1975 Liberal Party of Australia leadership spill

After the Liberals lost the May 1974 election, dissatisfaction began to grow with Snedden's leadership. Later that year, Tony Staley began openly organising against Snedden, initially without Fraser's knowledge. On 26 November, a group of MPs confronted Snedden in his office and asked him to resign. He refused, but called a partyroom meeting the next day. Staley moved that the leadership be declared vacant, seconded by John Bourchier, but the motion was defeated. Fraser never formally announced himself as a candidate for the leadership.[2][3]

On 30 January 1975, following continuing media speculation, Snedden met with Fraser and asked for a public declaration of loyalty. Fraser issued a statement that, although approved by Snedden, was widely seen as equivocating about his future plans. Over the following weeks, according to Paul Kelly, "a number of Fraser supporters established a solid and regular rapport with senior newspaper correspondents, and the psychology of crisis [...] afflicting the leadership was further exacerbated... the more it was written about, the more real it became". Opinion polling by The Bulletin in early March put Snedden's approval rating at 28 percent. On Friday, 14 March, Andrew Peacock – previously a Snedden supporter – publicly called for the leadership to be put to a vote. The following Monday, Snedden agreed to call a leadership ballot for Friday, 21 March. Fraser announced himself as a candidate on 18 March, and Andrew Peacock and James Killen announced their own candidacies the following day; both subsequently dropped out.[4] Fraser eventually defeated Snedden by 37 votes to 27.[1][5]