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1951 Australian federal election

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1951 Australian federal election
← 1949 28 April 1951 1954 →
All 123[b] seats of the House of Representatives
61 seats were needed for a majority in the House
All 60 seats of the Senate
Opinion polls
Registered4,962,675 Increase 1.38%
Turnout4,654,406 (96.00%)[a]
(Increase0.03 pp)
  First party Second party
 
Leader Robert Menzies Ben Chifley
Party Liberal (Coalition) Labor
Leader since 21 February 1945 13 July 1945
Leader's seat Kooyong (Vic.) Macquarie (NSW)
Last election 74 seats 47 seats
Seats won 69 52 + NT + ACT
Seat change Decrease5 Increase6
Popular vote 2,298,512 2,174,840
Percentage 50.34% 47.63%
Swing Increase0.08 Increase1.65
TPP 50.70% 49.30%
TPP Decrease0.30 Increase0.30
Results by division for the House of Representatives, shaded by winning party's margin of victory.
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. This was the sixth and last federal election prior to the death of George VI a year later.

Issues

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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.

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,[5][6] and there were proposals for further amendments to Senate voting rules ahead of the election, none of which were passed.[7] In the end, Queensland and Western Australia elected 6–4 Senator majorities to the Coalition; the other states were tied 5–5.[8]

Results

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House of Representatives

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Main article: Results of the 1951 Australian federal election (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[c] +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

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Senate (STV) — 1951–53—Turnout 95.99% (CV) — Informal 7.13%
Party 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

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Seat Pre-1951 Swing Post-1951
Party Member Margin 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

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Australian opinion polling for the election
  Liberal–Country Coalition
  Labor
  Other
Date published Pollster Liberal–Country Labor Other Lead
28 April 1951 1951 election 50.34% 47.63% 2.03% 2.71%
April 1951[9] Gallup 49% 43% 1% 6%
March 1951[9] Gallup 49% 44% 1% 5%
December 1950[10][9] Gallup 52% 47% 1% 5%
November 1950[11] Gallup 50% 49% 1% 1%
August 1950[11] Gallup 57% 42% 1% 15%
5 May 1950[12] Gallup 54% 46% 1% 9%
April 1950[13] Gallup 54% 46% — 8%
24 March 1950[12] Gallup 54% 46% — 8%
February 1950[13][12] Gallup 56% 44% — 12%
10 December 1949 1949 election 50.26% 45.98% 3.76% 4.28%

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Turnout in contested seats
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ Including Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory

References

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  1. ^ "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.
  2. ^ "1951 House of Representatives". Psephos Adam Carr's Election Archive. Retrieved 29 May 2022.
  3. ^ "Federal Election Results 1949-1993" (PDF). Parliament of Australia. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  4. ^ "Commonwealth Bank Bill". Cairns Post. 23 June 1950. p. 1. Retrieved 5 September 2022 – via Trove.
  5. ^ "Referendum to avoid Senate deadlock". The Canberra Times. 5 May 1950. p. 4.
  6. ^ "People and Senate". The Herald. 20 March 1951. p. 4.
  7. ^ "New deadlock looms". The Sydney Morning Herald. 5 March 1951. p. 1.
  8. ^ "The Federal mandate". The West Australian. 25 May 1951. p. 2.
  9. ^ a b c "Gallup Poll Gives It To Menzies". The Daily News. Vol. LXIX, no. 23, 724. Western Australia, Australia. 27 April 1951. p. 1. Retrieved 15 June 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  10. ^ "Gallup Poll". The Advertiser. Vol. 93, no. 28, 780. South Australia, Australia. 6 January 1951. p. 12. Retrieved 15 June 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  11. ^ a b "Gallup Poll". The Advertiser. Vol. 93, no. 28, 743. South Australia. 23 November 1950. p. 4. Retrieved 15 June 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  12. ^ a b c "Gallup Poll". The Advertiser. Vol. 92, no. 28, 589. South Australia, Australia. 27 May 1950. p. 3. Retrieved 15 June 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  13. ^ a b "Gallup opinion". The Courier-Mail. No. 4182. Queensland, Australia. 22 April 1950. p. 5. Retrieved 15 June 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  • 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.
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