. The movement is predicated on the populist appeal of a flat tax, the suppression of trade union power and small government.
February
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.
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.
June
Western Australia Police at Fitzroy Crossing. Schwab had already killed three people that day, and two others a week previously in the Northern Territory
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
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
veterans
with a Welcome Home parade held in Sydney – 15 years after the last soldiers and national service men have returned.
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.
, who becomes the only premier never to contest an election as premier.
8 December
–
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.
31 December – Senator Susan Ryan, Minister assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women, resigns to take a private sector job. The post is demoted outside Cabinet under her successor Margaret Reynolds. Former Australian Labor Party Federal Secretary Bob McMullan takes over Susan Ryan
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
.
July –
News Limited
for $842 million.
19 July – Long-running
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 –
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 –
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
