gear 0.19 0.88 0.69 Ricky Johnston Liberal Capricornia, Qld Labor Marjorie Henzell 2.78 6.40 3.62 Paul Marek National Curtin, WA Liberal Allan Rocher N/A N/A 7.28 Allan Rocher Independent Dickson, Qld Labor Michael Lavarch 2.55 5.72 3.17 Tony Smith Liberal Eden-Monaro, NSW Labor Jim Snow 4.27 9.03 4.76 Gary Nairn Liberal Gilmore, NSW Labor Peter Knott 0.45 6.69 6.24 Joanna Gash Liberal Griffith, Qld Labor Ben Humphreys 5.90 7.37 1.47 Graeme McDougall Liberal Herbert, Qld Labor Ted Lindsay 3.31 9.90 6.59 Peter Lindsay Liberal Hughes, NSW Labor Robert Tickner 6.42 11.31 4.89 Danna Vale Liberal Kalgoorlie, WA Labor Graeme Campbell N/A N/A 10.35 Graeme Campbell Independent Kingston, SA Labor Gordon Bilney 1.45 3.46 2.01 Susan Jeanes Liberal Leichhardt, Qld Labor Peter Dodd 1.33 5.51 4.18 Warren Entsch Liberal Lilley, Qld Labor Wayne Swan 6.18 6.91 0.73 Elizabeth Grace Liberal Lindsay, NSW Labor Ross Free 10.22 11.80 1.58 Jackie Kelly Liberal Lowe, NSW Labor Mary Easson 5.01 7.48 2.47 Paul Zammit Liberal Macarthur, NSW Labor Chris Haviland 1.28 11.97 10.69 John Fahey Liberal Macquarie, NSW Labor Maggie Deahm 0.12 6.48 6.36 Kerry Bartlett Liberal Makin, SA Labor Peter Duncan 3.71 4.79 1.08 Trish Draper Liberal McEwen, Vic Labor Peter Cleeland 0.69 1.50 2.19 Fran Bailey Liberal McMillan, Vic Labor Barry Cunningham 0.53 2.60 2.07 Russell Broadbent Liberal Moore, WA Liberal Paul Filing N/A N/A 15.48 Paul Filing Independent Moreton, Qld Labor Garrie Gibson 0.21 5.30 5.09 Gary Hardgrave Liberal Murray, Vic National Bruce Lloyd N/A N/A 3.70* Sharman Stone Liberal North Sydney, NSW Independent Ted Mack 1.8 17.4 15.6 Joe Hockey Liberal Northern Territory, NT Labor Warren Snowdon 5.31 5.68 0.37 Nick Dondas Country Liberal Oxley, Qld Labor Les Scott 14.65 19.31** 4.66 Pauline Hanson Independent Page, NSW Labor Harry Woods 0.13 4.44 4.31 Ian Causley National Parramatta, NSW Labor Paul Elliott 3.24 7.11 3.87 Ross Cameron Liberal Paterson, NSW Labor Bob Horne 3.30 3.73 0.43 Bob Baldwin Liberal Petrie, Qld Labor Gary Johns 2.15 9.85 7.70 Teresa Gambaro Liberal Richmond, NSW Labor Neville Newell 1.78 8.53 6.75 Larry Anthony National Robertson, NSW Labor Frank Walker 5.56 9.12 3.56 Jim Lloyd Liberal Swan, WA Labor Kim Beazley 0.22 3.93 3.71 Don Randall Liberal Wills, Vic Independent Phil Cleary n/a 4.37 n/a Kelvin Thomson Labor *Figure is Liberal against Nationals. **Figure is a swing compared to Liberal vote at the last election.
Analysis Overall the coalition won 29 seats from Labor while the ALP won 4 seats from the Liberals. These 4 seats were Canberra and Namadgi in the ACT and Isaacs and Bruce in Victoria. The ACT seats, which had been won by the Liberals in a by-election, fell to Labor due to a strong return to the ALP in a traditional Labor town by public servants fearing conservative cuts. The division of Brendan Smyth's seat of Canberra into the two new (of the three) ACT seats limited his campaign to the southernmost Tuggeranong seat of Namadgi where the ACT Labor right wing stood former MLA Annette Ellis who ran a tight grassroots campaign. Isaacs and Bruce fell to Labor due to demographic changes due to a redistribution of electoral boundaries.
Labor lost five percent of its two-party vote from 1993, and tallied its lowest primary vote since 1934 (an additional eight percent coming from preferences). The swing against Labor would not normally have been enough in and of itself to cause a change of government. However, Labor lost 13 of its 33 seats in New South Wales, and all but two of its 13 seats in Queensland. The 29-seat swing was the second-largest defeat, in terms of seats lost, by a sitting government in Australia. Three members of Keating's government – including Attorney-General Michael Lavarch – lost their seats. Keating resigned as Labor leader on the night of the election, and was succeeded by former deputy prime minister and Finance Minister Kim Beazley.
Due in part to this large swing, Howard entered office with a 45-seat majority, the second-largest in Australian history (behind only the 55-seat majority won by Malcolm Fraser in 1975). The Liberals actually won a majority in their own right at this election with 75 seats, the most the party had ever won. Although Howard had no need for the support of the Nationals, the Coalition was retained. , this was the last time the Liberals have won a majority in their own right at a federal election.
Exit polling showed the Coalition winning 47 percent of the blue-collar vote, compared with Labor's 39 percent; there was a 16-point drop in Labor's vote among members of trade unions. The Coalition won 48 percent of the Catholic vote and Labor 37 percent, a reversal of the usual figures.
See also Candidates of the 1996 Australian federal election Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1996–1998 Members of the Australian Senate, 1996–1999
Notes
References
External links Australian Electoral Commission Results University of WA election results in Australia since 1890 AEC 2PP vote AustralianPolitics.com election details Preference flows – ABC