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Bob Hawke Labor
Federal elections were held in Australia on 11 July 1987, following the granting of a double dissolution on 5 June by the Governor-General Sir Ninian Stephen. Consequently, all 148 seats in the House of Representatives as well as all 76 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Australian Labor Party led by Prime Minister Bob Hawke defeated the opposition Liberal Party of Australia led by John Howard and the National Party of Australia led by Ian Sinclair.
Note: As this was a double-dissolution election, all Senate seats were contested.
The 1987 federal election was called 6 months early by Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke to capitalise on disunity in the opposition. The trigger for the double dissolution was legislation for the Australia Card, although it did not figure prominently in the campaign. Opposition Leader John Howard had dismissed his predecessor Andrew Peacock from the shadow ministry in March, following unfortunate remarks by Peacock to Victorian state opposition leader Jeff Kennett in an infamous car phone conversation.[1] Howard, who had succeeded Peacock in 1985, was fighting a war on two fronts – the origin of his oft-repeated remark that, in politics, "disunity is death".
This election was the last time the Liberals and Nationals competed directly against each other in a federal election. This was due to the abortive Joh for Canberra campaign of Queensland premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen. Although Bjelke-Petersen did not run, the resulting schism between the Nationals and Liberals led to several three-cornered contests. Labor campaigned strongly on the disunity among the opposition parties. The Labor result of 86 seats was the party's highest ever (the total number of seats was expanded by 23 in 1984).
Gough Whitlam, Bob Hawke, Queensland, Liberal Party of Australia, National Party of Australia
Australian Labor Party, Robert Menzies, Malcolm Fraser, National Party of Australia, John Howard
Liberal Party of Australia, Prime Minister of Australia, New South Wales, Australian Labor Party, Australian Greens
United Kingdom, New Zealand, New South Wales, Canada, Queensland
Australian Labor Party, Paul Keating, Malcolm Fraser, Gough Whitlam, Prime Minister of Australia
Australian federal election, 2013, Australian federal election, 2010, Australian federal election, 1975, Australian federal election, 1922, Parliament of Australia
Malcolm Fraser, Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, Bill Hayden, Tasmania
Politics, Liberal Party of Australia, Australian Greens, Australian federal election, 2007, Australian federal election, 2004
Division of Chisholm, Australia, Wilfrid Kent Hughes, Liberal Party of Australia, Australian federal election, 1949