Australian federal election, 1996

Australian federal election, 1996

1993 ← 2 March 1996 (1996-03-02) → 1998

All 148 seats in the Australian House of Representatives 75 seats were needed for a majority in the House 40 (of the 76) seats in the Australian Senate   First party Second party   Leader John Howard Paul Keating Party Liberal/National coalition Labor Leader since 30 January 1995 (1995-01-30) 19 December 1991 (1991-12-19) Leader's seat Bennelong Blaxland Last election 65 seats 80 seats Seats won 94 seats 49 seats Seat change 29 31 Popular vote 5,810,546 5,024,327 Percentage 53.63% 46.37% Swing 5.07 5.07

Prime Minister before election Paul Keating Labor Subsequent Prime Minister John Howard Liberal/National coalition

Paul Keating
Labor

John Howard
Liberal/National coalition

Federal elections were held in Australia on 2 March 1996. All 148 seats in the House of Representatives and 40 seats in the 76-member Senate were up for election. The incumbent Australian Labor Party, in government for 5 terms totaling 13 years, led by Bob Hawke (1983–1991) and Paul Keating (1991–1996), was defeated by the opposition Liberal Party of Australia led by John Howard and Coalition partner the National Party of Australia led by Tim Fischer.

Independents: Peter Andren, Pauline Hanson, Allan Rocher, Graeme Campbell, Paul Filing (ex-Liberal)

Independents: Mal Colston (resigned from ALP in August 1996)

Overall the coalition won 29 seats from Labor while the ALP won 4 seats from the Liberals. These 4 seats were Canberra and Namadgi in the ACT and Isaacs in Victoria and the Division of Bruce in Victoria. The ACT seats fell to Labor due to a strong return to the ALP in a traditional Labor town by public servants fearing conservative cuts. The division of Brendan Smyth's seat of Canberra into the two new (of the three) ACT seats limited his campaign to the southernmost Tuggeranong seat of Namadgi where the ACT Labor right wing stood former MLA Annette Ellis who ran a tight grassroots campaign. Isaacs fell to Labor due to demographic changes due to a redistribution of electoral boundaries.

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