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All 75 seats in the House of Representatives 38 seats were needed for a majority in the House 18 (of the 36) seats in the Senate | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Registered | 2,109,562 11.41% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Turnout | 1,001,593 (47.48%) [a] (8.43 pp) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Results by division for the House of Representatives, shaded by winning party's margin of victory. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1906 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 12 December 1906. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 18 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Protectionist Party minority government led by Prime Minister Alfred Deakin retained government, despite winning the fewest House of Representatives votes and seats of the three parties. Parliamentary support was provided by the Labour Party led by Chris Watson, while the Anti-Socialist Party (renamed from the Free Trade Party), led by George Reid, remained in opposition.
Watson resigned as Labour leader in October 1907 and was replaced by Andrew Fisher. The Protectionist minority government fell in November 1908 to Labour, and a few days later Reid resigned as Anti-Socialist leader, being replaced by Joseph Cook. The Labour minority government fell in June 1909 to the newly formed Commonwealth Liberal Party led by Deakin; this Party was formed on a shared anti-Labour platform as a merger organised between Deakin, the leader of the Protectionists, and Cook, the leader of the Anti-Socialists, to counter Labour's growing popularity. The merger did not sit well with several of the more progressive Protectionists, who defected to Labour or sat as independents.
The merger would allow the Deakin Commonwealth Liberals to construct a mid-term parliamentary majority, however less than a year later, at the 1910 election, Labour won both majority government and a Senate majority, representing a number of firsts: it was Australia's first elected federal majority government, Australia's first elected Senate majority, the world's first Labour Party majority government at a national level, and after the 1904 Watson minority government, the world's second Labour Party government at a national level.
Party | Votes | % | Swing | Seats | Change | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | 348,712 | 36.64 | +6.86 | 26 | +4 | |
Anti-Socialist [b] | 345,781 | 36.33 | +4.60 | 26 | +2 | |
Protectionist | 155,991 | 16.39 | –12.84 | 16 | –10 | |
Western Australian | 22,154 | 2.33 | +2.33 | 2 | +2 | |
Independents/Other | 79,051 | 8.31 | −0.46 | 5 | +3 | |
Total | 951,689 [c] | 75 | ||||
Protectionist/Labour | Win | 42 | −6 | |||
Anti-Socialist | 26 | +2 |
Party | Votes | % | Swing | Seats won | Seats held | Change | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Anti-Socialist [d] | 469,917 | 47.4 | +15.6 | 12 | 17 | +4 | |
Labour | 384,171 | 38.7 | +5.7 | 5 | 15 | +1 | |
Protectionist | 92,931 | 9.4 | −6.7 | 1 | 3 | −5 | |
Independents/Other [e] | 44,871 | 4.5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
Total | 991,850 | 18 | 36 |
It was the third federal election in Australia following the adoption of the federal government. The election was largely important as it would demonstrate which of the parties (if any) could hold together a stable government after the unstable second term of the previous one, which saw four different governments in power. It would also see if all parties could survive the implementation of protectionist policies which differentiated the two. This was also the first election where all seats for the House of Representatives were voted for via a First-past-the-post system (at previous elections some states voted as one electorate, using a bloc vote), and the first time that Tasmania was divided into separate electorates. The election result was the continuation of a Protectionist government led by Deakin and supported by Labour, which remained in power largely due to the unwillingness of the Anti-Socialist Party to support a vote of no confidence against it.
George Reid adopted a strategy of trying to reorient the party system along Labour vs non-Labour lines – before the election, he renamed his Free Trade Party to the Anti-Socialist Party. Reid envisaged a spectrum running from socialist to anti-socialist, with the Protectionist Party in the middle. This attempt struck a chord with politicians who were steeped in the Westminster tradition and regarded a two-party system as very much the norm. [5]
Since the Protectionist primary platform of government tariffs had been dealt with by previous governments, the party had become somewhat redundant. Those who remained were largely supporting the Party's leader, Alfred Deakin, rather than its policies. Of the three, the Labour Party, led by Chris Watson, now had the most realistic chance of becoming the dominant party after their gains in the 1903 election and after their leading status in the four minor states they were looking to make the same type of gains in Victoria and New South Wales.
The first federal referendum in Australia's history was held in conjunction with the election. The proposed alteration to the Constitution, to change the start date of Senators' terms from 1 January to 1 July, passed in all states and was carried.
Seat | Pre-1906 | Swing | Post-1906 | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Member | Margin | Margin | Member | Party | ||||
Balaclava, Vic | Protectionist | George Turner | 100.0 | 41.8 | 4.0 | Agar Wynne | Ind. Protectionist | ||
Barker, SA | Protectionist | Langdon Bonython | 100.0 | 58.1 | 8.1 | John Livingston | Anti-Socialist | ||
Batman, Vic | new division | 1.7 | Jabez Coon | Protectionist | |||||
Bendigo, Vic | Protectionist | John Quick | 1.1 | 51.7 | 1.7 | John Quick | Ind. Protectionist | ||
Brisbane, Qld | Labour | Millice Culpin | 2.1 | 13.4 | 11.3 | Justin Foxton | Anti-Socialist | ||
Capricornia, Qld | Labour | David Thomson | 9.6 | 15.2 | 5.6 | Edward Archer | Anti-Socialist | ||
Cowper, NSW | Anti-Socialist | Henry Lee | 13.0 | 13.9 | 0.9 | John Thomson | Protectionist | ||
Denison, Tas | Protectionist | Philip Fysh | 0.2 | 15.1 | 10.5 | Philip Fysh | Anti-Socialist | ||
Fawkner, Vic | new division | 13.9 | George Fairbairn | Ind. Protectionist | |||||
Franklin, Tas | Revenue Tariff | William McWilliams | 4.6 | 100.0 | 100.0 | William McWilliams | Anti-Socialist | ||
Fremantle, WA | Labour | William Carpenter | 11.3 | 12.2 | 0.9 | William Hedges | Western Australian | ||
Indi, Vic | Protectionist | Isaac Isaacs | 100.0 | 44.4 | 2.7 | Joseph Brown | Anti-Socialist | ||
Macquarie, NSW | Anti-Socialist | Sydney Smith | 4.0 | 51.3 | 1.3 | Ernest Carr | Labour | ||
Maribyrnong, Vic | new division | 6.9 | Samuel Mauger | Protectionist | |||||
Melbourne Ports, Vic | Protectionist | Samuel Mauger | 6.8 | 9.4 | 2.6 | James Mathews | Labour | ||
Moreton, Qld | Ind / Labour | James Wilkinson [f] | 5.8 | 18.3 | 12.5 | Hugh Sinclair | Anti-Socialist | ||
New England, NSW | Anti-Socialist | Edmund Lonsdale | 1.9 | 51.8 | 1.8 | Frank Foster | Labour | ||
Oxley, Qld | Protectionist | Richard Edwards | 2.3 | 14.3 | 16.6 | Richard Edwards | Anti-Socialist | ||
South Sydney, NSW | Anti-Socialist | George Edwards | 6.0 | 12.4 | 6.4 | Chris Watson | Labour | ||
Wannon, Vic | Anti-Socialist | Arthur Robinson | 2.9 | 5.7 | 2.8 | John McDougall | Labour | ||
Werriwa, NSW | Anti-Socialist | Alfred Conroy | 18.7 | 20.5 | 1.8 | David Hall | Labour | ||
Wimmera, Vic | Protectionist | Pharez Phillips | 0.1 | 14.6 | 14.2 | Sydney Sampson | Ind. Protectionist | ||
John Christian Watson was an Australian politician who served as the third prime minister of Australia from 27 April to 18 August 1904. He was the inaugural federal leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1901 to 1907 and was the first member of the party to serve as prime minister.
Sir George Houston Reid was an Australian and British politician, diplomat and barrister who served as the fourth prime minister of Australia from 1904 to 1905. He held office as the leader of the Free Trade Party, previously serving as the 12th premier of New South Wales from 1894 to 1899, and later as the High Commissioner of Australia to the United Kingdom from 1910 to 1916.
The Free Trade Party, officially known as the Free Trade and Liberal Association, and also referred to as the Revenue Tariff Party in some states, was an Australian political party, formally organised in 1887 in New South Wales, in time for the 1887 New South Wales colonial election, which the party won.
The Protectionist Party, also known as the Protectionist Liberal Party or Liberal Protectionist Party, was an Australian political party, formally organised from 1887 until 1909, with policies centred on protectionism. The party advocated protective tariffs, arguing it would allow Australian industry to grow and provide employment. It had its greatest strength in Victoria and in the rural areas of New South Wales. Its most prominent leaders were Sir Edmund Barton and Alfred Deakin, who were the first and second prime ministers of Australia.
The Liberal Party was a parliamentary party in Australian federal politics between 1909 and 1917. The party was founded under Alfred Deakin's leadership as a merger of the Protectionist Party and Anti-Socialist Party, an event known as the Fusion.
Sir Littleton Ernest Groom KCMG KC was an Australian politician. He held ministerial office under four prime ministers between 1905 and 1925, and subsequently served as Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1926 to 1929.
Allan McLean was an Australian politician who served as the 19th Premier of Victoria, in office from 1899 to 1900. He was later elected to federal parliament, where he served as a government minister under George Reid.
The 1901 Australian federal election for the inaugural Parliament of Australia was held in Australia on Friday 29 March and Saturday 30 March 1901. The elections followed Federation and the establishment of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901. All 75 seats in the Australian House of Representatives, six of which were uncontested, as well as all 36 seats in the Australian Senate, were up for election.
The 1903 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 16 December 1903. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Protectionist Party minority government led by Prime Minister Alfred Deakin retained the most House of Representatives seats of the three parties and retained government with the parliamentary support of the Labour Party led by Chris Watson. The Free Trade Party led by George Reid remained in opposition.
The 1910 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 13 April 1910. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 18 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Liberal Party led by Prime Minister Alfred Deakin was defeated by the opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP) led by Andrew Fisher.
The Western Australian Party was a short-lived Australian political party that operated in 1906. It was intended as a liberal party to protect the rights of Western Australians and to oppose the increasingly successful Labor Party, and drew its supporters from the Protectionist Party and the Anti-Socialist Party. John Forrest, a minister in Alfred Deakin's government, accepted the leadership of the party. Candidates were endorsed for all electorates in the 1906 federal election, including Forrest, but by the time of the election enthusiasm for the venture had diffused. The party elected Forrest in Swan and William Hedges in Fremantle.
This article provides information on candidates who stood for the 1906 Australian federal election. The election was held on 12 December 1906.
This article provides information on candidates who stood for the 1910 Australian federal election. The election was held on 13 April 1910.
The history of the Australian Labor Party has its origins in the Labour parties founded in the 1890s in the Australian colonies prior to federation. Labor tradition ascribes the founding of Queensland Labour to a meeting of striking pastoral workers under a ghost gum tree in Barcaldine, Queensland in 1891. The Balmain, New South Wales branch of the party claims to be the oldest in Australia. Labour as a parliamentary party dates from 1891 in New South Wales and South Australia, 1893 in Queensland, and later in the other colonies.
The Watson government was the third federal executive government of the Commonwealth of Australia. It was led by Prime Minister Chris Watson of the Australian Labor Party from 27 April 1904 to 18 August 1904. The Watson government was the first Labor Party national government in both Australia and in the world. Watson was aged just 37 when he became Prime Minister of Australia, and remains the youngest person to have held the post.
The Reid government refers to the period of federal executive government of Australia led by Prime Minister George Reid. It lasted from 18 August 1904 - 5 July 1905. Reid was the sole Prime Minister of Australia to belong to the Free Trade Party. Allan McLean of the Protectionist Party served as deputy.
The Australian states each elected three members of the Australian Senate at the 1910 federal election to serve a six-year term starting on 1 July 1910.
The Liberal Party, often known simply as the Liberals, was the name used by a number of political groupings and parties in the Victorian Parliament from the late 19th century until around 1917.
The National Liberal Union of Queensland, also referred to simply as the Liberals, was an Australian protectionist organisation that was active in the early 1900s. It endorsed candidates at elections and provided extra-parliamentary support for anti-Labour politics.
This is a list of electoral results for the Australian Senate in Victoria since Federation in 1901.