1975 Bass by-election

1975 Bass by-election

28 June 1975

First party Second party   Candidate Kevin Newman John Macrostie Party Liberal Labor First preference vote 24,638 15,609 Percentage 57.6% 36.5% Swing 11.6pp 17.5pp TPP 60.3% 39.7 TPP swing 14.3pp 14.3pp

MP before election Lance Barnard Labor Elected MP Kevin Newman Liberal

A by-election was held for the Australian House of Representatives seat of Bass on 28 June 1975. This was triggered by the resignation of Labor Party MP and former Deputy Prime Minister Lance Barnard.

The by-election was won by Liberal Party candidate Kevin Newman. Newman's victory came as something of a surprise. Barnard had held the seat since 1954 and had usually skated to reelection. However, in the by-election, Labor's primary vote plummeted by more than 17 percent, and Newman took the seat off Labor with a resounding 60 percent of the two-party vote. Newman actually won 57.6 percent of the primary vote, enough to win the seat outright.

The shock loss of Bass is widely reckoned as the beginning of the end for Gough Whitlam, whose government was dismissed from office six months later.

Results

1975 Bass by-election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Kevin Newman	24,638	57.6	+11.6
	Labor	John Macrostie	15,609	36.5	−17.5
	United Tasmania	Violet Petrovsky	1,272	3.0	+3.0
	Independent	Paul Kent	904	2.1	+2.1
	Independent	Marcus Aussie-Stone	243	0.6	+0.6
	Independent	Syd Negus	124	0.3	+0.3
Total formal votes			43,814	98.2	+0.2
Informal votes			773	1.8	−0.2
Turnout			43,563	93.2	−2.0
Two-party-preferred result
	Liberal	Kevin Newman		60.3	+14.3
	Labor	John Macrostie		39.7	−14.3
	Liberal gain from Labor		Swing	+14.3

See also

• List of Australian federal by-elections