1993 Australian federal election

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All 147 seats in theHouse of Representatives 74 seats were needed for a majority in the House 40 (of the 76) seats in theSenate
Registered	11,384,638 6.12%
Turnout	10,900,861 (95.75%) (0.44pp)
First party Second party   Leader Paul Keating John Hewson Party Labor Liberal–National Coalition Leader since 19 December 1991 (1991-12-19) 3 April 1990 (1990-04-03) Leader's seat Blaxland (NSW) Wentworth (NSW) Last election 78 seats 69 seats Seats won 80 65 Seat change 2 4 First preference vote 4,751,390 4,681,822 Percentage 44.92% 44.27% Swing 5.49% 0.81% TPP 51.44% 48.56% TPP swing 1.54% 1.54%
Results by division for the House of Representatives, shaded by winning party's margin of victory.
Prime Minister before election Paul Keating Labor Subsequent Prime Minister Paul Keating Labor

Afederal election was held in Australia on 13 March 1993 to determine the members of the37th Parliament of Australia. All 147 seats of theAustralian House of Representatives and 40 seats of the 76-seatAustralian Senate were up for election. The incumbent government of the centre-leftAustralian Labor Party led byPaul Keating, theprime minister of Australia, was re-elected to a fifth term, defeating the centre-rightLiberal/National Coalition led by Opposition LeaderJohn Hewson of theLiberal Party of Australia, and coalition partnerTim Fischer of theNational Party of Australia. This was the first, and to date only, time the Labor Party won a fifth consecutive election.

The result was considered anupset, asopinion polls had predicted a Coalition win. In his victory speech, Keating would famously describe the result as "the sweetest victory of all". The Coalition's loss was attributed to the unpopularity of Hewson and his economic policy, popularly known asFightback!, with the set piece being the majorly divisiveGoods and Services Tax (GST). This was the first of two elections fought mainly on the question of the GST, the second being two elections later in1998.

This would be the last time that the Labor Party won a majority at the federal level until the2007 election as the next four elections would produce Coalition victories. It also remains the only time that the Liberal Party was led by a leader who previously had no experience as a minister.

This was the first election after the end of thelate 80s and early 90s recession. The opposition Liberal Party was led by John Hewson, a former professor of economics at theUniversity of New South Wales who succeeded Liberal leaderAndrew Peacock in1990.

In November 1991 the Liberal Party launched the 650-pageFightback! policy document — a radical collection of "dry",economic liberal measures including:

• the introduction of a Goods and Services Tax (GST) of 15%,^[1]
• various changes toMedicare including the abolition ofbulk billing for non-concession holders,
• the introduction of a nine-month limit onunemployment benefits,
• various changes toindustrial relations including the abolition ofindustrial award,
• a $13 billion personalincome tax cut directed at middle and upper income earners,
• $10 billion ingovernment spending cuts,
• the abolition of statepayroll taxes and theprivatisation of a large number of government-owned enterprises.

All of this presented a vision of a very different future direction to theKeynesian economic conservatism practiced by previous Liberal/National Coalition governments. The 15 percent GST was the centrepiece of the policy document.

Following the December 1991 Labor leadership spill, where former TreasurerPaul Keating oustedBob Hawke as leader of the Labor Party and subsequently Prime Minister, Keating mounted a campaign against the Fightback! package, and particularly against the GST throughout 1992. Keating described the GST as an attack on the working-class in that it shifted thetax burden fromdirect taxation of the wealthy toindirect taxation as a broad-basedconsumption tax. Pressure group activity, public opinion and Keating himself were highly critical of the GST who relentlessly led Hewson to exempt food from the proposed GST. However the exclusions announced by Hewson led to questions surrounding the complexity of what precisely which food items would and would not be exempt from the GST. Hewson's difficulty in explaining this to the electorate was exemplified in the infamousbirthday cake interview, considered by some as a turning point in the election campaign. Keating won a record fifth consecutive term for the Labor Party and a record 13 years in government at the 1993 election, a level of political success not previously seen by federal Labor. A number of the proposals were later adopted in to law in some form, to a small extent during the Keating Labor government, and to a larger extent during theJohn Howard Liberalgovernment (most famously the GST, becoming law on 1 July 2000), while unemployment benefits and bulk billing were re-targeted for a time by theTony Abbott Liberalgovernment.

The Australian Electoral Study conducted after the election showed 70 per cent of respondents had tuned in to the Keating-Hewson televised debates, the highest ever viewership for Australian election debates.Nine Network debates saw the infamous "worm" being introduced for the first time to its screens during the debate. The "worm" wriggled along the bottom of the screen, rising and falling away on the reactions of a chosen audience. It was reported that Keating scored big-time with the worm when he savaged Hewson over his plans for a GST during the debate.^[2]

The election-eveNewspoll reported the Liberal Party and National Party Coalition on a 50.5 percenttwo-party-preferred vote, with Paul Keating's personal ratings being significantly negative.^{[3][better source needed]}

For the first time since the1966 election, an incumbent government had increased theirtwo-party-preferred vote.

There was an unusual circumstance in thedivision of Dickson (QLD). One of the candidates, an independent, died very shortly before the election, making it necessary to hold asupplementary election on 17 April.^[4] Following the return of the Labor Party to government, Keating announced the makeup of theSecond Keating Ministry to be sworn in on 24 March, but kept the portfolio ofAttorney-General of Australia open forMichael Lavarch subject to him winning Dickson on 17 April. He won the seat, and was appointed to the ministry on 27 April.

This section is an excerpt from1993 Australian House of Representatives election § Australia.[edit]

House of Reps (IRV) – 1993–36 – Turnout 95.75% (CV) — Informal 2.97%

Party			Votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Labor		4,751,390	44.92	+5.49	80	2
		Liberal	3,888,579	36.77	+2.01	49	6
		National	758,036	7.17	–1.25	16	2
		Country Liberal	35,207	0.33	+0.05	0
	Liberal–National Coalition		4,681,822	44.27	+0.81	65	4
	Democrats		397,060	3.75	–7.51
	Independents [b]		329,235	3.11	+0.35	2	1
	Greens [d]		196,702	1.85	+0.48
	Others		220,570	2.09	0.38
Total			10,576,779			147	1
Two-party-preferred vote
	Labor		5,436,421	51.44	+1.54	80	2
	Liberal–National Coalition		5,133,033	48.56	–1.54	65	4
Invalid/blank votes			324,082	2.97
Turnout			10,900,861	95.75
Registered voters			11,384,638
Source:Federal Elections 1993

This section is an excerpt from1993 Australian Senate election § Australia.[edit]

Senate (STVGV) — 1993–96 – Turnout 96.22% (CV) — Informal 2.55%

Party			Votes	%	Swing	Seats won	Seats held	Change
	Labor		4,643,871	43.50	+5.09	17	30	2
		Liberal–National joint ticket	2,605,157	24.40	–0.07	6	N/A	N/A
		Liberal	1,664,204	15.59	+1.03	11	29
		National	290,382	2.72	+0.12	1	6	2
		Country Liberal	35,405	0.33	+0.04	1	1
	Liberal–National coalition		4,595,148	43.05	+1.13	19	36	2
	Democrats		566,944	5.31	–7.32	2	7	1
	Greens [e]		314,845	2.95	+0.85	1	2	1
	Others [f]		553,997	5.2	+0.15	1	1
Total			10,674,805			40	76
Invalid/blank votes			279,453	2.55
Turnout			10,954,258	96.22
Registered voters			11,384,638
Source:Federal Elections 1993

• The Labor Party won the seat ofLowe (NSW) which was made notionally Labor-held in the redistribution.
• The Liberal Party won the seat ofFisher (Qld) which was made notionally Liberal-held in the redistribution.
• The National Party won the seat ofHume (NSW) which was made notionally National-held in the redistribution.
• Members listed in italics did not contest their seat at this election

• Candidates of the Australian federal election, 1993
• Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1993–1996
• Members of the Australian Senate, 1993–1996
• Birthday cake interview – Hewson's difficulty in explaining how GST would apply to a birthday cake during a news interview said to have contributed to Hewson's defeat.

• University of WAArchived 18 January 2015 at theWayback Machine election results in Australia since 1890
• AEC 2PP vote
• AustralianPolitics.com election details

• 1993 elections in Australia
• March 1993 in Australia
• Federal elections in Australia

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