Australian general election, 1987

Australian federal election, 1987

← 1984

11 July 1987 (1987-07-11)

1990 →

All 148 seats in the House of Representatives
75 seats were needed for a majority in the House
All 76 seats in the Senate

	First party	Second party

Leader	Bob Hawke	John Howard
Party	Labor	Liberal/National coalition
Leader since	3 February 1983 (1983-02-03)	5 September 1985 (1985-09-05)
Leader's seat	Wills (Vic.)	Bennelong (NSW)
Last election	82 seats	66 seats
Seats won	86 seats	62 seats
Seat change	4	4
Popular vote	4,222,431	4,236,238
Percentage	50.83%	49.17%
Swing	0.94	0.94

Prime Minister before election

Bob Hawke
Labor

Subsequent Prime Minister

Bob Hawke
Labor

Federal elections were held in Australia on 11 July 1987, following the granting of a double dissolution on 5 June by the Governor-General Sir Ninian Stephen. Consequently, all 148 seats in the House of Representatives as well as all 76 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Australian Labor Party, led by Prime Minister Bob Hawke, defeated the opposition Liberal Party of Australia, led by John Howard and the National Party of Australia led by Ian Sinclair.

The Hawke Government had been in power since the general election of 1983, and had been re-elected in the snap election of 1984, although with a decreased majority. Hawke, in partnership with Treasurer Paul Keating, had pursued an ambitiously reformist agenda over the course of his time in office, which included floating the Australian dollar, reducing tariffs on imports and completely reforming the tax system. However, the government's popularity dropped sharply throughout the course of its 1984-87 term, mostly due to a series of blunders such as its failed 'tax summit' (designed to gain support for Keating's proposed consumption tax), and declining terms of trade, which Treasurer Keating argued threatened to reduce Australia to the status of a banana republic unless tough measures were taken to correct the balance of trade.

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