1950 Tasmanian state election

The 1950 Tasmanian state election was held on 6 May 1950 in the Australian state of Tasmania to elect 30 members of the Tasmanian House of Assembly. The election used the Hare-Clark proportional representation system — six members were elected from each of five electorates.

1950 Tasmanian state election

6 May 1950
All 30 seats to the House of Assembly
First party Second party   Leader Robert Cosgrove Rex Townley Party Labor Liberal Leader since 25 February 1948 6 February 1950 Leader's seat Denison Denison Last election 15 seats 12 seats Seats won 15 seats 14 seats Seat change 0 2 Percentage 48.63% 47.57% Swing 0.75 9.73
Results of the election
Premier before election Robert Cosgrove Labor Elected Premier Robert Cosgrove Labor

Following the 1948 election, Premier Robert Cosgrove and the Labor Party remained in government with the support of independent MHA Bill Wedd. At the 1950 election, Cosgrove was seeking another term in office against the opposition Liberal Party, which had replaced Neil Campbell with Rex Townley as leader in February 1950.

At the election, Labor retained 15 seats in the House of Assembly, and the Liberals regained one seat previously held by an independent, whilst Rex Townley, formerly an Independent Liberal, retained his seat as a Liberal.

Results

See also: Results of the Tasmanian state election, 1950

Party		Votes	%	+/–	Seats	+/–
	Labor	70,976	48.63	0.75	15
	Liberal[a]	69,429	47.57	9.73	14	2
	Independents	5,453	3.74	2.10	1	1
	Communist	86	0.06	0.06	0
Total		145,944	100.00	–	30	–
Valid votes		145,944	95.52
Invalid/blank votes		6,841	4.48	0.53
Total votes		152,785	100.00	–
Registered voters/turnout		161,650	94.52	2.28

Popular vote Labor   48.63% Liberal   47.57% Independents   3.74% Communist   0.06%

Seats Labor   50.00% Liberal   46.67% Independents   3.33%

^a Rex Townley joined the Liberal Party before the election, and had a personal vote of 3.88% in 1948 (19.97% of the Denison vote), so the actual net difference in votes between 1948 and 1950 was 5.85%.

Distribution of votes

Primary vote by division

	Bass	Darwin	Denison	Franklin	Wilmot
Labor Party	54.2%	52.4%	46.2%	44.5%	51.2%
Liberal Party	45.8%	46.8%	44.1%	46.8%	48.8%
Other	—	0.9%	9.6%	8.7%	—

Distribution of seats

Electorate	Seats won
Bass
Darwin
Denison
Franklin
Wilmot

	Labor
	Liberal
	Independent

See also

• Members of the Tasmanian House of Assembly, 1950–1955
• Candidates of the 1950 Tasmanian state election

External links

• Assembly Election Results, 1950, Parliament of Tasmania.
• Report on General Election, 1950, Tasmanian Electoral Commission.