Two-Party-Preferred Statistics
1998 National Summary
Nationally, the 1998 Federal Election joins a select list of elections where the party or parties that won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote failed to win the election. The others were 1990, 1969, 1961 and 1954.
The Howard coalition government was elected with 49.02% of the two-party-preferred vote. It secured 80 of the 148 seats (54%) in the House of Representatives. Thus, its exaggerated majority is 5.03%.
The ALP secured a majority of the two-party vote in three States (NSW, Victoria & Tasmania) and both Territories. There was an overall swing to the ALP of 4.61%, the party regaining much of the 5.06% it lost in 1996.
The swing ranged from 0.94% in the Northern Territory to 7.17% in Queensland.
A measure of the electoral wipe-out the ALP suffered in 1996 can be seen by the fact that even though it secured swings of between 4 and 7 per cent in South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland, it remains the minority grouping in those States.
Two-Party-Preferred Statistics 1998
House of Representatives - Summary |
|---|
| State |
ALP Votes |
ALP % |
L/NP Votes |
L/NP % |
% Swing To ALP |
| New South Wales |
1,879,281 |
51.54 |
1,766,640 |
48.46 |
4.11 |
| Victoria |
1,521,560 |
53.53 |
1,321,121 |
46.47 |
3.22 |
| Queensland |
935,867 |
46.95 |
1,057,508 |
53.05 |
7.17 |
| Western Australia |
515,733 |
49.46 |
527,042 |
50.54 |
5.46 |
| South Australia |
434,189 |
46.89 |
491,802 |
53.11 |
4.15 |
| Tasmania |
176,241 |
57.32 |
131,236 |
42.68 |
5.74 |
| Australian Capital Territory |
121,552 |
62.44 |
73,131 |
37.56 |
6.98 |
| Northern Territory |
45,986 |
50.57 |
44,951 |
49.43 |
0.94 |
| Total |
5,630,409 |
50.98 |
5,413,431 |
49.02 |
4.61 |
Source: Australian Electoral Commission publications
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