December 1977 Australian Labor Party leadership election

December 1977 Australian Labor Party
Leadership election
Australian-Labor-Party-stub.svg
← May 1977 22 December 1977 1982 →
  Bill Hayden 1971.jpg Lionel Bowen 1971.jpg
Candidate Bill Hayden Lionel Bowen
Caucus vote 36 28
Percentage 56.25 43.75

Leader before election

Gough Whitlam

Elected Leader

Bill Hayden

A leadership election of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), then the opposition party in the Parliament of Australia, was held on 22 December 1977. Following the resignation of Gough Whitlam former Treasurer Bill Hayden was elected Labor's new leader winning 36 votes to 28 over Lionel Bowen who was then elected deputy leader.

Background

After losing the 1977 election Gough Whitlam finally resigned as party leader after more than 10 years.

Bill Hayden who in May had come within two votes of toppling Whitlam, announced the day after election that he would contest the leadership.

Candidates

Results

Australian Labor Party
Deputy Leadership election, 1977
Australian-Labor-Party-stub.svg
1990 →
  Lionel Bowen 1971.jpg TomUren1966.jpg
Candidate Lionel Bowen Tom Uren
1st Rd. 25 22
1st Rd. % 39.1% 34.4%
Final Rd. 33 29
Final Rd. % 51.6% 45.3%

  No image.svg No image.svg
Candidate Mick Young Ralph Willis
1st Rd. 10 7
1st Rd. % 15.6% 10.9%
Final Rd. Eliminated Eliminated
Final Rd. % Eliminated Eliminated

Deputy Leader before election

Tom Uren

Deputy Leader
after election

Lionel Bowen

Leadership ballot

The following tables gives the ballot results:

Name Votes Percentage
Bill Hayden 36 56.25
Lionel Bowen 28 43.75

Deputy leadership ballot

Candidate 1st ballot 2nd ballot 3rd ballot
Lionel Bowen 25 26 33
Tom Uren 22 26 29
Mick Young 10 11 Eliminated
Ralph Willis 7 Eliminated
Abstentions 0 1 2

Paul Keating had previously announced that he would stand for the deputy leadership, however he stood aside in favour of Bowen.

Aftermath

Hayden led the party in on the 1980 election where they managed to halve Malcolm Fraser's majority.


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