2001 Australian federal election

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All 150 seats in theHouse of Representatives 76 seats were needed for a majority in the House 40 (of the 76) seats in theSenate
Registered	12,708,837 4.56%
Turnout	12,054,664 (94.85%) (0.14pp)
First party Second party   Leader John Howard Kim Beazley Party Liberal–National Coalition Labor Leader since 30 January 1995 (1995-01-30) 19 March 1996 (1996-03-19) Leader's seat Bennelong (NSW) Brand (WA) Last election 80 seats 67 seats Seats won 82 seats 65 seats Seat change 2 2 First preference vote 4,934,959 4,341,420 Percentage 42.92% 37.84% Swing 3.41% 2.26% TPP 51.03% 48.97% TPP swing 2.01 2.01
Results by division for the House of Representatives, shaded by winning party's margin of victory.
Prime Minister before election John Howard Coalition Subsequent Prime Minister John Howard Coalition

Afederal election was held in Australia on 10 November 2001. All 150 seats in theHouse of Representatives and 40 seats in the 76-memberSenate were up for election. The incumbentLiberal Party of Australia led byPrime Minister of AustraliaJohn Howard andcoalition partner theNational Party of Australia led byJohn Anderson defeated the oppositionAustralian Labor Party led byKim Beazley. As of 2024, this was the most recent election to feature a rematch of both major party leaders.

Future Opposition LeadersPeter Dutton andSussan Ley entered parliament at this election.

Throughout much of 2001, the Coalition had been trailing Labor in opinion polls, thanks to dissatisfaction with the government's economic reform programme and high petrol prices.^{[citation needed]} The oppositionAustralian Labor Party had won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote atthe previous election and had won a series of state and territory elections. Labor also recorded positive swings in two by-elections, taking the Queensland seat ofRyan and coming close inAston.

However following theSeptember 11 attacks, and theChildren Overboard andTampa affairs, Polls swung strongly toward the coalition after the "Tampa" controversy but before the 11 September attacks.^[1]

In fact, voter concern with terrorism in the aftermath of theSeptember 11 attacks in theUnited States was noted, with the rise in the combined primary votes of the major partiesfrom 79.61% at the previous election in 1998, to 81.17% at this election. There would be further increases in the combined major party primary vote in 2004 and 2007.

Another major issue was the collapse of the country's second-biggest airlineAnsett Australia and the question of whether it should be given abailout. The Coalition was opposed to any bailout because the collapse was not the government's fault.^{[citation needed]} However, Labor supported a bailout, because the company's collapse was about to result in the biggest mass job loss in Australian history, whilst also arguing that the government was partially responsible for allowing Ansett to be taken over byAir New Zealand, a move which had caused Ansett's failure.^[2] Although the two-party preferred result was reasonably close, the ALP recorded its lowest primary vote since 1934.^[3]

During the 2001 election campaign, Labor made a 'GST rollback' a centrepiece of its election platform. Labor attempted to reprise the effects of thebirthday cake interview by deriding the application of GST to cooked and uncooked chickens, but failed to ignite public response to the limited scope of the rollbacks applying only to gas and electricity bills. Labor's 2001 election loss would effectively end all serious opposition to GST.

Political scientists^[who?] have suggested that television coverage has subtly transformed the political system, with a spotlight on leaders rather than parties, thereby making for more of an American presidential-style system. In this election, television news focused on international issues, especially terrorism and asylum seekers. Minor parties were largely ignored as the two main parties monopolised the media's attention. The election was depicted as a horse-race between Howard and Beazley, with Howard running ahead and therefore being given more coverage than his Labor rival.^[4]

The election-eveNewspoll forecast that the Liberal/National Coalition would get 53 percent of thetwo-party-preferred vote.^[5]

This was the last election where theAustralian Democrats were the largestthird party; they would be replaced by theAustralian Greens in the2004 election.

This section is an excerpt from2001 Australian House of Representatives election § Australia.[edit]

House of Reps (IRV) — 2001–04 – Turnout 94.85% (CV) — Informal 4.82%

Party			Votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
		Liberal	4,254,071	37.08	+3.19	68	4
		National	643,926	5.61	+0.32	13	3
		Country Liberal	36,961	0.32	–0.00	1	1
	Liberal–National coalition		4,934,958	43.01	+3.50	82	2
	Labor		4,341,420	37.84	−2.26	65	2
	Democrats		620,198	5.41	+0.28	0
	Greens		569,074	4.96	+2.82	0
	One Nation		498,032	4.34	−4.09	0
	Independents		332,118	2.89	+1.00	3	2
	Others		178,274	1.64		0
Total			11,474,074			150	2
Two-party-preferred vote
	Coalition		5,846,289	50.95	+1.93	82	2
	Labor		5,627,785	49.05	−1.93	65	2
Invalid/blank votes			580,591	4.82	+1.05
Turnout			12,054,665	94.85
Registered voters			12,708,837
Source:AEC Tally Room

Independents:Peter Andren,Tony Windsor,Bob Katter

This section is an excerpt from2001 Australian Senate election § Australia.[edit]

Senate (STVGV) — Turnout 95.20% (CV) —Informal 3.89%^[6]

Party			Votes	%	Swing	Seats won	Total seats	Change
	Liberal/National Coalition
		Liberal/National joint ticket	2,776,052	23.87	+2.00	6	11
		Liberal	1,824,745	15.69	+2.06	12	22
		National	222,860	1.92	+0.06	1	1
		Country Liberal	40,680	0.35	+0.03	1	1
	Coalition total		4,863,337	41.83	+4.15	20	35
	Labor		3,990,997	34.32	-2.99	14	28 [a]
	Democrats		843,130	7.25	-1.20	4	8	1
	One Nation		644,364	5.54	-3.44	0	1
	Greens		574,543	4.94	+2.22	2	2	1
	Others		630,600	5.44	+0.22	0	2 [a]
Total			11,627,529			40	76
Invalid/blank votes			470,515	3.9
Turnout			12,098,320	95.7
Registered voters			12,636,631
Source:Federal Elections 1998

• The Nationals had candidates in 14 seats wherethree-cornered-contests existed, with 87.34% of preferences favouring the Liberal Party.
• The Democrats contested 145 electorates with preferences favouring Labor (64.13%).
• The Greens contested 145 electorates with preferences strongly favouring Labor (74.83%).
• One Nation contested 120 electorates with preferences slightly favouring the Liberal–National Coalition (55.87%).

The following table indicates seats that changed hands from one party to another at this election. It compares the election results with the previous margins, taking into account redistributions inNew South Wales, Western Australia, South Australia,Tasmania and both territories. As a result, it includes the seats ofMacarthur andParramatta, which were held by Liberal members but had notional Labor margins. The table also includes the new seat ofHasluck (retained by Labor); the abolishedNorthern Territory, which was divided intoLingiari (retained by Labor) andSolomon (retained by theCLP); andPaterson, a Labor seat made Liberal by the redistribution

• Candidates of the 2001 Australian federal election
• Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 2001–2004
• Members of the Australian Senate, 2002–2005

• Australian Electoral Commission Results
• University of WAArchived 18 January 2015 at theWayback Machine election results in Australia since 1890
• AEC 2PP vote
• AustralianPolitics.com election details
• Preference flows – ABC

• 2001 elections in Australia
• November 2001 in Australia
• Federal elections in Australia
• Pauline Hanson

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