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1965 Western Australian state election

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1965 Western Australian state election

← 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 Increase3 Decrease3
Percentage 52.89% 42.64%
Swing Increase5.78 Decrease1.77

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 Albert Hawke.

Electoral changes

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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.

A number of transitional arrangements were necessary to put these changes into effect. Those who had terms expiring on 21 May 1964, and five of the ten whose terms were to expire on 21 May 1966 (those who had the lowest winning margins at the 1960 election) would retire on 21 May 1965. The remaining 15 members were eligible to be appointed to new provinces for terms expiring on 21 May 1968.

Results

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Legislative Assembly

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Western Australian state election, 20 February 1965
Legislative Assembly
<< 19621968 >>

Enrolled voters 335,633[1]
Votes cast 309,893 Turnout 92.33% –0.76%
Informal votes 9,634 Informal 3.11% +1.32%
Summary of votes by party
Party Primary votes % Swing Seats Change
  Liberal and Country 144,178 48.02% +6.84% 21 + 3
  Labor 128,025 42.64% –1.77% 21 – 3
  Country 14,630 4.87% –1.06% 8 ± 0
  Democratic Labor 2,825 0.94% –1.32% 0 ± 0
  Communist 284 0.09% –0.32% 0 ± 0
  Ind. Lib. 4,630 1.54% –0.02% 0 ± 0
  Independent 5,687 1.89% –2.38% 0 ± 0
Total 300,259     50  
1 408,462 electors were enrolled to vote at the election, but 11 seats (22% of the total) were uncontested—3 Labor seats (one less than 1962) representing 23,717 enrolled voters, 3 LCL seats (one less than 1962) representing 22,175 enrolled voters, and 5 Country seats (two more than 1962) representing 26,937 enrolled voters.

Legislative Council

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Western Australian state election, 20 February 1965
Legislative Council
<< 19621968 >>

Enrolled voters 392,586
Votes cast 361,752 Turnout 92.2 +50.5
Informal votes 346,319 Informal 4.3 +3.9
Summary of votes by party
Party Primary votes % Swing Seats
won
Seats
held
  Liberal and Country 176,051 50.8 –7.6 8 12
  Labor 134,694 38.9 –2.6 4 10
  Country 20,030 5.8 * 3 8
  Communist 8,369 2.4 +2.4 0 0
  Independent Liberal 3,579 1.0 +1.0 0 0
  Conservative 1,749 0.5 +0.5 0 0
  Independent 1,847 0.5 +0.5 0 0
Total 346,319     15 30

Post-election pendulum

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LCL/Country seats (29)
Marginal
Canning Ross Elliott LCL 0.7%
Perth Peter Durack LCL 1.1%
Bunbury Maurice Williams LCL 2.4%
Maylands Bob Marshall LCL 2.6%
Fairly safe
Karrinyup Les Nimmo LCL 6.0%
Subiaco Hugh Guthrie LCL 8.3%
East Melville Des O'Neil LCL 9.4% v IND
Dale Gerald Wild LCL 9.8%
Safe
Darling Range Ken Dunn LCL 10.9%
Cottesloe Ross Hutchinson LCL 11.7%
Murchison Richard Burt LCL 13.5%
Mount Lawley Ray O'Connor LCL 13.6%
Wellington Iven Manning LCL 13.6%
Murray Ewart Runciman LCL 13.8% v IND
Moore Edgar Lewis CP 18.0% v IND
Wembley Guy Henn LCL 19.6%
Vasse Stewart Bovell LCL 20.4%
Toodyay James Craig CP 24.2% v IND
Claremont Harold Crommelin LCL 27.0%
Narrogin William Manning CP 30.5% v IND
Nedlands Charles Court LCL 30.9%
Avon Harry Gayfer CP unopp.
Blackwood John Hearman LCL unopp.
Greenough David Brand LCL unopp.
Katanning Crawford Nalder CP unopp.
Mount Marshall George Cornell CP unopp.
Roe Tom Hart CP unopp.
South Perth Bill Grayden LCL unopp.
Stirling Clayton Mitchell CP unopp.
Labor seats (21)
Marginal
Belmont James Hegney ALP 2.3%
Mount Hawthorn Bill Hegney ALP 2.7%
Geraldton Bill Sewell ALP 3.0%
Warren Joseph Rowberry ALP 3.1%
Balcatta Herb Graham ALP 3.7%
Bayswater Merv Toms ALP 3.8%
Merredin-Yilgarn Lionel Kelly ALP 4.9%
Fairly safe
Melville John Tonkin ALP 7.0%
Northam Albert Hawke ALP 7.9%
Albany Jack Hall ALP 9.6%
Safe
Beeloo Colin Jamieson ALP 10.1%
Collie Harry May ALP 10.9%
Kimberley John Rhatigan ALP 11.6%
Victoria Park Ron Davies ALP 14.0%
Gascoyne Daniel Norton ALP 15.8%
Pilbara Arthur Bickerton ALP 17.2%
Fremantle Harry Fletcher ALP 17.4%
Swan John Brady ALP 18.7%
Boulder-Eyre Arthur Moir ALP unopp.
Cockburn Henry Curran ALP unopp.
Kalgoorlie Tom Evans ALP unopp.

See also

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References

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