1951 Australian federal election

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1951 Australian federal election

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] Chifley died just over a month after the election.

Quick Facts Registered, Turnout ...
1951 Australian federal election

 1949 28 April 1951 1954 

All 123[a] 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 1.38%
Turnout4,654,406 (96.00%)[b]
(0.03 pp)
  First party Second party
  Thumb Thumb
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 5 6
Popular vote 2,298,512 2,174,840
Percentage 50.34% 47.63%
Swing 0.08 1.65
TPP 50.70% 49.30%
TPP 0.30 0.30

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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

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Issues

Summarize
Perspective

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

House of Representatives

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  Labor: 52 seats
  Liberal: 52 seats
  Country: 17 seats
More information Party, Votes ...
House of Reps (IRV) — 1951–54—Turnout 96.00% (CV) — Informal 1.90%
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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
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Notes
  • Three members were elected unopposed – two Labor and one Liberal.
More information Popular vote ...
Popular vote
Labor
47.63%
Liberal
40.62%
Country
9.72%
Independent
1.05%
Communist
0.98%
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More information Two-party-preferred vote ...
Two-party-preferred vote
Coalition
50.70%
Labor
49.30%
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More information Parliament seats ...
Parliament seats
Coalition
57.02%
Labor
42.98%
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Senate

More information Party, Votes ...
Senate (STV) — 1951–53—Turnout 95.99% (CV) — Informal 7.13%
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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
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Seats changing hands

More information Seat, Pre-1951 ...
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  
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Opinion polling

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Australian opinion polling for the election
  Liberal–Country Coalition
  Labor
  Other
More information Date published, Pollster ...
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%
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See also

Notes

  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.
  2. Turnout in contested seats

References

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