1980 Western Australian state election

1980 Western Australian state election

Elections were held in the state of Western Australia on 23 February 1980 to elect all 55 members to the Legislative Assembly and 16 members to the 32-seat Legislative Council. The Liberal-National Country coalition government, led by Premier Sir Charles Court, won a third term in office against the Labor Party, led by Opposition Leader Ron Davies.

The election produced very little in terms of the balance of the parties in Parliament—Labor won Kimberley from the Liberals in the Assembly, and a North Province seat in the Council, but lost two Council seats to the Liberals—one each in North Metropolitan and South-East Metropolitan. However, Labor received a substantial swing overall, increasing majorities in seats it already held, and reducing Liberal majorities in western suburban seats and pushing the key seats of Bunbury and Pilbara into marginal status.^[1] Despite a vigorous campaign against each other, the National Country and National parties, which had split in August 1978, failed to gain any seats off each other, each retaining three seats in the Assembly, and the former retaining one in the Council.

Results[edit]

Legislative Assembly[edit]

Western Australian state election, 23 February 1980 Legislative Assembly << 1977–1983 >>
Enrolled voters		689,066[1]
Votes cast		609,418		Turnout	85.27%	–5.51%
Informal votes		21,449		Informal	3.52%	+0.34%
Summary of votes by party
Party		Primary votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Liberal	257,218	43.75%	–5.60%	26	– 1
	Labor	270,165	45.95%	+1.73%	23	+ 1
	National Country[2]	25,260	4.30%	+1.89%	3	± 0
	National[2]	17,411	2.96%	+0.09%	3	± 0
	Democrats	11,513	1.96%	+1.96%	0	± 0
	Socialist	1,527	0.26%	+0.26%	0	± 0
	Progress	1,041	0.18%	–0.27%	0	± 0
	Independent	3,834	0.65%	+0.05%	0	± 0
Total		587,969			55
Two-party-preferred
	Liberal/NCP	311,239	50.97%	–3.73%
	Labor	299,347	49.03%	+3.73%

Notes:

¹ 714,724 electors were enrolled to vote at the election, but two seats were uncontested: the seat of Collie, held by Labor’s Tom Jones and representing 8,854 electors, and East Melville, won by the Liberals’ Anthony Trethowan representing 16,804 electors, which was uncontested due to the Labor candidate’s failure to submit their nomination on time.

² The National Country Party contested seven seats in the 1977 election, winning six of them and attaining 5.28% of the vote. The National Party split from the National Country Party on 10 August 1978, with the former contesting 8 seats and the latter 11.

Legislative Council[edit]

Western Australian state election, 23 February 1980 Legislative Council
Enrolled voters		714,724
Votes cast		631,915		Turnout	88.41%	–2.29%
Informal votes		27,692		Informal	4.38%	–0.03%
Summary of votes by party
Party		Primary votes	%	Swing	Seats won	Seats held
	Liberal	287,058	47.51%	–2.80%	10	19
	Labor	270,538	44.77%	+2.82%	5	9
	National Country[1]	23,101	3.82%	+0.65%	1	3
	National[1]	20,704	3.43%	+1.04%	0	1
	Progress	2,822	0.47%	+0.47%	0	0
	Independent	0	0.00%	–2.18%	0	0
Total		604,223			16	32
Two-party-preferred
	Liberal/NCP	316,398	52.36%	–3.26%
	Labor	287,825	47.64%	+3.26%

Notes:

¹ The National Country Party contested four seats in the 1977 election, winning three of them and attaining 5.56% of the vote. The National Party split from the National Country Party on 10 August 1978, with the former contesting 5 seats and the latter 4.

Seats changing hands[edit]

Post-election pendulum[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]