1963 Australian federal election
The 1963 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 30 November 1963. All 122 seats in the House of Representatives were up for election. The incumbent Liberal–Country coalition government, led by Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies, won an increased majority over the opposition Labor Party, led by Arthur Calwell. This was the only time that a Federal Government won a seventh consecutive term in office.
All 124[a] seats of the Australian House of Representatives
62 seats were needed for a majority
5,824,917 
3.07%
5,575,977 (95.73%)
(0.46 pp)
This was the last federal election prior to Australia's decimalisation just three years later.
Background[edit]
The election was held following the early dissolution of the House of Representatives. The Prime Minister of Australia, Sir Robert Menzies, gave as his reason for calling an election within two years that there was an insufficient working majority in the House.[1] The 1961 election had been won with a substantially reduced majority of only two seats. One of the consequences of an early House election was that there were separate Senate and House elections until 1974. This became a factor in the Gair Affair.
The Coalition government of the Liberal Party led by Sir Robert Menzies and the Country Party led by John McEwen was returned with a substantially increased majority over the Australian Labor Party led by Arthur Calwell.
Indigenous Australians could vote in federal elections on the same basis as other electors for the first time in this election following an amendment to the Commonwealth Electoral Act becoming law on 1 November. The amendment enfranchised Indigenous people in Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory. Indigenous voting rights in other states had been in place since 1949.