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1990 Federal Election: Two-Party-Preferred Statistics

The 1990 Federal Election joins a select list of federal elections where the party or parties that won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote failed to win the election.

The other elections were 1998, 1969, 1961 and 1954.

The Hawke Labor government was elected with 49.90% of the two-party-preferred vote. It secured 78 of the 148 seats (52.70%) in the House of Representatives. Thus, its exaggerated majority is 2.8%.

The ALP secured a majority of the two-party vote in two States (NSW & Queensland) and both Territories. There was an overall swing against the ALP of 0.9%.

Two-Party-Preferred Statistics 1990
House of Representatives – Summary
State ALP Votes ALP % L/NP Votes L/NP % Total Votes Exhausted Votes
New South Wales 1,744,666
52.13
1,601,846
47.87
3,346,512 8,159
Victoria 1,216,633
47.46
1,347,048
52.54
2,563,681 3,449
Queensland 837,508
50.19
831,015
49.81
1,668,523 3,074
Western Australia 420,816
47.13
472,092
52.87
892,908 1,791
South Australia 441,659
49.50
450,503
50.50
892,162 1,592
Tasmania 138,556
47.90
150,709
52.10
289,265 239
Australian Capital Territory 93,498
58.54
66,206
41.46
159,704 358
Northern Territory 37,498
55.02
30,650
44.98
68,148 109
Australia 4,930,834
49.90
4,950,069
50.10
9,880,903 18,771

 

Source: Australian Electoral Commission publications

 


‘Give A Damn’ – Janine Haines Australian Democrats Advertisement

This is an Australian Democrats television advertisement from the 1990 Federal Election.

It features the Democrats leader Janine Haines. The theme of the party’s campaign in the election was “Give a Damn”.

Haines was first appointed to a casual vacancy in the Senate in 1977. She served until June 30, 1978 and was elected in her own right in 1980. In 1986, she succeeded Don Chipp as leader of the Australian Democrats.

In 1990, Haines attempted to shift to the House of Representatives via the South Australian electorate of Kingston but she was unsuccessful. She died in 2004, at age 59.



Bob Hawke’s 1990 Federal Election Policy Speech

The 1990 Federal Election saw Bob Hawke’s Labor government facing a difficult task to secure its fourth consecutive election victory.

HawkeA recession took its toll on the government’s electoral stocks. Hawke’s deputy and Treasurer, Paul Keating, had described is as “the recession we had to have”.

Hawke won the election. A last-minute appeal to the environmental vote and a strategy to secure second preferences enabled the ALP to win, despite losing the two-party-preferred vote on 49.90%. The ALP’s primary vote fell from 45.8% to 39.4%. [Read more…]