1951 Australian federal election

1951 Australian federal election
	28 April 1951
All 123[lower-alpha 1] seats of the House of Representatives; 61 seats were needed for a majority in the House ; All 60 seats of the Senate
	Opinion polls
Registered	4,981,965 1.4%
Turnout	4,565,899 (92%); (5.1 pp)
	Popular vote by state with graphs indicating the number of seats won. Seat totals are not determined by popular vote by state but instead via results in each electorate.
Prime Minister before election; Robert Menzies; Liberal/Country coalition	Subsequent Prime Minister ; Robert Menzies; Liberal/Country coalition

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,[2] and secured a majority in the Senate.[3] This was the last time the Labor party ever held a Senate majority. 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.[4] 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.

Results

House of Representatives

Labor: 52 seats

Liberal: 52 seats

Country: 17 seats

House of Reps (IRV) — 1951–54—Turnout 96.00% (CV) — Informal 1.90%
Party			Votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Liberal–Country coalition		2,298,512	50.34	+0.08	69	–5
		Liberal	1,854,799	40.62	+1.23	52	–3
		Country	443,713	9.72	–1.15	17	–2
	Labor		2,174,840	47.63	+1.65	54[lower-alpha 2]	+6
	Communist		44,782	0.98	+0.09	0	0
	Independents		47,765	1.05	–1.11	0	–1
	Total		4,565,899			123
Two-party-preferred (estimated)
	Liberal–Country coalition		Win	50.70	−0.30	69	−5
	Labor			49.30	+0.30	52	+5

Notes

Three members were elected unopposed – two Labor and one Liberal.

Popular vote

Labor			47.63%
Liberal			40.62%
Country			9.72%
Independent			1.05%
Communist			0.98%

Two-party-preferred vote

Coalition			50.70%
Labor			49.30%

Parliament seats

Coalition			57.02%
Labor			42.98%

Senate

Senate (STV) — 1951–53—Turnout 95.99% (CV) — Informal 7.13%
		Votes	%	Swing	Seats won	Seats held	Change
Liberal–Country coalition		2,198,687	49.70	–0.71	32	32	+6
	Liberal–Country joint ticket	1,925,631	43.52	–1.12	22	N/A	N/A
	Liberal	273,056	6.17	+0.41	10	26	+5
	Country	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	6	+1
Labor		2,029,751	45.88	+0.99	28	28	−6
Communist		93,561	2.11	+0.02	0	0	0
Lang Labor		60,549	1.37	+1.37	0	0	0
Protestant People's		13,090	0.30	–0.59	0	0	0
Henry George Justice		6,015	0.14	+0.14	0	0	0
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
Seat	Party		Member	Margin	Swing	Margin	Member	Party
Australian Capital Territory, ACT		Independent	Lewis Nott	3.8	6.7	2.9	Jim Fraser	Labor
Ballaarat, Vic		Liberal	Alan Pittard	0.4	1.6	1.2	Bob Joshua	Labor
Hume, NSW		Country	Charles Anderson	1.0	1.3	0.3	Arthur Fuller	Labor
Kingston, SA		Liberal	Jim Handby	1.6	3.4	1.8	Pat Galvin	Labor
Leichhardt, Qld		Country	Tom Gilmore	1.0	1.3	0.3	Harry Bruce	Labor
Wannon, Vic		Liberal	Dan Mackinnon	0.8	1.9	1.1	Don McLeod	Labor

Opinion polling

Primary vote[lower-alpha 3]

Notes

The Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory each had one seat, but members for the territories did not have full voting rights until 1966 and did not count toward government formation.
Including Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory
Most of the gallup polls were adjusted to proportion the polls based around the two major party groups (Liberal/Country, Labor). Furthermore, the Country Party was not polled as an individual option but as a part of the Liberal/Country Coalition.

References

"Chapter 21 – Relations with the House of Representatives". Odgers' Australian Senate Practice (14th ed.). Parliament of Australia. Simultaneous dissolutions of 1951. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
"1951 House of Representatives". Psephos Adam Carr's Election Archive. Retrieved 29 May 2022.
"Federal Election Results 1949-1993" (PDF). Parliament of Australia. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
"Commonwealth Bank Bill". Cairns Post. 23 June 1950. p. 1. Retrieved 5 September 2022 – via Trove.

University of WA Archived 18 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine election results in Australia since 1890
AEC 2PP vote
Prior to 1984 the AEC did not undertake a full distribution of preferences for statistical purposes. The stored ballot papers for the 1983 election were put through this process prior to their destruction. Therefore, the figures from 1983 onwards show the actual result based on full distribution of preferences.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[1] The Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory each had one seat, but members for the territories did not have full voting rights until 1966 and did not count toward government formation.

[6] Including Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory

[7] Most of the gallup polls were adjusted to proportion the polls based around the two major party groups (Liberal/Country, Labor). Furthermore, the Country Party was not polled as an individual option but as a part of the Liberal/Country Coalition.

[Odgers-2] "Chapter 21 – Relations with the House of Representatives". Odgers' Australian Senate Practice (14th ed.). Parliament of Australia. Simultaneous dissolutions of 1951. Retrieved 3 September 2022.

[1951_Psephos-3] "1951 House of Representatives". Psephos Adam Carr's Election Archive. Retrieved 29 May 2022.

[4] "Federal Election Results 1949-1993" (PDF). Parliament of Australia. Retrieved 28 June 2018.

[5] "Commonwealth Bank Bill". Cairns Post. 23 June 1950. p. 1. Retrieved 5 September 2022 – via Trove.

Federal elections and referendums in Australia
Federal elections	1901 1903 1906 1910 1913 1914 1917 1919 1922 1925 1928 1929 1931 1934 1937 1940 1943 1946 1949 1951 1953 1954 1955 1958 1961 1963 1964 1966 1967 1969 1970 1972 1974 1975 1977 1980 1983 1984 1987 1990 1993 1996 1998 2001 2004 2007 2010 2013 2016 2019 2022 Next by-elections
Referendums	1906 1910 1911 1913 1916 1917 1919 1926 1928 1937 1944 1946 1948 1951 1967 1973 1974 1977 1984 1988 1999 2017 2023
Elections in: Australian Capital Territory New South Wales Northern Territory Queensland South Australia Tasmania Victoria Western Australia