AUSTRALIAN GENERAL ELECTION, 1972

Federal election major party leaders
1969 1972 1974
'Liberal' 'William McMahon' 'Prime Minister' 'Parliament': 23 years 'Leader since': 1971 'Division': Lowe
'Labor' 'Gough Whitlam' 'Opposition leader' 'Parliament': 20 years 'Leader since': 1967 'Division': Werriwa 'WIN'

'Federal elections' were held in Australia on 2 December 1972. All 125 seats in the House of Representatives, no Senate seats were up for election. The Liberal Party of Australia had been in power since 1949, under Prime Minister of Australia William McMahon since March 1971 with coalition partner the Country Party led by Doug Anthony, but were defeated by the Australian Labor Party led by Gough Whitlam.

'House of Reps (IRV) — 1972-74 — Turnout 95.38% (CV) — Informal 2.17%'

	'Party'	'Votes'	'%'	'Swing'	'Seats'	'Change'
	Australian Labor Party	3,273,549	49.59	+2.64	67	+8
	Liberal Party of Australia	2,115,085	32.04	-2.73	38	-8
	Country Party	622,826	9.44	+0.88	20	0
	Democratic Labor Party	346,415	5.25	-0.77	0	0
	Australia Party	159,916	2.42	+1.55	0	0
	Other	83,259	1.26		0	0
	Total	6,601,050			'125'
	'Australian Labor Party'	'WIN'	'52.70'	+2.50	'67'	+8
	Liberal/Country coalition		47.30	-2.50	58	-8

See Australian Senate election, 1970 for Senate composition.

Contents

Issues

Significance

References

Issues

At the 1972 election, the Coalition of the Liberal and Country parties had been in Government for 23 years. Many commentators believed that it was tired, and had little further energy or ideas for the future. In addition, Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War had become unpopular, especially the need to conscript soldiers to fight. Incumbent Prime Minister Billy McMahon came across badly on television, and he was no match in parliamentary debates for Whitlam, a witty and powerful orator. He was further weakened by concerns about inflation and negative press coverage. For example, Rupert Murdoch and his Australian newspaper supported the ALP. The ALP ran a strong campaign under the famous slogan, ‘It's time’.

Significance

The 1972 election ended 23 years of unbroken conservative Government. The new Labor Government of Gough Whitlam was eager to make long-planned reforms, although it struggled against a lack of experience in its cabinet. The 1972 election is also unusual as Whitlam only scraped into office with a thin majority of 9 seats. Typically, elections where Governments change in Australia are decisive (see the 1996 election, for example). It is worth mentioning that in the previous election of 1969, Whitlam achieved a seven percent primary and two-party figure of over 50 percent, gaining 18 seats, from a low of 41 of 124 seats and a 43 percent two-party figure at the 1966 election. In addition, the Senate was hostile to Whitlam, with the Coalition and Democratic Labor Parties holding more seats than the ALP, as the term of the senate at the time was 1970 to 1974. This would make governing difficult and lead to the early double dissolution election of 1974.

References

★ AustralianPolitics.com 1972 election details

★ "It's Time For Leadership" - Whitlam policy speech, November 13, 1972

★ University of WA election results in Australia since 1890

★ AEC 2PP vote

★ 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.