A federal election was held in Australia on 18 May 1974. All 60 seats in the Senate were up for election as well as all 127 seats in the House of Representatives, due to a double dissolution.
Background Following an attempt by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam to create an extra Senate vacancy in Queensland by appointing former Democratic Labor Party (DLP) Leader, Senator Vince Gair, as Ambassador to Ireland, Liberal leader Billy Snedden announced that the opposition would block the Government's supply bills in the Senate. After a great deal of legalistic argumentation in both houses about the Gair Affair, and justified by the failure of six (non-supply) bills to pass the Senate, Whitlam requested and was granted by Governor-General Sir Paul Hasluck a double dissolution under section 57 of the Constitution. The already-announced election date of 18 May was kept. The election focused on Whitlam's first years in office and whether the Australian public was willing to continue with his reform agenda.
Nationwide results + Senate (STV) – 1974–75 – Turnout 95.50% (CV) – Informal 10.77% Party First preference votes % Swing Seats won Seats held Change Labor 3,127,197 47.29 +5.08 29 29 +3 Liberal–Country coalition 2,901,454 43.88 +5.70 29 29 +3 Liberal–Country joint ticket 2,298,816 34.77 +15.26 16 * * Liberal 516,919 7.82 −9.79 12 23 +2 National Alliance 55,301 0.84 +0.84 1 * * Country 30,418 0.46 –0.60 0 6 +1 Democratic Labor 235,343 3.56 −7.55 0 0 –5 Australia 92,107 1.39 −1.51 0 0 0 Liberal Movement 63,032 0.95 * 1 1 +1 National Liberal 23,965 0.36 * 0 0 0 Communist 20,583 0.31 * 0 0 0 United Christian 3,977 0.06 * 0 0 0 United Tasmania 2,051 0.03 * 0 0 0 National Socialist 1,810 0.03 –0.40 0 0 0 Republican 484 0.01 * 0 0 0 Social Credit 379 0.01 * 0 0 0 Independents 140,003 2.12 +0.41 1 1 –2 Total 6,612,385 60 60 Notes The Country Party (CP) contested the elections in Western Australia as the National Alliance (NA), which was a merger of the CP and the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) in that state. The NA won a single Senate seat in WA, its elected representative being Tom Drake-Brockman, who sat with the CP on election to parliament. Independent: Michael Townley (Liberal Party from Feb 1975)
The NSW portion of this vote was telling of the disadvantages of requiring the marking of preferences for all the candidates. NSW voters faced a list of 73 candidate for the state's 12 seats. Twelve percent of Labour voters cast improper votes that were rejected. The final seat was taken by a candidate that received only about one percent of the vote. The result across the country was 29 Liberal/National, 29 Labour and two others holding the balance of power.Bowler and Grofman, Elections in Australia, Ireland and Malta, p. 44
See also 1974 Australian federal election Candidates of the Australian federal election, 1974 Members of the Australian Senate, 1974–1975
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