Australian federal election, 1987

11 July 1987 (1987-07-11)

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

	First party	Second party

Leader	Bob Hawke	John Howard
Party	Labor	Liberal/National coalition
Leader since	3 February 1983 (1983-02-03)	5 September 1985 (1985-09-05)
Leader's seat	Wills	Bennelong
Last election	82 seats	66 seats
Seats won	86 seats	62 seats
Seat change	4	4
Percentage	50.83%	49.17%
Swing	0.94	0.94

Prime Minister before election

Bob Hawke
Labor

Elected Prime Minister

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.

**House of Reps (IRV) — 1987–90 – Turnout 93.84% (CV) — Informal 4.94%**
Party	Votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
Australian Labor Party	4,222,431	45.76	−1.79	86	+4
Liberal Party of Australia	3,175,262	34.41	+0.35	43	−2
National Party of Australia	1,060,976	11.50	+0.87	19	−2
Australian Democrats	554,017	6.00	+0.55	0	0
Country Liberal Party	21,668	0.23	−0.09	0	0
Other	189,975	2.06	+0.07	0	0
Total	9,227,772			148
Australian Labor Party	WIN	50.83	−0.94	86	+4
Liberal/National coalition		49.17	+0.94	62	−4

**Senate (STV GV) — 1987–90 – Turnout 93.84% (CV) — Informal 3.54%**
Party	Votes	%	Swing	Seats Won	Seats Held	Change
Australian Labor Party	4,013,860	42.83	+0.66	32	32	−2
Liberal Party of Australia	1,965,180	20.97	+0.38	23	26	−1
Liberal/National (Joint Ticket)	1,289,888	13.76	+1.05	5
Australian Democrats	794,107	8.47	+0.85	7	7	0
National Party of Australia	664,394	7.09	+1.16	5	7	+2
Call to Australia Party	136,825	1.46	−0.36	0	0	0
Nuclear Disarmament Party	102,480	1.09	−6.14	1	1	0
Vallentine Peace Group	40,048	0.43	*	1	1	+1
Harradine Group	37,037	0.40	+0.14	1	1	0
Country Liberal Party	19,970	0.21	−0.10	1	1	0
Other	307,892	3.29	+1.93	0	0	0
Total	9,371,681			76	76

Note: As this was a double-dissolution election, all Senate seats were contested.

Seats changing hands 1
See also 2
Notes 3
References 4

Seats changing hands

Seat	Pre-1987				Swing	Post-1987
Seat	Party		Member	Margin	Swing	Margin	Member	Party
Chisholm, Vic		Labor	Helen Mayer	0.2	0.9	0.7	Michael Wooldridge	Liberal
Denison, Tas		Liberal	Michael Hodgman	1.0	4.8	3.8	Duncan Kerr	Labor
Fisher, Qld		National	Peter Slipper	2.3	2.8	0.5	Michael Lavarch	Labor
Forde, Qld		Liberal	David Watson	0.0	1.0	1.0	Mary Crawford	Labor
Hinkler, Qld		National	Bryan Conquest	0.2	1.3	1.1	Brian Courtice	Labor
Lowe, NSW		Labor	Michael Maher	2.2	3.8	1.6	Bob Woods	Liberal
Northern Territory, NT		Country Liberal	Paul Everingham	1.4	3.6	2.2	Warren Snowdon	Labor
Petrie, Qld		Liberal	John Hodges	0.6	2.0	1.4	Gary Johns	Labor

Members in italics did not contest their seat at this election.

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).

Notes

^ Kennett-Peacock Car Phone Conversation. Retrieved 5 May 2006.

References

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

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Australian federal election, 1987