1970 Australian Senate election

See also: 1969 Australian federal election

← 1967

21 November 1970

1974 →

32 of the 60 seats in the Senate
16 seats needed for a majority

	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	Lionel Murphy	Ken Anderson	Vince Gair
Party	Labor	Coalition	Democratic Labor Party (Australia, 1955)
Seats won	14	13	3
Seats after	26	26	5
Seat change	1	2	1
Popular vote	2,376,215	2,149,023	625,142
Percentage	42.22%	38.18%	11.11%
Swing	2.81pp	4.59pp	1.34pp

An election was held on 21 November 1970 to elect 32 of the 60 seats in the Australian Senate. This is the most recent occasion on which a Senate election has been held with no accompanying election to the House of Representatives; the two election cycles had been out of synchronisation since 1963.

Key dates

Date	Event
16 October 1970	Writs were issued by the respective State Governors to proceed with an election.
29 October 1970	Close of nominations, at 12pm.
21 November 1970	Polling day, between the hours of 8am and 6pm.
17 December 1970	Declaration of the poll for South Australia.
7 January 1971	Return of the writs.

Results

The governing Coalition and the opposition Australian Labor Party won 13 and 14 seats respectively, resulting in a total of 26 seats each, while the Democratic Labor Party and three independents (two newly elected) held the remaining seats.

Senate (STV) — 1970–74—Turnout 93.98% (CV) — Informal 9.41%
		Votes	%	Swing	Seats won	Seats held	Change
Labor		2,376,215	42.22	–2.81	14	26	–1
Liberal–Country coalition (total)		2,149,023	38.18	–4.59	13	26	–2
	Liberal–Country joint ticket	1,098,134	19.51	–14.31	4	*	*
	Liberal	991,473	17.61	+9.47	8	21	0
	Country	59,416	1.06	+0.24	1	5	–2
Democratic Labor		625,142	11.11	+1.34	3	5	+1
Australia		163,343	2.90	+2.90	0	0	0
Better Education Committee		59,813	1.06	+1.06	0	0	0
Democratic		52,799	0.94	+0.94	0	0	0
Pensioner Power		28,983	0.51	+0.51	0	0	0
Defence of Government Schools		27,796	0.49	+0.49	0	0	0
National Socialist		24,017	0.43	+0.43	0	0	0
Conservative Immigration Movement		4,864	0.08	+0.08	0	0	0
Independent		116,838	2.07	+0.37	2	3	+2
Total		5,628,833			32	60

Notes

In New South Wales and Queensland, the coalition parties ran a joint ticket. Of the four senators elected on a joint ticket, three were members of the Liberal Party and one was a member of the Country Party. In Western Australia, the coalition parties ran on separate tickets. In South Australia, Tasmania, and Victoria, only the Liberal Party ran a ticket.
Two independents were elected – Michael Townley of Tasmania and Syd Negus of Western Australia. This brought the total number of independents in the Senate to three, the other being Reg Turnbull of Tasmania.

References

* "Election of Senators Act, 1903. Proclamation" (PDF). Western Australia Government Gazette. 7 October 1970. p. 3117.
"Senate Elections Act 1958 (No. 6365) (per 9145/70)". Victoria Government Gazette. Victorian Government Printer. 7 October 1970. p. 3309.
"Senators' Elections Act 1903: Order under Section 3 (136)". Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales. 14 October 1970. p. 4142. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
"Election of Senators for the State of South Australia (Proclamation) (44)" (PDF). South Australian Government Gazette. Government of South Australia. 6 October 1970. p. 1501. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
Parliamentary Handbook – Members of the Senate since 1901 Archived 25 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine

External links

University of WA Archived 18 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine election results in Australia since 1890

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See also: By-elections

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