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1983 Australian federal election

The 1983 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 5 March 1983. All 125 seats in the House of Representatives and all 64 seats in the Senate were up for election, following a double dissolution. The incumbent Coalition government which had been in power since 1975, led by Malcolm Fraser (Liberal Party) and Doug Anthony (National Party), was defeated in a landslide by the opposition Labor Party led by Bob Hawke.

All 125 seats in the House of Representatives
63 seats were needed for a majority in the House
All 64 seats in the Senate

9,372,064 Increase 3.86%

8,870,175 (94.64%)
(Increase0.29 pp)

This election marked the end of the seven year Liberal–National Coalition Fraser government and the start of the 13 year Hawke-Keating Labor government. The Coalition would spend its longest ever period in opposition and the Labor party would spend its longest ever period of government at a federal level. The Coalition would not return to government until the 1996 election.


Hawke became the second Labor leader after World War II to lead the party to victory from opposition, after Gough Whitlam in 1972 and before Kevin Rudd in 2007 and Anthony Albanese in 2022.

In and Victoria, the coalition parties ran a joint ticket. Of the eight senators elected on a joint ticket, seven were members of the Liberal Party and one was a member of the National Party. In Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia, the coalition parties ran on separate tickets. In the ACT and Tasmania, only the Liberal Party ran a ticket. In the Northern Territory, only the Country Liberal Party ran a ticket.

New South Wales

The sole independent elected was of Tasmania.

Brian Harradine

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

Candidates of the Australian federal election, 1983

Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1983–1984

Members of the Australian Senate, 1983–1985

Prior to 1984 the AEC did not undertake a full distribution of preferences for statistical purposes. The stored ballot papers for the 1983 election were put through this process prior to their destruction. Therefore, the figures from 1983 onwards show the actual result based on full distribution of preferences. The 1983 swing of approximately 3.6 points is based on a pure deduction of one result from the other.

Archived 18 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine election results in Australia since 1890

University of WA

AustralianPolitics.com election details

AEC 2PP vote