A federal election was held on 10 December 1977 to elect members of the 31st Parliament of Australia. All 124 seats in the House of Representatives were up for election, along with 34 of the 64 seats in the Senate. The incumbent Coalition government, led by Malcolm Fraser, was re-elected, defeating the Labor Party led by Opposition Leader Gough Whitlam.
While the Coalition suffered a five-seat swing, it still had a substantial 48-seat majority in the House. The Liberals retained an outright majority, with 67 seats. Although Fraser thus had no need for the support of the National Country Party, the Coalition was retained. Whitlam became the first and only person to contest four federal elections as leader of the Opposition. He was unable to recover much of the ground Labor had lost in its severe defeat two years prior, and resigned as leader shortly after the election.
Background and issues
The government offering tax cuts to voters and ran advertisements with the slogan "fistful of dollars". The tax cuts were never delivered; instead a "temporary surcharge" was imposed in 1978.
The 1977 election was held a year earlier than required, partly to bring elections for the House and Senate back into line. A half-Senate election had to be held by July 1978, since the double dissolution election of 1975 had resulted in the terms of senators being backdated to 1 July 1975, as per Section 13 of the Constitution of Australia.
The months before the 1977 election were marked by a substantial increase in the number of "boat people" arriving in northern Australia as a result of the Indochina refugee crisis, primarily of Vietnamese origin from the former South Vietnam. Immigration historian Klaus Neumann has identified the 1977 election as "the first in Australian history in which one of the major parties appealed to the public's unease about unauthorised boat arrivals".
Results House of Representatives results
+ House of Reps (IRV) — 1977–80—Turnout 95.08% (CV) — Informal 2.52% Party First preference votes % Swing Seats Change Liberal–NCP Coalition 3,811,340 48.11 –4.95 86 –5 Liberal 3,017,896 38.09 −3.71 67 −1 National Country 776,982 9.81 −1.44 18 −4 Country Liberal 16,462 0.21 +0.00 1 0 Labor 3,141,051 39.65 −3.20 38 +2 Democrats 743,365 9.38 +9.38 0 0 Democratic Labor 113,271 1.43 +0.11 0 0 Progress 47,567 0.60 –0.18 0 0 Communist 14,098 0.18 +0.06 0 0 Socialist 1,895 0.02 +0.02 0 0 Independents 50,267 0.63 –0.19 0 0 Total 7,922,854 124 −3 Two-party-preferred Liberal–NCP Coalition Win 54.60 −1.10 86 –5 Labor 45.40 +1.10 38 +2
Senate results
+ Senate (STV) — 1977–80—Turnout 95.08% (CV) — Informal 9.00% Party First preference votes % Swing Seats won Seats held Change Liberal–NCP Coalition (total) 3,369,843 45.56 –5.18 18 34 –1 Liberal–NCP joint ticket 2,533,882 34.26 −5.60 7 * * Liberal 783,878 10.60 −0.48 10 27 +1 National Country 36,619 0.50 −0.04 0 6 –2 Country Liberal 15,463 0.21 −0.01 1 1 0 Labor 2,718,876 36.76 −4.15 14 27 0 Democrats 823,550 11.13 +11.13 2 2 +2 Democratic Labor 123,192 1.67 –1.00 0 0 0 Progress 88,203 1.19 +0.32 0 0 0 Call to Australia 49,395 1.12 +1.12 0 0 0 Marijuana 44,276 0.60 +0.60 0 0 0 Socialist 42,740 0.58 +0.57 0 0 0 Australia 8,283 0.11 –0.37 0 0 0 Independents 127,850 1.73 +0.13 0 1 0 Total 7,396,207 34 64 Independent: Brian Harradine (Tasmania) The Progress Party was the renamed "Workers Party" from the 1975 election.
Seats changing hands Seat 1975Notionalmargin Swing 1977 Party Member Margin Margin Member Party Angas, SA Geoffrey Giles 21.5 District abolished Capricornia, Qld Colin Carige 0.1 1.5 +2.7 1.2 Doug Everingham Darling, NSW John FitzPatrick 7.5District abolished Dundas, NSWNew district 10.0 +0.1 10.1 Philip Ruddock Evans, NSW John Abel 2.0 District abolished Fadden, QldNew district 12.5 –6.5 6.0 Don Cameron Griffith, Qld Don Cameron 8.0 1.5 +5.0 3.5 Ben Humphreys Indi, Vic Mac Holten 17.2 N/A N/A 5.1 Ewen Cameron Lang, NSW Frank Stewart 7.4 District abolished Parramatta, NSW Philip Ruddock 9.2 –2.5 +3.6 6.1 John Brown Riverina, NSW John Sullivan 11.8 –2.4 –2.3 0.1 John FitzPatrick Wimmera, Vic Robert King 14.2District abolished Members listed in italics did not contest their seat at this election.
Significance This election marks the effective parliamentary debut of the Australian Democrats. The former Liberal minister Don Chipp had resigned his seat to leave politics but was soon invited to lead the new party and decided to run as a senator for Victoria. The party's Janine Haines had briefly inherited a South Australian Senate seat when Liberal Movement senator Steele Hall had resigned to contest a lower-house seat. Haines was, however, not preselected to recontest the seat. Don Chipp was elected in Victoria and Colin Mason in New South Wales (Haines returned to the Senate at the following election.)
The second Fraser Government had the second-largest parliamentary majority in Australian history (at the time) after the majority it won in the 1975 election. Gough Whitlam resigned as the leader of the ALP in 1978, and was replaced by Bill Hayden.
This was the last Australian federal election for the House of Representatives at which no women were elected, although there were a number of women candidates. Women have been elected at every federal election from 1980 onwards.
See also Candidates of the 1977 Australian federal election Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1977–1980 Members of the Australian Senate, 1978–1981
Notes
References
External links AustralianPolitics.com election details University of WA election results in Australia since 1890 AEC 2PP vote