The election had a long campaign and a high rate of informal voting for the House of Representatives, but decreased rate in the Senate (due to the introduction of the Group voting ticket).

Prior to 1984 the electoral commission did not undertake a full distribution of preferences for statistical purposes.

The stored ballot papers for the previous election were put through this process prior to their destruction – therefore the figures from 1983 onwards show the actual result based on full distribution of preferences.

The results of the election surprised most analysts;[citation needed] the expectation had been that Bob Hawke – who had been polling a record ACNielsen approval rating of 75 percent[2] on the eve of the election – would win by a significantly larger margin.

Ironically when Hawke agreed to do the leaders' debate for the 1990 election it was again with Peacock.