1976 Australian Labor Party leadership spill

Australian Labor Party
Leadership spill, 1976

27 January 1976

Candidate Gough Whitlam Lionel Bowen Frank Crean Caucus vote 36 14 13 Percentage 57.14 22.22 20.63

Leader before election Gough Whitlam Elected Leader Gough Whitlam

A leadership spill in the Australian Labor Party, the party of opposition in the Parliament of Australia, was held on 27 January 1976, the date of the first Caucus meeting following the 1975 election.

Dismissed Prime Minister Gough Whitlam was comfortably re-elected leader of the ALP ahead of senior MPs Lionel Bowen and Frank Crean on the first ballot. A much more extensive series of ballots was required to fill the deputy leadership with eight contenders narrowed down to a final ballot seeing Tom Uren narrowly defeat Paul Keating 33 votes to 30.

Results

The following table gives the ballot results:

Name		Votes	Percentage
	Gough Whitlam	36	57.14
	Lionel Bowen	14	22.22
	Frank Crean	13	20.63

See also

• Australian federal election, 1975
• 1975 Australian constitutional crisis