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