Talk:1987 Australian federal election

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Confused

Why is there a summary total for "Liberal/National coalition" when it wasn't operating at this election? Timrollpickering (talk) 14:20, 29 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Coalition? Reverted edit.

For all intents and purposes the Coalition still contested the election - there was still a Lib/Nat 2PP at this election and they still sat together in the previous and the next parliament. Look at Candidates of the Australian federal election, 1987 in lower and upper house for NSW. Look at Senate results at Australian federal election, 1987#Results and the 1,289,888 NSW voters who voted for the Liberal/National Coalition joint ticket. The WA and SA Nats usually have not been part of the federal Coalition and VIC has been spotty - does that mean the Coalition usually has not existed because all Libs/Nats in all states didn't run together? IMHO the article content about the coalition should be in far greater clarified and referenced detail with its own section. Timeshift (talk) 10:47, 26 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I'll have to dig through this later but the Coalition definitely did not exist during the election with the Nationals breaking it off at the end of April and both parties established separate front benches. IIRC the election was called in part because the opposition was in a mess and the Coalition was restored not long afterwards. Part of the confusion is that the National Party structure gives a lot of power to the state parties and Joh's drive had put the set-up under strain with the result that in New South Wales the state party operated election pacts and a joint Senate ticket rather than going head to head with the Liberals even though they would be (initially) sitting separately. The 2PP is really an indication of the political science divide rather than the counters officially declaring that the Liberals and Nationals were in harness. Timrollpickering (talk) 22:59, 24 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]