1943 Australian federal election

1943 Australian federal election
← outgoing members elected members →
All 75 seats in the House of Representatives; 38 seats were needed for a majority in the House ; 19 (of the 36) seats in the Senate
Registered	4,466,637 5.36%
Turnout	4,245,369 (96.32%); (1.50 pp)
	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

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

House of Representatives

1943 Australian Federal Election (House of Representatives)

Australian federal election, 21 August 1943^[3] House of Representatives << 1940–1946 >>
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

Senate (P BV) — 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
		Country–UAP 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

Seat	Pre-1943				Swing	Post-1943
Seat	Party		Member	Margin	Swing	Margin	Member	Party
Adelaide, SA		United Australia	Fred Stacey	4.7	20.3	15.6	Cyril Chambers	Labor
Barker, SA		Country	Archie Cameron^[f]	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^[f]	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

Notes

^ Turnout in contested seats
^ 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.
^ 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]
^ The total for the Coalition. Country Party total was: 350,378.
^ Including Northern Territory
^ ^a ^b Ran as candidate for the UAP

References

^ "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.
^ "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.
^ "Australian Legislative Election of 21 August 1943: The House of Representatives". psephos.adam-carr.net.
^ "Federal election results 1901–2016". Parliament of Australia. 31 March 2017. Retrieved 24 March 2022.

External links

University of WA Archived 18 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine election results in Australia since 1890
Two-party-preferred vote since 1937

[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.

[5] 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]

[6] The total for the Coalition. Country Party total was: 350,378.

[8] Including Northern Territory

[UAP-10] Ran as candidate for the UAP

[3] "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.

[4] "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.

[7] "Australian Legislative Election of 21 August 1943: The House of Representatives". psephos.adam-carr.net.

[9] "Federal election results 1901–2016". Parliament of Australia. 31 March 2017. Retrieved 24 March 2022.

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