Australian federal election, 1990

24 March 1990 (1990-03-24)

All 148 seats in the Australian House of Representatives 75 seats were needed for a majority in the House 40 (of the 76) seats in the Australian Senate

	First party	Second party

Leader	Bob Hawke	Andrew Peacock
Party	Labor	Liberal/National coalition
Leader since	3 February 1983	9 May 1989
Leader's seat	Wills	Kooyong
Last election	86 seats	62 seats
Seats won	78 seats	69 seats
Seat change	8	7
Popular vote	4,930,834	4,950,069
Percentage	49.90%	50.10%
Swing	0.93%	0.93%

Prime Minister before election

Bob Hawke
Labor

Subsequent Prime Minister

Bob Hawke
Labor

Federal elections were held in Australia on 24 March 1990. All 148 seats in the House of Representatives and 40 seats in the 76-member Senate were up for election. The incumbent Australian Labor Party led by Bob Hawke defeated the opposition Liberal Party of Australia led by Andrew Peacock with coalition partner the National Party of Australia led by Charles Blunt. The election saw the reelection of a Hawke government, the fourth successive term.

Background

John Howard lost the 1987 election to Hawke, and Andrew Peacock was elected Deputy Leader in a show of party unity. In May 1989 Peacock's supporters mounted a party room coup which returned Peacock to the leadership. Hawke's Treasurer, Keating, ridiculed him by asking: "Can the soufflé rise twice?" and calling him "all feathers and no meat". Hawke's government was in political trouble, with high interest rates and a financial crisis in Victoria.

Results

**House of Reps (IRV) — 1990–93 — Turnout 95.31% (CV) — Informal 3.19%**
Party		Votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Australian Labor Party	3,904,138	39.44	−6.39	78	−8
	Liberal Party of Australia	3,468,570	35.04	+0.48	55	+12
	Australian Democrats	1,114,216	11.26	+5.22	0	0
	National Party of Australia	833,557	8.42	−3.10	14	−5
	Independents	252,116	2.55	+0.94	1	+1
	Other	327,077	3.30	+2.85	0	0
	Total	9,899,674			148
Two-party-preferred vote
	Australian Labor Party	WIN	49.90	−0.93	78	−8
	Liberal/National coalition		50.10	+0.93	69	+7

Independents: Ted Mack

Popular Vote

Labor			39.44%
Liberal			35.04%
Democrats			11.26%
National			8.42%
Independents			2.55%
Other			3.30%

Two Party Preferred Vote

Coalition			50.10%
Labor			49.90%

Parliament Seats

Labor			52.70%
Coalition			46.62%
Independents			0.68%

**Senate (STV GV) — 1990–93 — Turnout 95.81% (CV) — Informal 3.40%**
	Votes	%	Swing	Seats Won	Seats Held
Australian Labor Party	3,813,547	38.41	−4.42	15	32
Liberal/National (Joint Ticket)	2,429,552	24.47	+10.70	5
Liberal Party of Australia	1,445,872	14.56	−6.41	12	28
Australian Democrats	1,253,807	12.63	+4.15	5	8
National Party of Australia	258,164	2.60	−4.49	1	5
Australian Greens	201,618	2.03	*	0	0
WA Greens	76,381	0.77	*	1	1
Country Liberal Party	29,045	0.29	+0.08	1	1
Other	421,779	4.25	−0.56	0	0
Harradine Group					1
Total	9,929,765			40	76

Seats changing hands

Seat	Pre-1990				Swing	Post-1990
Seat	Party		Member	Margin	Swing	Margin	Member	Party
Adelaide, SA		Liberal	Mike Pratt	1.9	2.8	3.7	Bob Catley	Labor
Aston, Vic		Labor	John Saunderson	2.9	7.2	4.6	Peter Nugent	Liberal
Ballarat, Vic		Labor	John Mildren	1.9	4.0	1.9	Michael Ronaldson	Liberal
Bendigo, Vic		Labor	John Brumby	3.4	5.1	1.1	Bruce Reid	Liberal
Corinella, Vic		Labor	notional – new seat	5.3	6.0	0.7	Russell Broadbent	Liberal
Dunkley, Vic		Labor	Bob Chynoweth	1.7	6.8	1.2	Frank Ford	Liberal
Fairfax, Qld		National	Evan Adermann	N/A	0.2	7.5	Alex Somlyay	Liberal
Hawker, SA		Labor	Elizabeth Harvey	1.2	1.2	0.0	Christine Gallus	Liberal
Kennedy, Qld		National	Bob Katter	3.0	4.4	1.4	Rob Hulls	Labor
La Trobe, Vic		Labor	Peter Milton	7.3	4.6	1.4	Bob Charles	Liberal
McEwen, Vic		Labor	Peter Cleeland	4.1	6.1	3.2	Fran Bailey	Liberal
McMillan, Vic		Labor	Barry Cunningham	4.3	7.4	4.4	John Riggall	Liberal
Moore, WA		Labor	Allen Blanchard	5.2	6.3	6.9	Paul Filing	Liberal
Moreton, Qld		Liberal	Don Cameron	0.7	3.0	2.3	Garrie Gibson	Labor
North Sydney, NSW		Liberal	John Spender	N/A	57.7	7.7	Ted Mack	Independent
Page, NSW		National	Ian Robinson	4.5	5.2	0.7	Harry Woods	Labor
Richmond, NSW		National	Charles Blunt	6.6	7.1	0.5	Neville Newell	Labor

Members in italics did not contest their seat at this election

Outcome

The Gallagher Index result: 12.7

The 1990 election resulted in a modest swing to the opposition Coalition. Though Labor had to contend with the late 80s/early 90s recession, they won a record fourth successive election and a record 10 years in government with Bob Hawke as leader, a level of political success not previously seen by federal Labor. The election was to be Hawke's last as Prime Minister and Labor leader, he was replaced by Paul Keating on 20 December 1991 who would go on to lead Labor to win a record fifth successive election and a record 13 years in government resulting from the 1993 election.

At the election, the Coalition won a slim majority of the two-party vote, and slashed Labor's majority from 24 seats to nine. However, it only managed a two-party swing of 0.9 percent, which was not nearly enough to deliver the additional seven seats the Coalition needed to make Peacock Prime Minister. Despite having regained much of what the non-Labor forces had lost three years earlier, Peacock was forced to resign after the election.

This election saw the peak of the Australian Democrats' popularity under Janine Haines, and a WA Greens candidate won a seat in the Australian Senate for the first time – although the successful candidate, Jo Vallentine, was already a two-term senator, having previously won a seat for the Nuclear Disarmament Party at the 1984 election, and the Vallentine Peace Group at the 1987 election. Until 2010, this was the only post-war election where a third party (excluding splinter state parties and the Nationals) has won more than 10% of the primary vote for elections to the Australian House of Representatives.

Since the 1918 Swan by-election which Labor unexpectedly won with the largest primary vote, a predecessor of the Liberals, the Nationalist Party of Australia, changed the lower house voting system from first-past-the-post to full-preference preferential voting as of the subsequent 1919 election which has remained in place since, allowing the Coalition parties to safely contest the same seats. Full-preference preferential voting re-elected the Hawke government, the first time in federal history that Labor had obtained a net benefit from preferential voting.^[1]

It also saw the Nationals' leader, Charles Blunt, defeated in his own seat of Richmond by Labor challenger Neville Newell--only the second time that a major party leader had lost his own seat. Newell benefited from the presence of independent and anti-nuclear activist Helen Caldicott. Her preferences flowed overwhelmingly to Newell on the third count, allowing Newell to win despite having been third on the primary vote.

Notes

↑ Antony Green (2015-09-23). "The Origin of Senate Group Ticket Voting, and it didn't come from the Major Parties". Blogs.abc.net.au. Retrieved 2016-07-30.

References

University of WA election results in Australia since 1890
AEC 2PP vote
AustralianPolitics.com election details

External links

'Give a Damn: Vote Democrat 1' – 1990 commercial with Janine Haines

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