1966 Australian federal election

1966 Australian federal election

26 November 1966
All 124 seats of the Australian House of Representatives 63 seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party   200x200px 200x200px Leader Harold Holt Arthur Calwell Party Liberal/Country coalition Labor Leader since 20 January 1966 7 March 1960 Leader's seat Higgins (Vic.) Melbourne (Vic.) Last election 72 seats 50 seats Seats won 82 seats 41 seats Seat change 10 9 Percentage 56.90% 43.10% Swing 4.30% 4.30%
300px Popular vote by state and territory with graphs indicating the number of seats won. As this is an IRV election, seat totals are not determined by popular vote by state or territory but instead via results in each electorate.
Prime Minister before election Harold Holt Liberal/Country coalition Subsequent Prime Minister Harold Holt Liberal/Country coalition

The 1966 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 26 November 1966. All 124 seats in the House of Representatives were up for election. The incumbent Liberal–Country coalition government, led by Prime Minister Harold Holt, won an increased majority over the opposition Labor Party, led by Arthur Calwell. This was the first and only time the Liberal Party or any Political party won an 8th successive election.

File:Australian House of Representatives 1966.svg

Government (82)
Coalition
     Liberal (61)
     Country (21)

Opposition (41)
     Labor (41)

Crossbench (6)
     Independent (1)  

Issues

Robert Menzies had retired from politics in January. His successor, former Treasurer Harold Holt, was stylish, debonair and popular with the electorate. He contrasted sharply with the much rougher figure of Arthur Calwell, who had already lost two elections. Calwell held to the beliefs that had been central to the last Labor Government of 1941–1949, many of which were seen as being old-fashioned in 1966; for example, he still defended socialism, the White Australia Policy, and nationalization. He also came across poorly on television compared to Holt, and looked and sounded older than his 70 years.

In addition, a strong economy and initial enthusiasm for Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War virtually guaranteed the Coalition another term. The Coalition campaigned with the slogan "Keep Australia secure and prosperous – play it safe".

The election was a landslide win for the Coalition, which won twice as many seats as Labor. The Liberals arrived two seats short of a majority in their own right, the closest that the major non-Labor party had come to governing in its own right since adopting the Liberal banner. Holt's victory was greater than any of Menzies' eight victories, and resulted in the largest majority government in Australian history at the time. It was later seen as the electoral high point of both Holt's Prime Ministership and the 23 years of continuous Coalition rule.

Calwell retired to the backbench a month after the election and was succeeded by Deputy Labor leader Gough Whitlam.

Results

300x300px

House of Reps (IRV) — 1966–69—Turnout 95.13% (CV) — Informal 3.10%

Party			Votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Liberal–Country coalition		2,853,890	49.98	+3.94	82	+10
		Liberal	2,291,964	40.14	+3.05	61	+9
		Country	561,926	9.84	+0.90	21	+1
	Labor		2,282,834	39.98	–5.49	41	–9
	Democratic Labor		417,411	7.31	–0.13	0	0
	Liberal Reform		49,610	0.87	+0.87	0	0
	Communist		23,056	0.40	–0.19	0	0
	Independents		82,948	1.45	+0.98	1	+1
	Total		5,709,749			124	+2
Two-party-preferred (estimated)
	Liberal–Country coalition		WIN	56.90	+4.30	82	+10
	Labor			43.10	−4.30	41	−9

Independents: Sam Benson

Popular Vote
Liberal			40.14%
Labor			39.98%
Country			9.84%
DLP			7.31%
Independents			1.45%
Other			1.27%

Two Party Preferred Vote
Coalition			56.90%
Labor			43.10%

Parliament Seats
Coalition			66.13%
Labor			33.06%
Independents			0.81%

Seats changing hands

Seat	Pre-1966				Swing	Post-1966
	Party		Member	Margin		Margin	Member	Party
Adelaide, SA		Labor	Joe Sexton	7.2	10.0	2.8	Andrew Jones	Liberal
Barton, NSW		Labor	Len Reynolds	0.7	2.9	2.2	Bill Arthur	Liberal
Batman, Vic		Labor	Sam Benson	N/A	8.7	7.8	Sam Benson	Independent
Eden-Monaro, NSW		Labor	Allan Fraser	2.7	3.4	0.7	Dugald Munro	Liberal
Grey, SA		Labor	Jack Mortimer	4.8	7.8	3.0	Don Jessop	Liberal
Griffith, Qld		Labor	Wilfred Coutts	5.8	6.9	1.1	Don Cameron	Liberal
Herbert, Qld		Labor	Ted Harding	3.2	4.3	1.1	Robert Bonnett	Liberal
Hughes, NSW		Labor	Les Johnson	2.7	4.7	2.0	Don Dobie	Liberal
Kennedy, Qld		Labor	Bill Riordan	13.5	15.0	1.5	Bob Katter	Country
Kingston, SA		Labor	Pat Galvin	4.5	12.7	8.2	Kay Brownbill	Liberal
Lalor, Vic		Labor	Reg Pollard	7.0	7.7	0.7	Mervyn Lee	Liberal
Northern Territory, NT		Labor	Jock Nelson	100.0	51.7	1.7	Sam Calder	Country

• Members in italics did not contest their seat at this election.

See also

• 1964 Australian Senate election
• 1967 Australian Senate election
• Candidates of the Australian federal election, 1966
• Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1966–1969

References

• 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.