ID 0830

Commonwealth Parliament, Senate election

Election of 10 December 1977

Show only vote and seat summary details

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General election for the Senate
Commonwealth of Australia
Date of election
10 December 1977
Type of Senate election
Half Senate with 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
Yes
Change of government
No
Government majority in new Senate
Yes
If coalition, coalition partner(s)
National Country Party

Senate enrolment and voting

Total number of voters on the roll
8,548,779
Total ballots cast (may differ from number of votes in multiple voting systems)
8,127,762
Turnout (rate of voting in contested seats)
95.08%
Total valid votes
7,396,207
Rate of informal (invalid) voting
9%

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
34
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 10 December 1977
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 n First preference vote share % Change from previous election % Seats won by ticket n Seats won by ticket % Seats won by party n Seats won by party % Seats held by party n Seats held by party %
Australian Labor Party   2,718,876  36.76  -4.15  14  41.18  14  41.18  27  42.19 
Liberal Party - National Country Party (joint ticket)  2,533,882  34.26  -5.60  7  20.59         
Australian Democrats  823,550  11.13  *  2  5.88  2  5.88  2  3.13 
Liberal Party  783,878  10.60  -0.48  10  29.41  16  47.06  28  43.75 
Independents  127,850  1.73  +0.13  0    0    1  1.56 
National Country Party  36,619  0.50  -0.04  0    1  2.94  6  9.38 
Country Liberal Party (NT)  15,463  0.21  -0.01  1  2.94  1  2.94     
Votes for other than listed parties 356,089 4.81 +2.75             
Totals 7,396,207  100.00    34  100.00  34  100.00  64  100.00 

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* 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 this election for the Senate, the seats held by the National Country Party include the seat won for the Country Liberal Party in the Northern Territory.

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), The Australian National Elections of 1977, Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1979 (ISBN 0844733571).


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