Australian federal election, 1963

Federal elections were held in Australia on 30 November 1963. All 122 seats in the House of Representatives, no Senate seats were up for election. The incumbent Liberal Party of Australia led by Prime Minister of Australia Robert Menzies with coalition partner the Country Party led by John McEwen defeated the Australian Labor Party led by Arthur Calwell.

See Australian federal election, 1961 and Australian Senate election, 1964 for Senate compositions.

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Background

The election was held following the early dissolution of the House of Representatives. The Prime Minister of Australia, Robert Menzies, gave as his reason for calling an election within two years that there was an insufficient working majority in the House. [cite web
last =
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authorlink =
coauthors =
year = 2005
url = http://www.aph.gov.au/house/pubs/practice/chapter3.htm
title = House of Representatives Practice; Chapter 3 Elections and the electoral system
format =
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publisher = Parliament of Australia, House of Representatives
accessdate = 2006-04-04
accessyear = ] The 1961 election had been won with a substantially reduced majority of only two seats. One of the consequences of an early House election was that there were separate Senate and House elections until 1974.

The Coalition government of the Liberal Party led by Robert Menzies and the Country Party led by John McEwen was returned with a substantially increased majority over the Australian Labor Party led by Arthur Calwell.

Indigenous Australians could vote in federal elections on the same basis as other electors for the first time in this election following an amendment to the Commonwealth Electoral Act becoming law on 1 November. The amendment enfranchised Indigenous people in Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory. Indigenous voting rights in other states had been in place since 1949.

Issues

State aid for non-Government schools

The election was notable for the issue of State Aid to non-government schools being finally resolved. There was a School Strike in Goulburn, New South Wales in 1962, where Catholic schools were closed and parents sent their children to Government schools. The strike received national attention. The Labor Premier of New South Wales, Robert Heffron, had promised money for science labs at non-Government schools. This promise is said to have been overthrown at the federal level of the Labor Party executive, although policy is in fact made at the Labor Party's Conferences. Menzies called a snap election with State Aid for science blocks and Commonwealth scholarships for students at both Government and non-Government schools as part of his Party's platform. Menzies saw it as an attempt to woo Catholic voters away from the Labor Party which they traditionally supported; the wedge driven through the ALP, and its core constituency took nearly a decade to overcome. Most non-Government schools were Catholic. The Labor Party reduced its representation in the house by 10 seats and suffered a first preference vote swing of -2.43%. The Country Party vote was higher than the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) vote for the first time since 1955; the DLP had evolved from the Catholic wing of the ALP. It is possible that the Liberal Party probably would have won regardless of the Liberals' decision on State Aid. [cite web
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year = 1997
url = http://www.abc.net.au/time/episodes/ep7.htm
title = The Battle for State Aid
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work = Timeframe
publisher = Australian Broadcasting Corporation
accessdate = 2006-04-02
accessyear = ]

North-west Cape communications facility

Other key issues in the election included the building the North-west Cape communications facility which would support the US nuclear submarine capability. A special federal conference of the ALP was called in March 1963. Labor voted by a narrow margin to support the base. The Left faction was opposed to a foreign base on Australian soil and which supported America's nuclear program.cite web
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date = 10 September 2004
url = http://www.crikey.com.au/articles/2004/09/10-0002.html
title = Boilermaker Bill's Jakarta jottings; Boilermaker Bill McKell Labor Legend
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publisher = Crikey
accessdate = 2006-04-03
accessyear = ]

"36 faceless men"

At the March ALP conference, Arthur Calwell and Gough Whitlam were photographed outside the venue at Kingston in Canberra. Although Calwell was the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Representatives and Whitlam was on the opposition front bench, neither man was a member of the Party's federal executive. Menzies jibed that the ALP was ruled by "36 faceless men" - a jibe that is remembered more than 40 years later.

Assassination of US President Kennedy

The week before the election, on 22 November 1963, John F. Kennedy, the President of the United States, was assassinated. It has been suggested that this tragedy helped to consolidate Menzies' position. [cite web
last = Farnsworth
first = Malcolm
authorlink =
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year =
url = http://www.australianpolitics.com/elections/1972/1972_final-week.shtml
title = It's Time; 1972 Federal Election: Sound Archives
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publisher = australianpolitics.com
accessdate = 2006-04-04
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References

* [http://elections.uwa.edu.au/ University of WA] election results in Australia since 1890
* [http://www.aec.gov.au/Elections/Australian_Electoral_History/House_of_Representative_1949_Present.htm AEC 2PP vote]
*Prior to 1984 the AEC did not undertake a full distribution of preferences for statistical purposes. The stored ballot papers for the 1983 election were put through this process prior to their destruction. Therefore the figures from 1983 onwards show the actual result based on full distribution of preferences.