1967 Australian Senate election
Elections were held on 25 November 1967 to elect half of the 60 seats in the Australian Senate. There was no accompanying election to the House of Representatives as the two election cycles had been out of synchronisation since 1963. The results were a setback for the government of Harold Holt. Having won a landslide victory at the House-only election the previous year, the Coalition instead lost two seats in the Senate. The Labor Party failed to make any gains in Gough Whitlam's first election as leader; the Democratic Labor Party gained two seats and held the balance of power until 1974.
Image: John Gorton 1968
Image: Lionel Murphy 1970
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. There are a total of 76 senators: 12 are elected from each of the six Australian states regardless of population and 2 from each of the two self-governing internal Australian territories. Senators are popularly elected under the single transferable vote system of proportional representation.
Australian Senate
The Australian Senate in 1923
The Senate chamber at Old Parliament House, Canberra, where the Parliament met between 1927 and 1988.
The Australian Senate