1984 Australian Senate election

1984 Australian Senate elections

1 December 1984

46 of the 76 seats in the Australian Senate
39 seats needed for a majority
  First party Second party
 
Leader John Button Fred Chaney
Party Labor Liberal–National Coalition
Leader since 7 November 1980 11 March 1983
Leader's seat Victoria Western Australia
Seats before 30 28
Seats won 20 20
Seats after 34 33
Seat change 4 5
Popular vote 3,750,789 3,516,857
Percentage 42.17% 39.54%
Swing 3.32% 0.41%

  Third party Fourth party
 
Leader Don Chipp Jo Vallentine
Party Democrats NDP
Leader since 9 May 1977 1 December 1984
Leader's seat Victoria Western Australia
(won seat)
Seats before 5 New
Seats won 5 1
Seats after 7 1
Seat change 2 1
Popular vote 677,970 643,061
Percentage 7.62% 7.23%
Swing 2.32% 7.23%

Senators elected in the 1984 federal election

Leader of the Senate before election

John Button
Labor

Elected Leader of the Senate

John Button
Labor

The following tables show state-by-state results in the Australian Senate at the 1984 federal election. Seven Senators were elected in each state in this election, plus two in each Territory.

Following this election, the Senate was composed of 29 coalition (27 Liberal, one coalition National, one CLP), 34 Labor, one Nuclear Disarmament Party, four non-coalition National, seven Democrats, and one Independent. Senator terms were six years (three for territories), and all took their seats immediately due to the expansion of the senate from 64 to 76 members.

As the previous election was a double dissolution, half of the senators elected at that election had their terms backdated to 1 July 1982, to end on 30 June 1988. Senator terms for those contesting this election would have been for 6 year intervals starting from 1 July 1985, but the Double dissolution election of 1987 removed this necessity.

This election was the last time that Labor won more seats than the Coalition until 2025, despite receiving more votes than them in subsequent Senate elections and winning several victories in the House of Representatives since then.