Talk:1980 Australian federal election

Senate Majority
I am quite confused. I thought that in this election the sitting government won a senate majority? Or was this the election where Fraser LOST his senate majority? I will assume that this must be the election that the sitting Fraser Government LOST their senate majority. In which case there are 2 problems: the article on the 1977 election makes no mention of the fact that Fraser gained a senate majority and if the Fraser Government lost their majority in this election it would not have come into effect until midway through 1981 when newly elected senators take their seats. All the news articles I have read on the 2004 election claim that "2004 is the first time since 1981 that a sitting government have won a senate majority" I am actually trying to do research for an article I am doing elsewhere on wikipedia. Any help very welcome. Ryan Albrey (talk) 06:39, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
 * I fail to see where you are taking an objection here. The tables/results tell the story. Fraser's coalition lost their Senate majority at this election, to take effect when the new term of the Senate began. Timeshift (talk) 06:56, 28 November 2007 (UTC)


 * The last time (before 1-Jul-2005) the sitting government had a majority was 1981. 30 June 1981, to be precise. On 1 July 1981, the new Senate (which had been elected at the 1980 election) took effect, and the Fraser government no longer had its majority. Peter Ballard (talk) 10:18, 28 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Yeah I get it now. So the article should be changed to reflect the fact that no Federal Government has had control of the senate from 1981 until 2004. I know this is a quite a pathetic objection to make but the main reason for my first post was just to get some clarification from anybody watching this page. Some of the stories in the media were not as clear as they could have been. Ryan Albrey (talk) 11:08, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

I'll probably get shouted down for this, but I think both are correct and isn't a big deal. You could say the people voted the coalition not to have a majority in 1980, you could say the coalition majority was lost in 1981. Either way, we know it was at this election it was lost. Timeshift (talk) 11:12, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
 * I think I can see Ryan's concern. It would be fair to say that 2004 was the first election since 1977 where the government won a senate majority, or that at the 2005 was the first time since 1981 that the government had a majority in the senate, or even that at the 2004 election the government won a majority in the senate, which no government had had since 1981. The sloppy mixing of election and senator's term dates in the wording quoted by Ryan could be understood as implying that there was an election in 1981 in which the government won a senate majority. JPD (talk) 11:55, 28 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Yes JPD. That is why I was confused. I have edited the line I had trouble understanding. Is there anybody that disagrees I have improved the article? Ryan Albrey (talk) 12:18, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

Senate results - 64/65 total
Hmm, just saw the IP edit. According to the UWA ref, CLP won a seat but held no seats? Timeshift (talk) 03:07, 2 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Oh dear. The IP is right, of course. UWA is not always entirely reliable, I have to say ... Frickeg (talk) 05:25, 2 August 2010 (UTC)
 * So what is right then? Timeshift (talk) 06:43, 2 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Total of 64 seats (6 x 5 + 2 x 2), with the CLP holding 1 and the Liberals 27. Frickeg (talk) 06:53, 2 August 2010 (UTC)

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House Image
The image for the composition of The House after the election is the image meant for the Senate. Seth Korbin Cohen (talk) 00:46, 19 July 2021 (UTC)