An election was held on 21 November 1970 to elect 32 of the 60 seats in the
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the Bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives (Australia), House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Chapter ...
. This is the most recent occasion on which a Senate election has been held with no accompanying election to the
House of Representatives; the two election cycles had been out of synchronisation since 1963.
Key dates
Results
The governing
Coalition
A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces.
Formation
According to ''A Gui ...
and the opposition
Australian Labor Party won 13 and 14 seats respectively, resulting in a total of 26 seats each, while the
Democratic Labor Party and three independents (two newly elected) held the remaining seats.
;Notes
* In
New South Wales and
Queensland, the coalition parties ran a joint ticket. Of the four senators elected on a joint ticket, three were members of the Liberal Party and one was a member of the Country Party. In
Western Australia, the coalition parties ran on separate tickets. In
South Australia,
Tasmania, and
Victoria, only the Liberal Party ran a ticket.
* Two independents were elected –
Michael Townley
Michael Vernon Townley (born December 5, 1942, in Waterloo, Iowa) is an American-born former agent of the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA), the secret police of Chile during the regime of Augusto Pinochet. In 1978, Townley pled guilty t ...
of Tasmania and
Syd Negus
Sydney Ambrose Negus (12 March 1912 – 1 August 1986) was an Australian politician who was an independent senator for Western Australia from 1971 until 1974. He was previously a carpenter and building contractor.
Negus was president of the We ...
of Western Australia. This brought the total number of independents in the Senate to three, the other being
Reg Turnbull
Reginald John David "Spot" Turnbull (21 February 1908 – 17 July 2006) was an Australian politician.
He was a member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly from 1946 to 1961 (1946–1959 for the Labor Party, 1959–1961 as an Independent), then a ...
of Tasmania.
Parliamentary Handbook – Members of the Senate since 1901
See also
* Candidates of the Australian Senate election, 1970
This article provides information on candidates who stood for the 1970 Australian Senate election. The election was held on 21 November 1970.
Retiring Senators
Labor
*Senator Felix Dittmer (Qld)
*Senator Bert Hendrickson (Vic)
*Senator Pat Kenne ...
* Members of the Australian Senate, 1971–1974
This is a list of members of the Australian Senate from 1971 to 1974. Half of its members were elected at the 25 November 1967 half Senate election and had terms due to finish on 30 June 1974; the other half were elected at the 21 November 197 ...
References
External links
University of WA
election results in Australia since 1890
{{DEFAULTSORT:Australian Federal Election, 1970 Senate Election
Federal elections in Australia
1970 elections in Australia
November 1970 events in Australia