4 February – Federal Opposition Leader
John Howard launches the Opposition's election strategy, promising lower taxes, family policies, needs-based social welfare, and an end to the fringe benefits tax. His coining of the word "incentivation" draws some derision.
8 February –
9 February – Worried by the damage to their electoral prospects,
John Howard,
Ian Sinclair and Liberal President
John Valder unite to pour scorn on Sir
Joh Bjelke-Petersen's federal pretensions, hoping that common sense will dissolve the "initial seduction of simplistic solutions".
28 February – The Central Council of the Queensland National Party decides to withdraw its 12 federal MPs from the Coalition. They officially leave on 10 April.
28 May – Only 8 weeks after promising no early poll, but unable to resist the opportunity afforded by Coalition disarray, Prime Minister
Bob Hawke calls a double dissolution election, the trigger used being the Senate's rejection of the Australia Card legislation. The
National Party of Australia's campaign collapses as Sir
Joh Bjelke-Petersen is out of the country when the election is called.
23 June – Launching a long campaign at the
Sydney Opera House, Prime Minister
Bob Hawke promises that "no child will be living in poverty by the year 1990" and woos the environmental vote by promising no mining in Kakadu.
25 June – Federal Opposition Leader
John Howard makes his policy speech as a rousing call to middle Australia.
July
11 July – With a good deal of help from the
Joh for Canberra campaign which splits the conservative vote between his
National Party and the
Liberal Party's
John Howard, Bob Hawke's
Australian Labor Party government is
re-elected for a third term. Labor wins six Queensland seats from the Coalition. A net gain of four seats despite a 1.7% fall in their primary vote gives the Labor Party 86 seats to the Liberals' 43 and Nationals' 19. In the Senate, seven
Australian Democrats senators again hold the balance.
16 July –
John Howard retains the Liberal leadership, beating
Andrew Peacock in the post-election party room spill 41:28. He is forced to accept his rival as deputy when Andrew Peacock beats
Fred Chaney 36:24.
24 July – Prime Minister
Bob Hawke undertakes a major reorganisation of the Commonwealth Public Service, reducing the number of departments from 27 to 17, 8 of them "super" departments covering a range of areas.
John Dawkins becomes Minister for Employment, Education and Training and
Graham Richardson receives the Environment and the Arts portfolio.
August
9 August – Seven people are killed and 19 injured when 19-year-old Julian Knight goes on a shooting rampage in
Melbourne – the (
Hoddle St Massacre).
17 August –
Tony Eggleton's reforms to tighten the
Liberal Party of Australia's discipline and procedures are accepted at the Federal Executive meeting. Liberal Leader
John Howard then reconstructs his Coalition with the 26 Nationals, only four of whom had opposed the restoration of the agreement.
September
23 September – The increasingly unpopular
Australia Card is abandoned when retired public servant Ewart Sith points out that although the Bill could be passed at a joint sitting, it could not be put into practice due to poor drafting, which has omitted a starting date – the regulation to set one would have to go to a still hostile Senate.
October
3 October – Australia finally notes the contribution of the
Vietnam Warveterans with a Welcome Home parade held in Sydney – 15 years after the last soldiers and national service men have returned.
20 October –
Black Monday: After the largest fall in the
Dow Jones's history,
stock markets nosedive around the world. Australia is no exception as the
All Ordinaries falls 25%, making it the biggest one-day drop in the market's history.
November
13 November – Despite support from Queensland Premier Sir
Joh Bjelke-Petersen, enabling legislation for the construction of the planned 107-storey Minuzzo Tower is deferred. Deferment was called for by National Party backbenchers, so that guidelines could be drawn up for super-high rise structures of more than 60 storeys. The planned tower would have been the world's tallest building.
24 November – Queensland Premier Sir
Joh Bjelke-Petersen sacks three ministers from his cabinet, accusing them of gross disloyalty.
26 November – The National Party deposes Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen as party leader, but he refuses to resign as premier. He was not present at the caucus meeting.
December
1 December – Sir
Joh Bjelke-Petersen resigns as Premier of
Queensland after 19 years at the top. He is replaced by
Mike Ahern, who becomes the only premier never to contest an election as premier.
Queen Street Massacre: 22-year-old Frank Vitkovic kills 8 and injures another 5 in an
Australia Post office building in Queen Street, Melbourne before committing suicide by jumping from the 11th floor.
The Queensland Premier's Department releases a list of 60 companies which had expressed an interest in developing Australia's first space port in Queensland's
Cape York area.
February –
Fairfax, owners of
ATN-7 &
BTQ-7 purchase
HSV-7 from
The Herald and Weekly Times Ltd for
$320 million. The move sees the replacement of most Melbourne-produced programming with networked programming from
Sydney, including long-running shows such as
World of Sport & sees
Mal Walden sacked as newsreader. The revamped news service, read by former STW-9 newsreader
Greg Pearce plunges to as low as zero in the ratings.
6 April – Long running UK children's television series Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends gets its first Australian television transmission on
ABC.
19 July – Long-running
ABC music program Countdown broadcasts its final episode.
August – New cross-media ownership rules force the sale of the
Seven Network. Fairfax sells its stations to
Christopher Skase's
Qintex company for $780 million.
27 December –
Rupert Murdoch's ownership of ADS-7, combined with
TVW-7's ownership of SAS-10, result in the stations deciding to swap callsigns & affiliations. So, on this day, ADS-7 becomes
ADS-10 & SAS-10 becomes
SAS-7.
Sport
4 February – The
1987 America's Cup ends in
Perth with the US regaining the
America's Cup after Australia won it in 1983 as the first Nation ever after US-Teams won it 25 times for 132 years in a row.
22 March –
Steve Moneghetti is Australia's best finisher in the men's competition at the
IAAF World Cross Country Championships, staged in
Warsaw, Poland. He finishes in 11th place (37:11.0) in the long-distance race over 11,950 metres. In the women's competition
Krishna Stanton ends up in 8th place in the long event (5.050 metres).
5 April – It is announced that
Newcastle will join the
NSWRL in 1988. They are later joined by
Brisbane and the
Gold Coast to form a 16-team competition.
7 June –
Daniel Boltz wins the men's national marathon title, clocking 2:14:36 in Sydney, while
Tani Ruckle claims the women's title in 2:37:53.
4 February – Federal Opposition Leader
John Howard launches the Opposition's election strategy, promising lower taxes, family policies, needs-based social welfare, and an end to the fringe benefits tax. His coining of the word "incentivation" draws some derision.
8 February –
9 February – Worried by the damage to their electoral prospects,
John Howard,
Ian Sinclair and Liberal President
John Valder unite to pour scorn on Sir
Joh Bjelke-Petersen's federal pretensions, hoping that common sense will dissolve the "initial seduction of simplistic solutions".
28 February – The Central Council of the Queensland National Party decides to withdraw its 12 federal MPs from the Coalition. They officially leave on 10 April.
28 May – Only 8 weeks after promising no early poll, but unable to resist the opportunity afforded by Coalition disarray, Prime Minister
Bob Hawke calls a double dissolution election, the trigger used being the Senate's rejection of the Australia Card legislation. The
National Party of Australia's campaign collapses as Sir
Joh Bjelke-Petersen is out of the country when the election is called.
23 June – Launching a long campaign at the
Sydney Opera House, Prime Minister
Bob Hawke promises that "no child will be living in poverty by the year 1990" and woos the environmental vote by promising no mining in Kakadu.
25 June – Federal Opposition Leader
John Howard makes his policy speech as a rousing call to middle Australia.
July
11 July – With a good deal of help from the
Joh for Canberra campaign which splits the conservative vote between his
National Party and the
Liberal Party's
John Howard, Bob Hawke's
Australian Labor Party government is
re-elected for a third term. Labor wins six Queensland seats from the Coalition. A net gain of four seats despite a 1.7% fall in their primary vote gives the Labor Party 86 seats to the Liberals' 43 and Nationals' 19. In the Senate, seven
Australian Democrats senators again hold the balance.
16 July –
John Howard retains the Liberal leadership, beating
Andrew Peacock in the post-election party room spill 41:28. He is forced to accept his rival as deputy when Andrew Peacock beats
Fred Chaney 36:24.
24 July – Prime Minister
Bob Hawke undertakes a major reorganisation of the Commonwealth Public Service, reducing the number of departments from 27 to 17, 8 of them "super" departments covering a range of areas.
John Dawkins becomes Minister for Employment, Education and Training and
Graham Richardson receives the Environment and the Arts portfolio.
August
9 August – Seven people are killed and 19 injured when 19-year-old Julian Knight goes on a shooting rampage in
Melbourne – the (
Hoddle St Massacre).
17 August –
Tony Eggleton's reforms to tighten the
Liberal Party of Australia's discipline and procedures are accepted at the Federal Executive meeting. Liberal Leader
John Howard then reconstructs his Coalition with the 26 Nationals, only four of whom had opposed the restoration of the agreement.
September
23 September – The increasingly unpopular
Australia Card is abandoned when retired public servant Ewart Sith points out that although the Bill could be passed at a joint sitting, it could not be put into practice due to poor drafting, which has omitted a starting date – the regulation to set one would have to go to a still hostile Senate.
October
3 October – Australia finally notes the contribution of the
Vietnam Warveterans with a Welcome Home parade held in Sydney – 15 years after the last soldiers and national service men have returned.
20 October –
Black Monday: After the largest fall in the
Dow Jones's history,
stock markets nosedive around the world. Australia is no exception as the
All Ordinaries falls 25%, making it the biggest one-day drop in the market's history.
November
13 November – Despite support from Queensland Premier Sir
Joh Bjelke-Petersen, enabling legislation for the construction of the planned 107-storey Minuzzo Tower is deferred. Deferment was called for by National Party backbenchers, so that guidelines could be drawn up for super-high rise structures of more than 60 storeys. The planned tower would have been the world's tallest building.
24 November – Queensland Premier Sir
Joh Bjelke-Petersen sacks three ministers from his cabinet, accusing them of gross disloyalty.
26 November – The National Party deposes Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen as party leader, but he refuses to resign as premier. He was not present at the caucus meeting.
December
1 December – Sir
Joh Bjelke-Petersen resigns as Premier of
Queensland after 19 years at the top. He is replaced by
Mike Ahern, who becomes the only premier never to contest an election as premier.
Queen Street Massacre: 22-year-old Frank Vitkovic kills 8 and injures another 5 in an
Australia Post office building in Queen Street, Melbourne before committing suicide by jumping from the 11th floor.
The Queensland Premier's Department releases a list of 60 companies which had expressed an interest in developing Australia's first space port in Queensland's
Cape York area.
February –
Fairfax, owners of
ATN-7 &
BTQ-7 purchase
HSV-7 from
The Herald and Weekly Times Ltd for
$320 million. The move sees the replacement of most Melbourne-produced programming with networked programming from
Sydney, including long-running shows such as
World of Sport & sees
Mal Walden sacked as newsreader. The revamped news service, read by former STW-9 newsreader
Greg Pearce plunges to as low as zero in the ratings.
6 April – Long running UK children's television series Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends gets its first Australian television transmission on
ABC.
19 July – Long-running
ABC music program Countdown broadcasts its final episode.
August – New cross-media ownership rules force the sale of the
Seven Network. Fairfax sells its stations to
Christopher Skase's
Qintex company for $780 million.
27 December –
Rupert Murdoch's ownership of ADS-7, combined with
TVW-7's ownership of SAS-10, result in the stations deciding to swap callsigns & affiliations. So, on this day, ADS-7 becomes
ADS-10 & SAS-10 becomes
SAS-7.
Sport
4 February – The
1987 America's Cup ends in
Perth with the US regaining the
America's Cup after Australia won it in 1983 as the first Nation ever after US-Teams won it 25 times for 132 years in a row.
22 March –
Steve Moneghetti is Australia's best finisher in the men's competition at the
IAAF World Cross Country Championships, staged in
Warsaw, Poland. He finishes in 11th place (37:11.0) in the long-distance race over 11,950 metres. In the women's competition
Krishna Stanton ends up in 8th place in the long event (5.050 metres).
5 April – It is announced that
Newcastle will join the
NSWRL in 1988. They are later joined by
Brisbane and the
Gold Coast to form a 16-team competition.
7 June –
Daniel Boltz wins the men's national marathon title, clocking 2:14:36 in Sydney, while
Tani Ruckle claims the women's title in 2:37:53.