The 2004 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 9 October 2004. All 150 seats in the
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...
and 40 seats in the 76-member
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
were up for election. The incumbent
Liberal Party of Australia led by
Prime Minister of Australia
The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The prime minister is the chair of the Cabinet of Australia and thus the head of the Australian Government, federal executive government. Under the pr ...
John Howard and
coalition
A coalition is formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political, military, or economic spaces.
Formation
According to ''A G ...
partner the
National Party of Australia led by
John Anderson defeated the opposition
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...
led by
Mark Latham.
Until
2022, this was the most recent federal election in which both leaders were from the same city area. Future Prime Minister
Malcolm Turnbull entered Parliament in this election.
Pre-election issues
In the wake of the
2002 Bali Bombings and the
2001 World Trade Center attacks, the Howard government along with the Blair and Bush governments, initiated combat operations in Afghanistan and an alliance for invading Iraq, these issues divided Labor voters who were disproportionately anti-war, flipping those votes from Labor and to the Greens. The second issue was the ongoing and continued worsening of the
Millennium Drought continued to bolster support for the Nationals water management policies of the Murray-Darling river system, diverting focus away from rural and inner-city community water supplies and focusing on Regional and Farmland water supplies.
Campaign

The Prime Minister,
John Howard, announced the election at a press conference in Canberra on 29 August, after meeting the
Governor-General,
Major General Michael Jeffery, at
Government House.
Opening shots: "who do you trust?"
Trust was a central theme of both the Liberal and Labor campaign platforms. In a press conference announcing that the election had been called for October 9th, Howard asked "Who do you trust to keep the economy strong and protect family living standards?" "Who do you trust to keep interest rates low? Who do you trust to lead the fight on Australia's behalf against international terrorism?"
Howard, who turned 65 in July, declined to answer questions about whether he would serve a full three-year term if his government was re-elected. "I will serve as long as my party wants me to," he said.
At a press conference in Sydney half an hour after Howard's announcement, Opposition Leader
Mark Latham welcomed the election, saying the Howard government had been in power too long. He said the main issue would be truth in government. "We've had too much dishonesty from the Howard Government", he said. "The election is about trust. The Government has been dishonest for too long."
Labor starts ahead in national opinion polls
The campaign began with Labor leading in all published national opinion polls. On 31 August, Newspoll published in ''
The Australian
''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet daily newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964. As the only Australian daily newspaper distributed nationally, its readership of b ...
'' newspaper gave Labor a lead of 52% to 48% nationwide, which would translate into a comfortable win for Labor in terms of seats. Most commentators, however, expected the election to be very close, pointing out that Labor was also ahead in the polls at the comparable point of the
1998 election, which Howard won.
Howard had also consistently out-polled Latham as preferred Prime Minister by an average of 11.7 percentage points in polls taken this year.
After the first week, the Coalition draws ahead
After the first week of campaigning, a
Newspoll conducted for
News Corporation newspapers indicated that the Coalition held a lead on a two-party-preferred basis of 52% to 48% in the government's 12 most marginal held seats. To secure government in its own right, Labor needed to win twelve more seats than in the 2001 election. In the same poll, John Howard increased his lead over Mark Latham as preferred Prime Minister by four points. The
Taverner Research poll conducted for ''
The Sun-Herald'' newspaper revealed that younger voters were more likely to support Labor, with 41% of those aged 18 to 24 supporting Labor, compared with 36% who support the Coalition.
A terrorist attack on the Australian embassy in Jakarta marks the second week
On 9 September, during the second week of campaigning the election was rocked by a
terrorist attack
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war a ...
on the Australian embassy in
Jakarta
Jakarta (; , Betawi language, Betawi: ''Jakartè''), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta (; ''DKI Jakarta'') and formerly known as Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Batavia until 1949, is the capital and largest city of Indonesia and ...
, Indonesia. John Howard expressed his "utter dismay at this event" and dispatched Foreign Minister
Alexander Downer to Jakarta to assist in the investigation. Mark Latham committed the Labor party's "full support to all efforts by the Australian and Indonesian governments to ensure that happens". The parties reached an agreement that campaigning would cease for 10 September out of respect for the victims of this attack and that this would be in addition to the cessation of campaigning already agreed upon for 11 September in remembrance of the
terrorist attacks in 2001.
The leaders debate and the worm turns in Latham's favour
A debate between John Howard and Mark Latham was televised commercial-free on the
Nine Network
Nine Network (stylised 9Network, and commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of the five main free-to-air television ...
at 7:30pm on Sunday 12 September. In a change from previous election debates, which involved a single moderator, the leaders were questioned by a five-member panel representing each of the major media groups in Australia. There was a representative from commercial television (
Laurie Oakes), the
ABC (
Jim Middleton),
News Limited
News Corp Australia is an Australian media conglomerate and wholly owned subsidiary of News Corp.
The group's interests span newspaper and magazine publishing, Internet, market research, DVD and film distribution, and film and television pr ...
(
Malcolm Farr),
John Fairfax Holdings (
Michelle Grattan
Michelle Grattan (born 30 June 1944) is an Australian journalist who was the first woman to become editor of an Australian metropolitan daily newspaper. Specialising in political journalism, she has written for and edited many significant List ...
) and radio (
Neil Mitchell). After an opening address, Howard and Latham responded to questions posed by the panel and had the opportunity to make a closing statement. The Nine Network permitted other television organisations to transmit the feed, but only the ABC chose to.
The debate was followed (only on the
Nine Network
Nine Network (stylised 9Network, and commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of the five main free-to-air television ...
) by an analysis of the leaders' performance by the "
worm". The worm works by analysing the approval or disapproval of a select group of undecided voters to each statement that a leader makes. Throughout the debate, according to the worm, Latham performed strongly and Howard performed poorly. A final poll of the focus group found that 67% of the focus group believed that Latham won the debate and that 33% of the focus group believed that Howard won. Major media outlets generally agreed that Latham had won the debate, although they pointed out that with no further debates scheduled and nearly four weeks of the campaign remaining, Latham's gain in the momentum from the debate was unlikely to be decisive. Political commentators noted that the 2001 election debate, between Howard and then opposition leader
Kim Beazley, gave the same worm results yet Labor still lost that election.
At the midpoint, it is too close to call
By the midpoint of the campaign, after Labor had released its policies on taxation and education, polls showed that the election was still too close to call. The Newspoll in ''
The Australian
''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet daily newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964. As the only Australian daily newspaper distributed nationally, its readership of b ...
'', showed (21 September) Labor leading with 52.5% of the
two-party-preferred vote. The ACNielsen poll published in ''
The Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...
'' and ''
The Age
''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...
'' showed the Coalition ahead on 52%. The Morgan poll, which has a poor recent record of predicting federal elections, showed Labor ahead with 53% on the weekend of 18–19 September. A
Galaxy Poll in the Melbourne ''
Herald Sun
The ''Herald Sun'' is a Conservatism, conservative daily tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of the American Rupert Murdoch, Murd ...
'' showed the Coalition ahead with 51%, but showed Labor gaining ground.
Despite Latham's strong performance in the debate, most political commentators argued that he had not gained a clear advantage over Howard. They pointed to anomalies in Labor's tax policy and the controversy surrounding Labor's policy of reducing government funding to some non-government schools as issues which Howard was successfully exploiting.
John Howard and John Anderson launched the Coalition election campaign at a joint function in
Brisbane
Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...
on 26 September. Howard's policy speech can be read at the Liberal Party website. Anderson's policy speech can be read at the National Party website.
Mark Latham's policy speech was delivered, also in Brisbane, on 29 September.
Contradictory polls in the fourth week
During the fourth week of the campaign contradictory polls continued to appear. The ACNielsen poll published in ''
The Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...
'' and ''
The Age
''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...
'' on 25 September showed the Coalition ahead with 54%, which would translate into a large majority for the government. The Newspoll in ''
The Australian
''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet daily newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964. As the only Australian daily newspaper distributed nationally, its readership of b ...
'' on 28 September showed Labor ahead with 52%, which would give Labor a comfortable majority.
Tasmanian forests erupt as the main issue during the last week
In the last days of the campaign the environment policies regarding the logging of Tasmania's
old-growth forests were released by both major parties, but too late for the Greens to adjust their preference flows on
how-to-vote cards in most electorates as the majority were already printed. In the game of "cat and mouse" on Tasmanian forest policy between Mark Latham and John Howard, Latham eventually lost out when
Dick Adams (Labor member for the Tasmanian seat of
Lyons), Tasmanian Labor Premier
Paul Lennon and
CFMEU's Tasmanian secretary Scott McLean all attacked Latham's forest policy. At a timber workers' rally on the day Labor's forestry policy was announced, Scott McLean asked those gathered to pass a resolution of no confidence in Mr Latham's ability to lead the country. Michael O'Connor, assistant national secretary of the
CFMEU said the Coalition's forest policy represented a much better deal for his members than Labor's policy. Australian Labor Party national president
Carmen Lawrence later said that "Labor has only itself to blame for the backlash over its forestry policy" and that it was a strategic mistake to release the policy so late in the election campaign. She stated that she was disappointed in criticism from within the ALP and union movement, and that the party did not leave itself enough time to sell the package.
Treasury and the Department of Finance reported on the validity of Labor's costings of their promises. They claimed to identify a different flaw to that identified by Liberal Treasurer Costello, but overall Labor was satisfied with the report.
The handshake
On the morning of 8 October, the day before the election, a television crew filmed Latham and Howard shaking hands as they crossed paths outside an
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...
radio studio in Sydney. The footage showed Latham appearing to draw Howard towards him and tower over his shorter opponent. The incident received wide media coverage and, while Latham claimed to have been attempting to get revenge for Howard squeezing his wife's hand too hard at a press function, it was variously reported as being "aggressive", "bullying" and "intimidating" on the part of Latham. The Liberal Party campaign director, Brian Loughnane, later said this incident generated more feedback to Liberal headquarters than anything else during the six-week campaign, and that it "brought together all the doubts and hesitations that people had about Mark Latham". Latham disputes the impact of this incident, however, having described it as a "
Tory
A Tory () is an individual who supports a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalist conservatism which upholds the established social order as it has evolved through the history of Great Britain. The To ...
gee-up: we got close to each other, sure, but otherwise it was a regulation man's handshake. It's silly to say it cost us votes – my numbers spiked in the last night of our polling." (''Latham Diaries'', p. 369) According to Latham's account of events, Latham came in close to Howard for the handshake to prevent Howard shaking with his arm rather than his wrist.
Final opinion polls are not conclusive
The final opinion polls continued to be somewhat contradictory, with Newspoll showing a 50–50 tie and the Fairfax papers reporting 54–46 to the Coalition. Most Australian major daily newspaper editorials backed a return of the Howard government, with the notable exceptions of ''
The Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...
'', which backed neither party, and ''
The Canberra Times'', which backed Labor.
Preference deals
As in all Australian elections, the flow of preferences from minor parties can be crucial in determining the outcome. The close of nominations was followed by a period of bargaining among the parties. Howard made a pitch for the preferences of the
Australian Greens by appearing to offer concessions on the issue of logging in old-growth forests in Tasmania, and the Coalition directed its preferences to the Greens ahead of Labor in the Senate, but the Greens nevertheless decided to allocate preferences to Labor in most electorates. In exchange, Labor agreed to direct its preferences in the Senate to the Greens ahead of the Democrats (but critically, not ahead of other minor parties), increasing the chances that the Greens would displace
Australian Democrats Senators in New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia.
The Democrats in turn did a preference deal with the
Family First Party, which angered some Democrats supporters who viewed Family First's policies as incompatible with the Democrats'.
The effect of preference deals on Senate outcomes
In Victoria, Family First, the Christian Democrats and the DLP allocated their senate preferences to Labor, to help ensure the re-election of the number three Labor Senate candidate,
Jacinta Collins, a Catholic who has conservative views on some social issues such as abortion. In exchange, Labor gave its Senate preferences in Victoria to Family First ahead of the Greens, expecting Family First to be eliminated before these preferences were distributed. In the event, however, Labor and Democrat preferences helped Family First's
Steve Fielding beat the Greens'
David Risstrom to win the last Victorian Senate seat and become Family First's first federal parliamentarian. This outcome generated some controversy and highlighted a lack of transparency in preference deals. Family First were elected in Victoria after receiving 1.88% of the vote, even though the Greens had the largest minor party share of the vote with 8.8%. In Australia, 95% of voters vote "above the line" in the Senate. Many "above the line" voters do not access preference allocation listings, although they are available in polling booths and on the AEC website, so they are therefore unaware of where their vote may go. The result was one Family First, three Liberal and two Labor Senators elected in Victoria.
In Tasmania, Family First and the Democrats also directed their Senate preferences to Labor, apparently to preclude the possibility of the Liberals winning a majority in the Senate and thus reducing the influence of the minor parties. The Australian Greens'
Christine Milne appeared at risk of losing her Senate seat to a Family First candidate shortly after election night, despite nearly obtaining the full required quota of primary votes. However, strong performance on postal and prepoll votes improved Milne's position. It was only the high incidence of "below the line" voting in Tasmania that negated the effect of the preference swap deal between Labor and Family First. The result was one Green, three Liberal and two Labor Senators elected in Tasmania.
In New South Wales, Democrat preferences flowing to Labor rather than the Greens were instrumental in Labor's winning of the last Senate seat. Had Democrat preferences flown to the Greens rather than Liberals for Forests and the Christian Democrats, then the final vacancy would have been won by the Greens'
John Kaye. The scale of
Glenn Druery's (of the
Liberals for Forests party) preference deals was revealed by the large number of ticket votes distributed when he was eliminated from the count. He gained preferences from a wide range of minor parties such as the Ex-Service Service and Veterans Party, the Outdoor Recreation Party, and the Non-Custodial Parents Party. Liberals for Forests also gained the preferences of two leftish parties – the
Progressive Labour Party and the
HEMP Party. When Druery was eventually excluded, these preferences flowed to the Greens, but the Greens would rather have received the preferences earlier in the count. In the end, three Liberal/National Senators and three Labor Senators were elected in New South Wales.
In Western Australia, the Greens'
Rachel Siewert was elected to the final vacancy after the final Labor candidate was excluded. This was a gain for the Greens at the expense of the Democrats
Brian Greig. While the Democrats had done a preference swap with Family First, the deal in Western Australia did not include the Christian Democrats. As a result, when the Australian Democrats were excluded from the count, their preferences flowed to the Greens, putting them on track for the final vacancy. The result was one Green, three Liberal and two Labor Senators elected in Western Australia.
In South Australia, the Australian Democrats negotiated a crucial preference swap with Family First that prevented the Greens winning the final vacancy. If the Democrats had polled better, they would have collected Family First and Liberal preferences and won the final vacancy. Former Democrat Leader
Meg Lees also contested the Senate in South Australia, but was eliminated late in the count. However, Lees did have some impact on the outcome, as there were large numbers of below the line preferences for both the Progressive Alliance (as well as One Nation) which were widely spread rather than flowing to the Democrats. When the Democrats were excluded, preferences flowed to Family First which prevented the Greens'
Brian Noone passing the third Labor candidate. This resulted in a seat that could otherwise have been won by the Greens instead being won by Labor on Green preferences. The flow of One Nation preferences to Labor made it impossible for either Family First or the Liberal Party to win the final vacancy. Labor's
Dana Wortley was elected to the final vacancy. The result in South Australia was split 3 Liberal, 3 Labor.
In Queensland,
Pauline Hanson attracted 38,000 below the line votes and pulled away from One Nation. Preferences from the Fishing Party kept the National Party's
Barnaby Joyce ahead of Family First and Pauline Hanson. Joyce then unexpectedly won the fifth vacancy ahead of the Liberal Party. The sixth and last vacancy was then won by Liberal
Russell Trood. The outcome was 1 National, 3 Liberals and 2 Labor.
The election of both Barnaby Joyce and Russell Trood to the Senate in Queensland resulted in the Coalition gaining control of the Senate and was confirmed by the National Party's Senate Leader
Ron Boswell's in a televised telephone call to Prime Minister John Howard. This result was not widely predicted prior to the election.
The effect of preference deals on House of Representatives and national outcomes
Despite constant media attention on preference deals, and a widely held belief that the two party preferred result for the election would be close, the Newspoll figures during the three months prior to the election showed little alteration in the first preference margin between the parties, nor was there any evidence of any voter volatility. The figures suggested, then, that as the Coalition's first preference vote was healthy, the most likely result was a Government victory. This was born out in the election results when the Liberal first preference vote of 40.5 per cent was 3.4 percentage points higher than in 2001, while Labor's first-preference vote of 37.6 per cent was its lowest since the elections of 1931 and 1934. Preference flows from minor parties are much more likely to affect an election outcome when the two major parties are close. The collapse of Labor's primary vote therefore negated this effect, even though 61 out of 150 House of Representatives seats were decided on preferences.
The national outcome of minor party preference distributions (in order of number primary votes received) is summarised in the following table:
Party leaders
* John Howard had been an MP since 1974, leader of the Liberal Party since 1995 (he was previously leader from 1985 to 1989), and Prime Minister since March 1996. He turned 65 in July 2004, and is more than 20 years older than Mark Latham. Howard is by far the most experienced politician in Australian federal politics and is considered a master of political strategy, a reputation which was enhanced during the 2004 campaign. Although most commentators agreed that he did not perform well in the debate with Latham, his dogged campaigning on interest rates, economic certainty and national security was effective in persuading voters in marginal seats to stick with the Coalition.
* John Anderson had been an MP since 1988 and leader of the National Party and
Deputy Prime Minister since 1999. Although talented and personable, he was unable to stem the long-term decline in the Nationals' rural electoral base. During 2003 he considered retiring from Parliament at this election, but was persuaded not to. Despite his personal standing, the Nationals lost another seat (Richmond) and struggled to win a Senate spot in Queensland. Anderson stepped down as leader in July 2005.
* Mark Latham had been an MP since 1994 and was elected leader of the Australian Labor Party in December 2003. Latham initially made a good impression, but a series of controversies during 2004 caused much criticism of his alleged inconsistency and volatility. His campaign was aggressive and colourful, with a series of bold policy announcements late in the campaign. This galvanised Labor's base but many commentators felt that Latham's policies and personality alienated middle-class voters. In retrospect Labor's forests policy was a major miscalculation, costing two seats in Tasmania. Latham also failed to effectively counter Howard's campaign on interest rates. Latham resigned for health reasons in January 2005 from both his position as Leader of the Opposition and as Member for Werriwa in the House of Representatives.
*
Andrew Bartlett had been a Senator since 1997 and leader of the Australian Democrats since 2002 when Natasha Stott Despoja stood down from the position. The efforts to revive the Democrats' public support were unsuccessful. A widely publicised incident in December 2003 where he confronted Liberal Senator
Jeannie Ferris while exiting the Senate chamber did not help these efforts. The Democrats' election result in 2004 was the worst in the party's history to that time. He chose not to recontest the leadership after that election, and Senator
Lyn Allison took on the leadership role.
*
Bob Brown had been a Senator and the informal leader of the Australian Greens since 1996. By opposing Australia's participation in the
Iraq War
The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with 2003 invasion of Iraq, the invasion by a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition, which ...
he established himself as the most prominent figure of the Australian left. But media predictions that the Greens would greatly increase their vote and win a Senate seat in every state, or even win House seats, were not realised. Although the Greens took some votes from the Democrats, many flowed to other parties and the predicted big inroads into Labor's base vote did not occur.
Disclosure
Dates for financial disclosure for the 2004 Federal election were specified by the
Australian Electoral Commission. Broadcasters and publishers had to lodge their returns by 6 December, while candidates and Senate groups needed to lodge by 24 January 2005. This information was made available for public scrutiny on 28 March 2005.
Results
House of Representatives
Senate
House of Representatives preference flows
* The Nationals had candidates in 9 seats where
three-cornered-contests existed, with 84.70% of preferences favouring the Liberal Party.
* The Greens contested all 150 electorates with preferences strongly favouring Labor (80.86%)
* Family First contested 109 electorates with preferences favouring the Liberal/National Coalition (66.57%)
* The Democrats contested 125 electorates with preferences slightly favouring Labor (58.91%)
* One Nation contested 77 electorates with preferences slightly favouring the Liberal/National Coalition (56.4%)
Seats changing hands
In the House of Representatives, the Coalition won eight seats from Labor:
Bass (Tas),
Bonner (Qld),
Braddon (Tas),
Greenway (NSW),
Hasluck (WA),
Kingston (SA),
Stirling
Stirling (; ; ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Central Belt, central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town#Scotland, market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the roya ...
(WA) and
Wakefield (SA). Labor won four seats from the Coalition:
Adelaide
Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...
(SA),
Hindmarsh (SA),
Parramatta (NSW) and
Richmond (NSW). The Coalition thus had a net gain of four seats. The redistribution had also delivered them
McMillan (Vic), formerly held by
Christian Zahra of Labor and won by Liberal
Russell Broadbent; and
Bowman (Qld), formerly held by Labor's
Con Sciacca and won by Liberal
Andrew Laming. Labor, meanwhile, received the new seat of
Bonner (Qld) and the redistributed
Wakefield (SA), both of which were lost to the Liberal Party. The Labor Party regained the seat of
Cunningham, which had been lost to the
Greens in a
by-election in 2002.
Analysis
The Coalition parties won 46.7% of the primary vote, a gain of 3.7% over the
2001 election. The opposition
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...
polled 37.6%, a loss of 0.2 percentage points. The
Australian Greens emerged as the most prominent minor party, polling 7.2%, a gain of 2.2 points. Both the
Australian Democrats and
One Nation had their vote greatly reduced. After a notional distribution of preferences, the
Australian Electoral Commission estimated that the Coalition had polled 52.74% of the
two-party-preferred vote, a gain of 1.7 points from 2001.
The Liberal Party won 74 seats, the National Party 12 seats and the
Country Liberal Party (the
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...
branch of the Liberal Party) one seat, against the Labor opposition's 60 seats. Three independent members were re-elected. The Coalition also won 39 seats in the 76-member
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
, making the
Howard government the first government to have a majority in the Senate since 1981. The size of the government's win was unexpected: few commentators had predicted that the coalition would actually increase its majority in the House of Representatives, and almost none had foreseen its gaining a majority in the Senate. Even Howard had described that feat as "a big ask".
The election result was a triumph for Howard, who in December 2004 became Australia's second-longest serving Prime Minister, and who saw the election result as a vindication of his policies, particularly his decision to join in the
2003 invasion of Iraq. The results were a setback for the Labor leader,
Mark Latham, and contributed to his resignation in January 2005 after assuming the leadership from
Simon Crean in 2003. The defeat made Labor's task more difficult: a provisional pendulum for the House of Representatives, showed that Labor would need to win 16 seats to win the
following election. However,
Kim Beazley said that the accession of Latham to the ALP leadership, in December 2003, had rescued the party from a much heavier defeat.
Beazley stated that polling a year before the election indicated that the ALP would lose "25–30 seats" in the House of Representatives. Instead the party lost a net four seats in the House, a swing of 0.21 percentage points. There was also a 1.1-point swing ''to'' the ALP in the Senate. The Coalition gaining control of the Senate was enabled by a collapse in first preferences for the
Australian Democrats and
One Nation.
Members and Senators defeated in the election include
Larry Anthony, the National Party Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, defeated in
Richmond, New South Wales; former Labor minister
Con Sciacca, defeated in
Bonner, Queensland; Liberal Parliamentary Secretaries
Trish Worth (
Adelaide
Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...
, South Australia) and
Ross Cameron (
Parramatta, New South Wales); and Democrat Senators
Aden Ridgeway (the only
indigenous member of the outgoing Parliament),
Brian Greig and
John Cherry. Liberal Senator
John Tierney (New South Wales), who was dropped to number four on the Coalition Senate ticket, was also defeated.
Celebrity candidates
Peter Garrett
Peter Robert Garrett (born 16 April 1953) is an Australian musician, environmentalist, activist and former politician.
In 1973, Garrett became the lead singer of the Australian rock band Midnight Oil. As a performer he is known for his sign ...
(Labor,
Kingsford Smith, New South Wales) and
Malcolm Turnbull (Liberal,
Wentworth, New South Wales) easily won their contests. Prominent clergyman
Fred Nile failed to win a Senate seat in New South Wales. The first
Muslim
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
candidate to be endorsed by a major party in Australia, Ed Husic, failed to win the seat of
Greenway, New South Wales, for Labor. The former
One Nation leader,
Pauline Hanson, failed in her bid to win a Senate seat in Queensland as an independent.
Minor parties had mixed results. The
Australian Democrats polled their lowest vote since their creation in 1977, and did not retain any of the three Senate seats they were defending. The
Australian Greens won their first Senate seat in Western Australia and retained the Seat they were defending in Tasmania. They did not achieve a widely expected Senate Seat in Victoria, due to fellow progressive parties, the Australian Labor Party and The Australian Democrats, as well as some micro parties, joining with the conservative parties in a preference deal with far-right evangelist Christian party Family First, which despite a popular vote of just 1.7% received so many preferences from the unsuccessful Candidates of other parties that it eventually overtook the Greens David Risstrom's 7.4% vote and claimed that Senate Seat. As predicted, the Greens did not gain Senate seats in Queensland or South Australia, partly because of similar preference deals by fellow progressive parties, but also because of a traditionally lower vote in these States. Predictably, the Greens lost their first and (at the time) only Lower House seat of
Cunningham, which they had gained by way of an electoral anomaly at the 2002 by-election in that Seat, which when The Liberal Party did not provide a Candidate, caused atypical voting patterns, overwhelmingly amongst voters who would normally have voted for The Liberals and did not want to vote for their traditional nemeses, The Labor Party.
The
Australian Progressive Alliance leader, Senator
Meg Lees, and the
One Nation parliamentary leader, Senator
Len Harris, lost their seats. One Nation's vote in the House of Representatives collapsed. The
Christian Democratic Party, the
Citizens Electoral Council, the
Democratic Labor Party, the
Progressive Labour Party and the
Socialist Alliance all failed to make any impact. The
Family First Party polled 2% of the vote nationally, and their candidate
Steve Fielding won a Senate seat in Victoria.
See also
*
Candidates of the 2004 Australian federal election
*
Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 2004–2007
*
Members of the Australian Senate, 2005–2008
Notes
References
Bibliography
University of WA election results in Australia since 1890
AustralianPolitics.com election details(13 September 2004). ''The Age''.
(11 October 2004). ''The Sydney Morning Herald''.
(11 October 2004). ''The Age''
(7 October 2004). ''The Age''
(14 October 2004). ''ABC News Online''.
(12 October 2004). ''ABC News Online''.
(11 October 2004). ''The Age''.
External links
;Electoral sites
The ABC's 2004 Federal Election Site Antony Green"The Mackerras Pendulum" Malcolm MackerrasAdam Carr's Election ArchiveAustralian Electoral Commission website
;Party sites
Australian Labor Party websiteLiberal Party websiteThe Nationals websiteAustralian Democrats websiteFamily First Party websiteAustralian Greens websiteSocialist Alliance websiteCitizens Electoral Council websiteCountry Liberal Party website
{{Australian elections
Federal
Federal election
Federal elections in Australia
Pauline Hanson