Australian Legislative Election, 1963 Article Index for
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Australian Legislative Election, 1963




The Coalition government of the Liberal Party led by Robert Menzies and the Country Party led by John McEwen was returned with a substantially increased majority over the Australian Labor Party led by Arthur Calwell .

Indigenous Australians could vote in federal elections on the same basis as other electors for the first time in this election following an amendment to the Commonwealth Electoral Act becoming law on 1 November. The amendment enfranchised Indigenous people in Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory. Indigenous voting rights in other states had been in place since 1949.


ELECTION ISSUES



State aid for non-Government schools

Catholic Primary School. The Catholic church declared they had no money to install the extra toilets. The local community closed down non-Government schools and sent the children to the Government schools. Nearly 1,000 children turned up to be enrolled locally and the state schools were unable to accommodate them.]]


North-west Cape communications facility



Australian Labor Party National Executive

At the March ALP conference, Arthur Calwell and Gough Whitlam were photographed outside the venue at Kingston In Canberra . Although Calwell was the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Representatives and Whitlam was on the opposition front bench, neither man was a member of the Party's Federal Executive . Menzies jibed that the ALP was ruled by "36 faceless men" - a jibe that is remembered more than 40 years later.


Assassination of US President Kennedy



NATIONAL SUMMARY



REFERENCES