1970 Australian Senate election

See also: 1969 Australian federal election

1970 Australian Senate election

21 November 1970
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%

Party			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.

See also

• Candidates of the Australian Senate election, 1970
• Members of the Australian Senate, 1971–1974

External links

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