1984 Australian Senate election

1984 Australian Senate elections

← 1983 1 December 1984 1987 →
46 of the 76 seats in the Australian Senate 39 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader John Button Fred Chaney Party Labor Liberal/National coalition Leader since 7 November 1980 11 March 1983 Leader's seat Victoria Western Australia Seats before 30 28 Seats won 20 20 Seats after 34 33 Seat change 4 5 Popular vote 3,750,789 3,516,857 Percentage 42.17% 39.54% Swing 3.32% 0.41%   Third party Fourth party   Leader Don Chipp Jo Vallentine Party Democrats NDP Leader since 9 May 1977 1 December 1984 Leader's seat Victoria Western Australia (won seat) Seats before 5 New Seats won 5 1 Seats after 7 1 Seat change 2 1 Popular vote 677,970 643,061 Percentage 7.62% 7.23% Swing 2.32% 7.23%
Senators elected in the 1984 federal election
Leader of the Senate before election John Button Labor Elected Leader of the Senate John Button Labor

1984 Australian federal election
Candidates
National results
House of Representatives Senate
State and territory results
New South Wales Victoria Queensland Western Australia South Australia Tasmania Australian Capital Territory Northern Territory
Elected House of Representative members Elected Senate members
v t e

The following tables show state-by-state results in the Australian Senate at the 1984 federal election. Senators total 29 coalition (27 Liberal, one coalition National, one CLP), 34 Labor, one Nuclear Disarmament Party, four non-coalition National, seven Democrats, and one Independent.^[1][2] Senator terms are six years (three for territories), and all took their seats immediately due to the expansion of the senate from 64 to 76 members.

As the previous election was a double dissolution, half of the senators elected at that election had their terms backdated to 1 July 1982, to end on 30 June 1988. Senator terms for those contesting this election would have been for 6 year intervals starting from 1 July 1985, but the Double dissolution election of 1987 removed this necessity.

This was the last Senate election where Labor won more seats than the Coalition in the Senate, despite winning several victories in the House of Representatives since then.

Senate (STV GV) — 1984–87 – Turnout 94.55% (CV) — Informal 4.68%

Party			Votes	%	Swing	Seats won	Total seats	Change
	Australian Labor Party		3,750,789	42.17	−3.32	20	34	4
		Liberal/National joint ticket	1,130,601	12.71	−11.49	3	*	*
		Liberal Party of Australia	1,831,006	20.59	+8.58	14	27	4
		National Party of Australia	527,278	5.93	+0.87	2	5	1
		Country Liberal Party	27,972	0.31	+0.04	1	1
	Liberal/National Coalition		3,516,857	39.54	–0.41	20	33	5
	Australian Democrats		677,970	7.62	−2.32	5	7	2
	Nuclear Disarmament Party		643,061	7.23	*	1	1	1
	Call to Australia Party		162,272	1.82	+0.62
	Democratic Labor		32,472	0.37	+0.37
	Pensioner		23,974	0.27	+0.27
	Harradine Group		22,992	0.26	−0.32		1
	Family Movement		18,841	0.21	+0.21
	Referendum First		5,808	0.07	+0.07
	Conservative		4,731	0.05	+0.05
	Independent		34,333	0.39
Total			8,894,100			46	76	12
Invalid/blank votes			437,065	4.7	–5.2
Turnout			9,331,165	94.5
Registered voters			9,869,217
Source: Federal Election Results 1949-1993

• The Liberals and Nationals contested the previous election as a Coalition in the previous election, and did not do so in this election. The Coalition vote of 1983 of 38.2% was unchanged from the combined Liberal and National vote of this election.

• 1984 Australian federal election
• Candidates of the Australian federal election, 1984
• Members of the Australian Senate, 1985–1987

• Adam Carr's Election Archive