January •
1 January –
HECS is introduced with the commencement of the
Higher Education Funding Act 1988. •
10 January – • Assistant
Australian Federal Police commissioner
Colin Winchester is shot dead in the driveway of his
Canberra home by a sniper, later identified as
David Harold Eastman. • The Tasmanian Parliament is recalled to debate guidelines for the Wesley Vale pulp mill. •
31 January – Victorian Deputy Premier
Robert Fordham resigns under pressure from the factions and Opposition over his handling of the VEDC fiasco.
Roger Pescott narrowly defeats
Alan Stockdale in the final ballot for the position of deputy.
February •
4 February – The
1989 Western Australian state election is held.
Peter Dowding returns as Premier when the Labor Party wins 31 seats albeit with a 10% fall in votes. •
7 February –
Joan Kirner becomes Victoria's (and Australia's) first female
deputy premier after the resignation of
Robert Fordham over the VEDC (Victorian Economic Development Corporation) crisis.
March •
1 March – The Industrial Relations Commission replaces the Australian Conciliation & Arbitration Commission. •
4 March – The
first Australian Capital Territory election is held. •
20 March –
Prime Minister Bob Hawke weeps on national television, as he admits marital infidelity. •
21 March – Federal Cabinet decides to develop a third runway at Sydney's congested airport, leading to outraged protests from residents' groups and the sudden resignation from the Federal Ministry of
Gary Punch whose marginal electorate of Barton bordered the airport. •
22 March – The Victorian Division of the National Safety Council collapses with debts of $235 million.
April •
5 April – CEO of the Victorian Division of the
National Safety Council John Friedrichs is captured after 17 days on the run. •
15 April –
John Anderson wins the
1989 Gwydir by-election, unopposed by either Labor or Liberal, after the retirement of National Party Deputy Leader
Ralph Hunt. Apart from Anderson, two far-right independent candidates are the only people to contest the by-election. •
27 April – A dawn raid by the
Tactical Response Group kills innocent Aboriginal Redfern resident
David Gundy and arouses community anger. An inquiry into Gundy's death adds to already existing distrust of the police.
May •
6 May – Liberal
Ian Macphee loses pre-selection for his seat of Goldstein in favour of hardliner
David Kemp, amid accusations of branch-stacking and foul play. •
9 May – •
Andrew Peacock deposes
John Howard as Federal Opposition Leader and Leader of the Liberal Party by a clear vote of 44 to 27. Senator
Fred Chaney is elected as Deputy Leader. •
Charles Blunt replaces
Ian Sinclair as
National Party of Australia Leader in a spill precipitated by tensions over deregulation of the wheat industry. • Serafettin Huseyin kidnaps a group of kindergarten children, douses them in petrol and holds them hostage in a toilet cubicle at the Manresa Kindergarten in
Hawthorn. After a ten-day trial in February 1990, Huseyin is found guilty by a jury of 37 charges including 23 of false imprisonment. He is subsequently sentenced to 21 years in prison, although he unsuccessfully attempts to have the conviction overturned. •
11 May – • The
ACT Legislative Assembly meets for the first time. • In the Harris-Daishowa affair, state
Australian Labor Party General Secretary Stephen Loosley is convicted of not declaring a $10,000 donation from the wood chipping company. •
13 May – • Liberal candidate
Robin Gray wins the
1989 Tasmanian state election. • Queensland National Party MP
Santo Santoro wins the
1989 Merthyr state by-election. •
15 May – Australia's first private tertiary institution,
Bond University, opens on the
Gold Coast. •
16 May – Plotters of the Liberal leadership coup appear on the ABC TV's
Four Corners hindering
Andrew Peacock's attempts to unify the party. •
18 May – At the Premiers' Conference, the Commonwealth cuts $550 million from payments, grants and loans to the states. •
23 May – Victorian Liberal Leader
Jeff Kennett is replaced by
Alan Brown in the fifth challenge to his leadership since 1982. •
29 May – The
Australian Labor Party in
Tasmania signs the
Labor–Green Accord with the
Tasmanian Greens to form government. •
30 May –
Ananda Marga member Tim Anderson is arrested on charges related to the 1978
Hilton bombing.
June •
23 June – Vacancies caused by the departure to federal politics of New South Wales MPs
Laurie Brereton,
Laurie Ferguson and
Janice Crosio see Labor retain the seats of Heffron, Granville and Smithfield.
July •
3 July – Findings from the
Fitzgerald Inquiry are released in Queensland. •
16 July – The Victorian state
Australian Labor Party conference chooses Jenny Doran as its first female President. • July - Interest rates on home mortgages reach 17%.
August •
9 August – The Victorian Government releases its Budget, proposing further savage cuts to the public sector due to the decreasing amount of Commonwealth funding available. •
13 August – Thirteen people die in a
hot air balloon accident near
Alice Springs,
Northern Territory. •
22 August – The damaging 2-month airline pilots' strike over a 30% pay rise begins in earnest. Prime Minister
Bob Hawke makes a crusade of resisting the claim. •
23 August – All of Australia's 1,645 domestic airline
pilots resign over an airline's move to sack and sue them over a dispute, following a
strike.
September •
17 September – Six people die in the
Downunder Hostel fire in Sydney's Kings Cross. •
22 September – Queensland Emergency and Administrative Services Minister
Russell Cooper becomes Queensland Premier after beating
Mike Ahern in his second leadership attempt.
Bill Gunn remains Deputy Premier.
October •
11 October – Media magnate
Rupert Murdoch criticises
Andrew Peacock as having a poor standing as Opposition Leader. •
17 October – New South Wales Premier
Nick Greiner announces a Royal Commission under Mr. Justice Lee to investigate the case of Police Chief Superintendent Harry Blackburn who had been arrested and charged with sexual offences allegedly committed over a 20-year period. After several months, it was found that he had no case to answer. •
20 October –
Grafton bus crash – 21 people are killed and 22 are injured when a tourist bus collides with a semi-trailer on the
Pacific Highway near
Grafton. •
22 October – The first Pride March is held at
Parliament House, Perth as a rally in support of homosexual law reform (currently being debated in the West Australian Parliament). •
25 October – In response to the
Fitzgerald Inquiry recommendations, the Queensland Government establishes two new bodies - the
Criminal Justice Commission (CJC) to be headed by former NCA Commissioner Sir Max Bingham and the Electoral and Administrative Review Commission (EARC) under Tom Sherman.
November •
10 November –
Gaby Kennard becomes the first Australian woman to fly non-stop around the world. •
25 November –
Elections in
South Australia narrowly return the Labor government of
John Bannon to power.
December •
2 December – The
1989 Queensland state election is held. After 32 years in power, 19 of those under
Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, the
National Party government is
voted out of office in
Queensland amid widespread allegations of corruption & is replaced by the
Australian Labor Party. led by
Wayne Goss. The Labor Party wins 54 seats with 50.3% of the vote. The Nationals retain 26 seats with 24.1% of the vote while the Liberal Party wins only 9 seats with 21.1% of the vote. •
5 December – Five former Queensland ministers are charged with misuse of public money. Special prosecutor Doug Drummond, QC, had summonses issued against
Don Lane,
Brian Austin,
Ivan Gibbs,
Geoff Muntz and
Leisha Harvey. •
7 December – The
Law Reform (Decriminalisation of Sodomy) Act 1989, decriminalising private sexual acts between two people of the same sex in Western Australia, is passed by the West Australian Parliament (going into effect in March 1990). •
22 December – •
Kempsey bus crash – Two tourist coaches collide on the
Pacific Highway north of
Kempsey, New South Wales, 35 are killed and 39 injured. Both the Grafton and Kempsey bus crashes led to calls to make the
Pacific Highway dual carriageway. • One of the few successful
Australian Democrats Bills is passed through the House of Representatives on the voices. It outlaws the advertising of tobacco products in the print media. •
25 December – A savage storm rips through
Brisbane and
Redcliffe, leaving a $5 million trail of destruction. Two people are killed, around 1,000 homes are damaged and about 4,500 homes suffer loss of electric power. •
28 December – A magnitude 5.6
earthquake hits
Newcastle, New South Wales, killing 13 people.
Unknown dates • The
Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) is established in New South Wales. •
Western Australia decriminalises
homosexual acts between consenting adults. •
Alan Bond's
Bond Corporation goes into receivership with the largest debt in Australian history. •
Arrow Research Corporation established. ==Arts and literature==