Western Australian state election, 1971

Western Australian state election, 1971
Western Australia
20 February 1971
All 51 seats in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly
and 15 (of the 30) seats to the Western Australian Legislative Council
  First party Second party
 
Leader John Tonkin David Brand
Party Labor Liberal/Country coalition
Leader since 1 January 1967 1 March 1957
Leader's seat Melville Greenough
Last election 23 seats 28 seats
Seats won 26 seats 25 seats
Seat change Increase3 Decrease3
Percentage 48.91% 35.30%
Swing Increase3.56 Decrease13.95
Premier before election

David Brand
Liberal/Country coalition

 Elected Premier

John Tonkin
Labor

Elections were held in the state of Western Australia on 20 February 1971 to elect all 51 members to the Legislative Assembly and 15 members to the 30-seat Legislative Council. The four-term Liberal-Country Party coalition government, led by Premier David Brand, was defeated by the Labor Party, led by Opposition Leader John Tonkin.

This was the first election in which no seats were uncontested since the introduction of responsible government in 1890. This was partly due to the Democratic Labor Party deciding to contest every seat up for election in both Houses.

Results

Legislative Assembly

Western Australian state election, 20 February 1971
Legislative Assembly
<< 1968 — 1974 >>

Enrolled voters 537,122
Votes cast 490,467 Turnout 91.31% +0.41%
Informal votes 18,897 Informal 3.85% +0.75%
Summary of votes by party
Party Primary votes % Swing Seats Change
  Labor 230,653 48.91% +3.56% 26 + 3
  Liberal 139,865 29.66% –14.34% 17 – 2
  Country 26,604 5.64% +0.39% 8 – 1
  Democratic Labor 50,508 10.71% +7.45% 0 ± 0
  United Farmers 3,511 0.74% +0.74% 0 ± 0
  Communist 2,265 0.48% –0.05% 0 ± 0
  Other parties 2,687 0.57% –0.12% 0 ± 0
  Independent 15,477 3.28% +2.36% 0 ± 0
Total 471,570     51  

Legislative Council

Western Australian state election, 20 February 1971
Legislative Council

Enrolled voters 537,122
Votes cast 489,911 Turnout 91.21% –1.08%
Informal votes 25,084 Informal 5.12% +0.63%
Summary of votes by party
Party Primary votes % Swing Seats
won		 Seats
held
  Labor 217,465 46.78% +0.12% 4 10
  Liberal 127,191 27.36% –9.64% 9 13
  Country 25,035 5.39% –6.19% 2 7
  Democratic Labor 67,891 14.61% +12.17% 0 0
  United Farmers 5,782 1.24% +1.24% 0 0
  Independent 21,463 4.62% +2.26% 0 0
Total 464,827     15 30

See also

References