1951 Australian federal election
Template:Short description Template:Use Australian English Template:Use dmy dates Script error: No such module "infobox".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". The 1951 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 28 April 1951. All 121 seats in the House of Representatives and all 60 seats in the Senate were up for election, due to a double dissolution called after the Senate rejected the Commonwealth Bank Bill.[1] The incumbent Liberal–Country coalition led by Prime Minister Robert Menzies defeated the opposition Labor Party led by Ben Chifley with a modestly reduced majority,Template:Refn and secured a majority in the Senate.[2] Chifley died just over a month after the election.
Issues
Although the Coalition had won a comfortable majority in the House in 1949, Labor still had a four-seat majority in the Senate. Chifley thus made it his business to obstruct Menzies's agenda at every opportunity. Realizing this, Menzies sought to call a double dissolution at the first opportunity in hopes of gaining control of both houses. He thought he had his chance in 1950, when he introduced a bill to ban the Australian Communist Party. However, after a redraft, Chifley let the bill pass.
A few months later, the Senate rejected the Commonwealth Bank Bill 1950, in which the Coalition government aimed to establish a "Commonwealth Bank Board", which Labor believed would be filled with private banking interests.[3] This finally gave Menzies an excuse to call a double dissolution. While the Coalition lost five House seats to Labor, it still had a solid mandate. More importantly, it picked up six Senate seats, giving it control over both chambers.
The 1951 election was the first double dissolution election since single transferable vote with proportional representation became the method for electing the Senate in 1949. With close opinion polls and no minor parties having a credible chance of winning a seat, it was feared and forecast that under the new system the Senate would finish deadlocked at 30–30, since the 54.55% majority that either major party required to win a sixth Senate seat from any single state was greater than polling margins,[4][5] and there were proposals for further amendments to Senate voting rules ahead of the election, none of which were passed.[6] In the end, Queensland and Western Australia elected 6–4 Senator majorities to the Coalition; the other states were tied 5–5.[7]
Results
House of Representatives
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| Party | Votes | % | Swing | Seats | Change | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal–Country coalition | 2,298,512 | 50.34 | +0.08 | 69 | –5 | ||
| Template:Australian party style | | Liberal | 1,854,799 | 40.62 | +1.23 | 52 | –3 | |
| Template:Australian party style | | Country | 443,713 | 9.72 | –1.15 | 17 | –2 | |
| Template:Australian party style | | Labor | 2,174,840 | 47.63 | +1.65 | 54Template:Efn | +6 | |
| Template:Australian party style | | Communist | 44,782 | 0.98 | +0.09 | 0 | 0 | |
| Template:Australian party style | | Independents | 47,765 | 1.05 | –1.11 | 0 | –1 | |
| Total | 4,565,899 | 123 | |||||
| Two-party-preferred <templatestyles src="Nobold/styles.css"/>(estimated) | |||||||
| Template:Australian party style | | Liberal–Country coalition | Win | 50.70 | −0.30 | 69 | −5 | |
| Template:Australian party style | | Labor | 49.30 | +0.30 | 52 | +5 | ||
- Notes
- Three members were elected unopposed – two Labor and one Liberal.
Senate
| Party | Votes | % | Swing | Seats won | Seats held | Change | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal–Country coalition | 2,198,687 | 49.70 | –0.71 | 32 | 32 | +6 | ||
| Template:Australian party style | | Liberal–Country joint ticket | 1,925,631 | 43.52 | –1.12 | 22 | N/A | N/A | |
| Template:Australian party style | | Liberal | 273,056 | 6.17 | +0.41 | 10 | 26 | +5 | |
| Template:Australian party style | | Country | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 6 | +1 | |
| Template:Australian party style | | Labor | 2,029,751 | 45.88 | +0.99 | 28 | 28 | −6 | |
| Template:Australian party style | | Communist | 93,561 | 2.11 | +0.02 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Template:Australian party style | | Lang Labor | 60,549 | 1.37 | +1.37 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Template:Australian party style | | Protestant People's | 13,090 | 0.30 | –0.59 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Template:Australian party style | | Henry George Justice | 6,015 | 0.14 | +0.14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Template:Australian party style | | Independents | 22,584 | 0.51 | –1.20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 4,424,237 | 60 | 60 | |||||
Seats changing hands
| Seat | Pre-1951 | Swing | Post-1951 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Member | Margin | Margin | Member | Party | ||||
| Australian Capital Territory, ACT | Template:Australian party style| | Independent | Lewis Nott | 3.8 | 6.7 | 2.9 | Jim Fraser | Labor | Template:Australian party style| |
| Ballaarat, Vic | Template:Australian party style| | Liberal | Alan Pittard | 0.4 | 1.6 | 1.2 | Bob Joshua | Labor | Template:Australian party style| |
| Hume, NSW | Template:Australian party style| | Country | Charles Anderson | 1.0 | 1.3 | 0.3 | Arthur Fuller | Labor | Template:Australian party style| |
| Kingston, SA | Template:Australian party style| | Liberal | Jim Handby | 1.6 | 3.4 | 1.8 | Pat Galvin | Labor | Template:Australian party style| |
| Leichhardt, Qld | Template:Australian party style| | Country | Tom Gilmore | 1.0 | 1.3 | 0.3 | Harry Bruce | Labor | Template:Australian party style| |
| Wannon, Vic | Template:Australian party style| | Liberal | Dan Mackinnon | 0.8 | 1.9 | 1.1 | Don McLeod | Labor | Template:Australian party style| |
Opinion polling
| Date published | Pollster | Liberal–Country | Labor | Other | Lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 April 1951 | 1951 election | 50.34% | 47.63% | 2.03% | style="background:Template:Party color; color:#95c3f3;"|2.71% |
| April 1951[8] | Gallup | 49% | 43% | 1% | style="background:Template:Party color; color:#95c3f3;"|6% |
| March 1951[8] | Gallup | 49% | 44% | 1% | style="background:Template:Party color; color:#95c3f3;"|5% |
| December 1950[9][8] | Gallup | 52% | 47% | 1% | style="background:Template:Party color; color:#95c3f3;"|5% |
| November 1950[10] | Gallup | 50% | 49% | 1% | style="background:Template:Party color; color:#95c3f3;"|1% |
| August 1950[10] | Gallup | 57% | 42% | 1% | style="background:Template:Party color; color:#95c3f3;"|15% |
| 5 May 1950[11] | Gallup | 54% | 46% | 1% | style="background:Template:Party color; color:#95c3f3;"|9% |
| April 1950[12] | Gallup | 54% | 46% | — | style="background:Template:Party color; color:#95c3f3;"|8% |
| 24 March 1950[11] | Gallup | 54% | 46% | — | style="background:Template:Party color; color:#95c3f3;"|8% |
| February 1950[12][11] | Gallup | 56% | 44% | — | style="background:Template:Party color; color:#95c3f3;"|12% |
| 10 December 1949 | 1949 election | 50.26% | 45.98% | 3.76% | style="background:Template:Party color; color:#95c3f3;"|4.28% |
See also
- Candidates of the 1951 Australian federal election
- Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1951–1954
- Members of the Australian Senate, 1951–1953
Notes
References
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External links
- University of WA Template:Webarchive election results in Australia since 1890
- AEC 2PP vote
- Adam Carr's Election Archive - Senate 1951
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