Western Australian state election, 1965

← 1962

20 February 1965 (1965-02-20)

1968 →

All 50 seats in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly
and 15 (of the 30) seats to the Western Australian Legislative Council
26 Assembly seats were needed for a majority

	First party	Second party

Leader	David Brand	Albert Hawke
Party	Liberal/Country coalition	Labor
Leader since	1 March 1957	3 July 1951
Leader's seat	Greenough	Northam
Last election	26 seats	24 seats
Seats won	29 seats	21 seats
Seat change	3	3
Percentage	52.89%	42.64%
Swing	5.78	1.77

Premier before election

David Brand
Liberal/Country coalition

Elected Premier

David Brand
Liberal/Country coalition

Elections were held in the state of Western Australia on 20 February 1965 to elect all 50 members to the Legislative Assembly and 15 members to the 30-seat Legislative Council. The Liberal-Country coalition government, led by Premier Sir David Brand, won a third term in office against the Labor Party, led by Opposition Leader Bert Hawke.

The Legislative Council election held on the same day was the first since significant changes to the Council's structure and manner of voting under the Constitution Acts Amendment Act (No.2) 1963 (No.72 of 1963). The Act abolished the 10 three-member provinces which had existed almost unaltered since 1900, and created 15 new two-member provinces. Voting became compulsory and the property franchise was abolished, and the practice of having separate Legislative Council elections in May of every even-numbered year was abolished—the Council's members would now go to the voters at the same elections as members of the Legislative Assembly, although the rotational system where one member per province would retire at each election remained in effect, and unlike the Assembly, the Council's term expired on 22 May every three years, rather than at the election itself.

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