1953 Queensland state election

Template:Short description Template:Use Australian English Elections were held in the Australian state of Queensland on 7 March 1953 to elect the 75 members of the state's Legislative Assembly. The Labor government was seeking its eighth continuous term in office since the 1932 election. It was the first electoral test for Vince Gair, who had become Premier of Queensland 14 months earlier after the death of Ned Hanlon.

Key dates

Date	Event
6 February 1953	The Parliament was dissolved.
6 February 1953	Writs were issued by the Governor to proceed with an election.
13 February 1953	Close of nominations.
7 March 1953	Polling day, between the hours of 8am and 6pm.
16 March 1953	The Gair Ministry was reconstituted.
5 June 1953	The writ was returned and the results formally declared.
4 August 1953	Parliament was summoned for business.

Results

The result was a considerable swing to the Labor government.

Queensland state election, 7 March 1953 Legislative Assembly << 1950–1956 >>
Enrolled voters		657,349[1]
Votes cast		616,611		Turnout	93.80	+1.29
Informal votes		7,912		Informal	1.28	+0.17
Summary of votes by party
Party		Primary votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
Template:Australian party style |	Template:Australian politics/name	323,882	53.21%	+6.34	50	+ 8
Template:Australian party style |	Template:Australian politics/name	129,633	21.30%	–8.61	8	– 3
Template:Australian party style |	Template:Australian politics/name	114,124	18.75%	–0.50	15	– 5
Template:Australian party style |	Template:Australian politics/name	6,680	1.10%	–0.12	1	± 0
Template:Australian party style |	Template:Australian politics/name	4,103	0.67%	+0.67	0	± 0
Template:Australian party style |	Template:Australian politics/name	3,948	0.65%	+0.28	0	± 0
Template:Australian party style |	Template:Australian politics/name	824	0.13%	–0.42	0	± 0
Template:Australian party style |	Template:Australian politics/name	25,505	4.19%	+2.90	1	± 0
Total		608,699			75

Popular vote Labor   53.21% Liberal   21.30% Country   18.75% NQ Labor   1.10% Social Credit   0.67% Communist   0.65% Independents   4.33%

Seats Labor   66.67% Country   20.00% Liberal   10.67% NQ Labor   1.33% Independents   1.33%

¹ 737,579 electors were enrolled to vote at the election; however, 11 seats (14.7% of the total) were uncontested, eight of them Labor-held seats representing 49,466 enrolled voters, as well as two Country seats representing 20,053 voters and one Liberal seat representing 10,711 voters.

Seats changing party representation

This table lists changes in party representation at the 1953 election.

Seat	Incumbent member	Party		New member	Party
Condamine	Eric Allpass	Template:Australian party style|	Country	Les Diplock	Template:Australian party style|	Labor
Cook	Carlisle Wordsworth	Template:Australian party style|	Country	Bunny Adair	Template:Australian party style|	Labor
Mulgrave	Bob Watson	Template:Australian party style|	Country	Charles English	Template:Australian party style|	Labor
Norman	Louis Luckins	Template:Australian party style|	Liberal	Bill Baxter	Template:Australian party style|	Labor
Roma	William Ewan	Template:Australian party style|	Country	Alfred Dohring	Template:Australian party style|	Labor
Sandgate	Eric Decker	Template:Australian party style|	Liberal	Herbert Robinson	Template:Australian party style|	Labor
Somerset	Duncan MacDonald	Template:Australian party style|	Country	Alexander Skinner	Template:Australian party style|	Labor

• Members listed in italics did not recontest their seats.
• In addition, Labor retained the seat of Kedron, which it had won from the Liberals at the 1951 by-election.

See also

• Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, 1950–1953
• Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, 1953–1956
• Candidates of the Queensland state election, 1953
• Gair Ministry