Australian federal election, 1961

Federal election major party leaders
< 1958 1961 1963 >
Liberal Robert Menzies Prime Minister Parliament: 27 years Leader since: 1945 Division: Kooyong WIN
Labor Arthur Calwell Opposition leader Parliament: 21 years Leader since: 1960 Division: Melbourne

Federal elections were held in Australia on 9 December 1961. All 122 seats in the House of Representatives, and 31 of the 60 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Liberal Party of Australia led by Prime Minister of Australia Robert Menzies with coalition partner the Country Party led by John McEwen defeated the Australian Labor Party led by Arthur Calwell.

House of Reps (IRV) — 1961-63 — Turnout 95.27% (CV) — Informal 2.57%

	Party	Votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Australian Labor Party	2,512,929	47.90	+5.09	60	+15
	Liberal Party of Australia	1,761,738	33.58	-3.65	45	-13
	Democratic Labor Party	456,962	8.71	-0.70	0	0
	Country Party	446,475	8.51	-0.81	17	-2
	Other	67,929	1.29		0	0
	Total	5,246,033			122
	Liberal/Country coalition	WIN	49.50	-4.60	62	-15
	Australian Labor Party		50.50	+4.60	60	+15

Senate (STV) — 1961-64 — Turnout 95.27% (CV) — Informal 10.62%

	Party	Votes	%	Swing	Seats Won	Seats Held
	Australian Labor Party	2,151,339	44.71	+1.93	14	28
	Liberal/Country (Joint Ticket)	1,595,696	33.16	+9.79	8	*
	Democratic Labor Party	472,578	9.82	+1.40	0	1
	Liberal Party of Australia	398,292	8.28	-12.41	7	24
	Communist Party of Australia	78,188	1.62	-1.29	0	0
	Country Party	31,090	0.65	-0.50	1	6
	Independents	46,499	0.97	+0.54	1	1
	Other	38,581	0.80		0	0
	Total	4,812,263			31	60

Independent: Reginald Turnbull

Contents 1 Issues 2 Significance 3 See also 4 Notes 5 References

Issues

Due to a credit squeeze, the economy had gone into a brief recession in 1961. This combined with initial enthusiasm for the new Opposition Leader, Arthur Calwell, was enough to see a swing against the Menzies Government.

Significance

The 1961 election remains the closest Federal election in Australian history, with the Government holding a majority of only a single seat. The election was decided in the seat of Moreton, which was won for the Liberals by Jim Killen by only 130 votes.

One fact which is rarely noted about the 1961 result is that even with Killen’s win in Moreton, Labor actually won the same number of House of Representatives seats as the Coalition. Both Labor and the Coalition won 62 seats, but 2 of Labor’s seats were for the Northern Territory and the ACT, whose representatives at that time only had limited voting rights. Their votes could not be counted on matters such as confidence votes which determine who would be in government.^[1]

See also

• Candidates of the Australian federal election, 1961
• Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1961–1963
• Members of the Australian Senate, 1962–1965

Notes

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.

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