1943 Australian federal election

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1943 Australian federal election

← 1940 21 August 1943 1946 →

All 75[b] seats in the House of Representatives
38 seats were needed for a majority in the House
19 (of the 36) seats in the Senate
Registered4,466,637 Increase5.36%
Turnout4,245,369 (96.32%)[a]
(Increase1.50 pp)
  First party Second party
 
Leader John Curtin Arthur Fadden
Party Labor Country (Coalition)
Leader since 1 October 1935 (1935-10-01) 12 March 1941 (1941-03-12)[c]
Leader's seat Fremantle (WA) Darling Downs (Qld.)
Last election 32 seats 36 seats
Seats won 49 seats 23 seats
Seat change Increase17 Decrease13
Popular vote 2,058,582 1,248,506[d]
Percentage 49.93% 30.44%
Swing Increase 9.77 Decrease 13.49
TPP 58.20% 41.80%
TPP swing Increase 7.90 Decrease 7.90

Results by division for the House of Representatives, shaded by winning party's margin of victory.

Prime Minister before election

John Curtin
Labor

Subsequent Prime Minister

John Curtin
Labor

Advertisement used by the UAP during the 1943 Australian federal election, its final campaign before the party was wound up

The 1943 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 21 August 1943. All 74 seats in the House of Representatives and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Labor Party, led by Prime Minister John Curtin, defeated the opposition Country–UAP coalition led by Arthur Fadden in a landslide.

Fadden, the leader of the Country Party, was serving as Leader of the Opposition despite the Country Party holding fewer seats in parliament than the United Australia Party (UAP). He was previously the Prime Minister in August 1941, after he was chosen by the coalition parties to lead the government after the forced resignation of Prime Minister Robert Menzies, the UAP leader. However, he stayed in office for only six weeks before the two independents who held the balance of power joined Labor in voting down his budget. Governor-General Lord Gowrie was reluctant to call an election for a parliament barely a year old, especially considering the international situation. At his urging, the independents threw their support to Labor for the remainder of the parliamentary term.

Over the next two years, Curtin proved to be a very popular and effective leader, and the Coalition was unable to get the better of him. A number of groups also split away from the UAP prior to the election, the most prominent of which was the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Labor thus went into the election in a commanding position, and flipped 13 seats on a 7.9% swing, winning 50.2% of the primary vote and 58.2% of the two-party preferred vote.

The Coalition was reduced to 23 seats, including only nine for the Country Party. Notably, Labor won every seat in Western Australia and all but one in South Australia: Archie Cameron, the member for Barker in South Australia, was left as the only Coalition MP outside the eastern states. The LDP did not win any seats.

This election was significant in the fact that it resulted in the election of the first female member of the House of Representatives, the UAP's Enid Lyons for Darwin, Tasmania, and the first female Senator, Labor's Dorothy Tangney, in Western Australia. The election also remains Labor's greatest federal victory in terms of proportion of seats and two-party votes in the lower house, and primary vote in the Senate as of 2022.

The lack of effective opposition to the Labor party in the lead up to and following the election became the catalyst for the creation of the Liberal Party of Australia from the ashes of the UAP, and for George Cole, Keith Murdoch and other big business magnates to form the conservative think tank the Institute of Public Affairs.

This was the last major election that did not involve the current Liberal and Labor Party competition.

Results[edit]

House of Representatives[edit]

1943 Australian Federal Election (House of Representatives)

Australian federal election, 21 August 1943[3]
House of Representatives


<< 19401946 >>

Enrolled voters 4,466,749
Votes cast 4,249,369 Turnout 95.13 +1.27
Informal votes 148,785 Informal 3.50 +0.95
Summary of votes by party
Party Primary votes % Swing Seats Change
  Labor 2,058,582 49.93% +9.77% 49 +13
  United Australia 898,128 21.90% –8.34% 14 –9
  Country 350,378 8.54% –4.97% 9 –4
  One Parliament 87,112 2.11% +2.11% 0 ±0
  Communist 81,816 1.98% +1.98% 0 ±0
  Liberal Democratic 42,149 1.48% +1.48% 0 ±0
  State Labor 29,752 0.72% –1.89% 0 ±0
  Independent 501,054 12.15% +4.69% 3[e] ±0
Total 4,100,584     75  
Popular vote
Labor
49.93%
United Australia
21.90%
Independent
12.15%
Country
8.54%
One Parliament
2.11%
Communist
1.98%
Liberal Democratic
1.48%
State Labor
0.72%
Two-party-preferred vote (estimated)
Labor
58.20%
Coalition
41.80%
Parliament seats
Labor
66.22%
United Australia
18.92%
Country
12.16%
Independent
2.70%

Senate[edit]

Senate (PBV) — 1943–46 — Turnout 96.31% (CV) — Informal 9.73%
Party Votes[4] % Swing Seats won Seats held Change
Labor 2,139,164 55.10 +17.57 19 22 +5
Country– UAP Coalition 1,481,563 38.15 –12.26 0 14 –5
CountryUAP joint ticket (NSW & Vic) 995,910 25.65 ±0
Country–National (Qld) 184,181 4.74 ±0
Liberal & Country League (SA) 148,419 3.82 ±0
Nationalist–Country joint ticket (WA) 101,738 2.62 ±0
United Australia (Tas) 51,315 1.32 ±0
Christian New Order 101,247 2.61 ±0
Queensland Country 37,350 0.96 ±0
One Parliament 29,700 0.77 ±0
Monetary Reform 19,401 0.48 ±0
Independent 75,105 1.93 –0.39 0 0 ±0
Total 3,882,120 100 19 36

Seats changing hands[edit]

Seat Pre-1943 Swing Post-1943
Party Member Margin Margin Member Party
Adelaide, SA   United Australia Fred Stacey 4.7 20.3 15.6 Cyril Chambers Labor  
Barker, SA   Country Archie Cameron* N/A 14.2 1.7 Archie Cameron United Australia  
Boothby, SA   United Australia Grenfell Price 6.6 16.1 0.9 Thomas Sheehy Labor  
Denison, Tas   United Australia Arthur Beck 1.1 10.1 9.0 Frank Gaha Labor  
Eden-Monaro, NSW   United Australia John Perkins 4.8 10.8 5.4 Allan Fraser Labor  
Grey, SA   Country Oliver Badman* 7.7 10.2 2.5 Edgar Russell Labor  
Hume, NSW   Country Thomas Collins 0.9 7.2 6.3 Arthur Fuller Labor  
Lilley, Qld   United Australia William Jolly 9.6 9.9 0.4 Jim Hadley Labor  
Maranoa, Qld   Labor Frank Baker 1.6 2.6 1.0 Charles Adermann Country  
Martin, NSW   United Australia William McCall 2.6 8.3 5.7 Fred Daly Labor  
Parkes, NSW   United Australia Charles Marr 7.4 10.3 2.9 Les Haylen Labor  
Perth, WA   United Australia Walter Nairn 14.5 20.5 6.0 Tom Burke Labor  
Robertson, NSW   United Australia Eric Spooner 0.3 9.2 8.9 Thomas Williams Labor  
Swan, WA   Country Thomas Marwick 7.5 10.5 3.0 Don Mountjoy Labor  
Wakefield, SA   United Australia Jack Duncan-Hughes 3.4 4.6 1.2 Albert Smith Labor  
  • *Oliver Badman and Archie Cameron ran as candidates for the UAP.

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Turnout in contested seats
  2. ^ The Northern Territory had one seat, but members for the territories did not have full voting rights until 1966 and did not count toward government formation.
  3. ^ Fadden was appointed acting leader of the Country Party in October 1940.[1] He remained in that position until a March 1941 Country Party pre-sessional meeting, where Fadden was formally appointed leader of the party.[2]
  4. ^ The total for the Coalition. Country Party total was: 350,378.
  5. ^ Including Northern Territory

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Fadden May Stay As C.P. Leader". The Courier-Mail. No. 2223. Queensland, Australia. 17 October 1940. p. 1. Retrieved 4 June 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. ^ "Mr. Fadden – Country Party Leader". The Canberra Times. Vol. 15, no. 4058. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 13 March 1941. p. 6. Retrieved 4 June 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. ^ "Australian Legislative Election of 21 August 1943: The House of Representatives". psephos.adam-carr.net.
  4. ^ "Federal election results 1901–2016". Parliament of Australia. 31 March 2017. Retrieved 24 March 2022.

External links[edit]