electionstracker

Australia 1980 federal election

What was the result of the 1980 federal election in Australia?

Liberal Party of Australia won 54 of 125 seats with 37.4% of the vote. 94.4% of registered voters cast a ballot.

  • Australia
  • Held:
  • Final result
  • ParlGov, read 5 October 2026

Which party won the most seats?

Final results from ParlGov, read : Liberal Party of Australia won 54 of 125 seats with 37.4% of the vote; 94.4% of registered voters cast a ballot, down 0.7 points on 1977.

  • Australian Labor Party 51 +13 seats 45.1% +5.5 points
  • Liberal Party of Australia 54 −13 seats 37.4% −0.7 points
  • National (Country) Party / National Party of Australia 20 +2 seats 8.9% −0.9 points
  • Australian Democrats 0 0 seats 6.6% −2.8 points
  • Seats won
  • Change on the previous election at the right
  • Share of the vote
  • Share at the previous election
  • Change in points at the right

Changes are against the Australia 1977 federal election, party by party.

63 of 125 seats make a majority

Key numbers

  1. 37.4%

    Share of the vote won by Liberal Party of Australia

    Liberal Party of Australia won 54 of 125 seats. A majority needs 63.

  2. +13 seats

    Seats gained by Australian Labor Party

    The largest gain in seats compared with 1977. Liberal Party of Australia lost 13 seats.

  3. 94.4%

    Voter turnout

    Down 0.7 points on 1977.

Seats and votes by party

PartySeats± seats%± pointsVotes
Australian Labor Party51+1345.1+5.53,749,565
Liberal Party of Australia54−1337.4−0.73,108,512
National (Country) Party / National Party of Australia20+28.9−0.9736,122
Australian Democrats006.6−2.8546,032
Independents001.7+0.3139,870

± is the change against the Australia 1977 federal election, party by party.

Votes by party
  • Australian Labor Party 3,749,565
  • Liberal Party of Australia 3,108,512
  • National (Country) Party / National Party of Australia 736,122
  • Australian Democrats 546,032
  • Independents 139,870

ParlGov lists parties with at least 1 percent of the vote or 2 seats, so the rows do not add up to the valid votes.

How many people voted?

94.4% of the 9,023,592 registered voters cast a ballot (8,513,992 ballots), down 0.7 points on 1977. 8,305,557 of them were valid votes. The lowest turnout since 1955 in our data.

How do the votes compare with the seats?

  • Liberal Party of Australia37.4% of votes43.2% of seats
  • Australian Labor Party45.1% of votes40.8% of seats
  • National (Country) Party / National Party of Australia8.9% of votes16.0% of seats
  • Australian Democrats6.6% of votes0.0% of seats
Each party's share of the vote (outlined) and of the seats (filled)

The Gallagher index of disproportionality is 8.6 (0 when seats follow votes exactly); the effective number of parties is 2.8 by votes and 2.6 by seats; Australian Labor Party led Liberal Party of Australia by 7.7 points of the vote.

Time and source Data as of