1972 Australian federal election

Common card · No. 457722

A federal election was held in Australia on 2 December 1972. All 125 seats in the House of Representatives were up for election, as well as a single Senate seat in Queensland. The incumbent Liberal–Country coalition government, led by Prime Minister William McMahon, was defeated by the opposition Labor Party led by Gough Whitlam. Labor's victory ended 23 years of successive Coalition governments that began in 1949 and started the three-year Whitlam Labor Government. Whitlam became the first Labor leader since World War II to lead the party to victory from opposition. The feat was repeated by Bob Hawke in 1983, Kevin Rudd in 2007 and Anthony Albanese in 2022.

Read on Wikipedia · Image National Archives of Australia, Public domain