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All 65 seats in the Victorian Legislative Assembly 33 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1920 Victorian state election was held in the Australian state of Victoria on Thursday 21 October 1920 to elect the 65 members of the state's Legislative Assembly. [1]
The Nationalist party had reunited after the 1917 election in which the Nationalist members supporting John Bowser defeated those supporting the former premier Alexander Peacock over his decision to increase country rail fares, and formed a majority government with 40 members. Bowser resigned as premier in March 1918, having little taste for the office, and was replaced by Peacock supporter Harry Lawson.
Meanwhile, in rural Victoria, the Victorian Farmers' Union had been gathering support and was looking to gain more seats from the Nationalists in these regions. This election would be their debut as a major force in Victorian politics where neither the Nationalists and their successors or Labor could form government without their support (or that of their successors, the Country Party) until 1952.
1920 Victorian state election [1] [2] | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enrolled voters | 735,054 | |||||
| Votes cast | 468,223 | Turnout | 63.70 | +9.49 | ||
| Informal votes | 20,593 | Informal | 4.40 | +1.25 | ||
| Summary of votes by party | ||||||
| Party | Primary votes | % | Swing | Seats | Change | |
| Nationalist | 214,650 | 47.95 | −9.03 | 30 | –10 | |
| Labor | 131,083 | 29.28 | –3.00 | 20 | +2 | |
| Victorian Farmers | 64,500 | 14.41 | +8.28 | 13 | +9 | |
| Ind. Nationalist | 22,448 | 5.01 | * | 1 | +1 | |
| Independent | 14,949 | 3.34 | +0.98 | 1 | +1 | |
| Total | 447,630 | 65 | ||||
Notes:
William Alexander Watt was an Australian politician. He served two terms as Premier of Victoria before entering federal politics in 1914. He then served as a minister in the government of Billy Hughes from 1917 to 1920, including as acting prime minister during World War I, and finally as Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1923 to 1926.
Sir Alexander James Peacock was an Australian politician who served as the 20th Premier of Victoria.
Sir John Bowser, Australian politician, was the 26th Premier of Victoria. He was born in London, the son of an army officer, and arrived in Melbourne as a child with his family. He grew up at Bacchus Marsh and when he left school got a job with the Bacchus Marsh Express. As a young man he went to Scotland and worked on newspapers while studying at University of Edinburgh. Returning to Australia, he settled in Wangaratta, where he farmed and managed the Wangaratta Chronicle, which he eventually bought.
Sir Harry Sutherland Wightman Lawson KCMG, was an Australian politician who served as Premier of Victoria from 1918 to 1924. He later entered federal politics, serving as a Senator for Victoria from 1929 to 1935, and was briefly a minister in the Lyons government. He was a member of the Nationalist Party until 1931, when it was subsumed into the United Australia Party.
George Michael "Mick" Prendergast was an Australian politician who served as the 28th Premier of Victoria. He was born to Irish emigrant parents in Adelaide, but he grew up in Stawell, Victoria. He was apprenticed as a printer, and worked as a compositor in Ballarat, Sydney and Narrandera before settling in Melbourne in 1887. A member of the Typographical Association, he represented that union at the Melbourne Trades Hall, of which he was President in 1893.
John Allan was an Australian politician who served as the 29th Premier of Victoria. He was born near Lancefield, where his father was a farmer of Scottish origin, and educated at state schools. He took up wheat and dairy farming at Wyuna and was director of a butter factory at Kyabram. In 1892 he married Annie Stewart, with whom he had six children.
Edmond John "Ned" Hogan was an Australian politician who was the 30th Premier of Victoria. He was born in Wallace, Victoria, where his Irish-born parents were small farmers. After attending a Roman Catholic primary school, he became a farm worker and then a timber worker, and spent some time on the goldfields of Western Australia.
Sir Stanley Seymour Argyle KBE, MRCS, LRCP, was an Australian radiologist and politician. He served as premier of Victoria from 1932 to 1935 and was the state leader of the Nationalist Party and United Australia Party from 1930 until his death in 1940.
Sir Albert Arthur Dunstan, KCMG was an Australian politician who served as the 33rd premier of Victoria from 1935 to 1943 and from 1943 to 1945 and as the third deputy premier of Victoria for five days in March 1935. A member of the Country Party, now the National Party, his term as premier was the second-longest in the state's history and the longest of any third-party premier. He was the first person to hold the office of premier in its own right, and not an additional duty taken up by the Treasurer, Attorney-General or Chief Secretary.
Sir William Murray McPherson, KBE was an Australian philanthropist and politician. He was the 31st Premier of Victoria.
The Victorian Farmers' Union (VFU) was an association of farmers and primary producers formed in 1914 in the Australian state of Victoria. Although initially formed as an "absolutely non-political" entity, the VFU became a political party in 1916, and nominated candidates for the 1917 state election and subsequent elections. In later years it used the names Victorian Country Party, then United Country Party and is now the National Party of Australia – Victoria. At the 1917 election, because the support for the VFU was concentrated in rural seats, it won four of the 11 seats in the Victorian Legislative Assembly it contested, gaining about 6% of the vote state-wide. In 1918 it also won its first seat in the federal parliament, after preferential voting was introduced. At the 1920 state election the VFU vote increased to 8% and the number of seats to 13, giving the VFU the balance of power in the state Legislative Assembly.
Thomas Tunnecliffe was an Australian politician. Representing the Australian Labor Party, he was a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly for the electorates of West Melbourne (1903–1904), Eaglehawk (1907–1920) and Collingwood (1921–1947).
The 1955 Victorian state election was held in the Australian State of Victoria on Saturday, 28 May 1955 to elect 65 members of the state's Legislative Assembly.
The 1950 Victorian state election was held in the Australian state of Victoria on Saturday 13 May 1950 to elect 65 members of the state's Legislative Assembly.
The 1932 Victorian state election was held in the Australian state of Victoria on Saturday 14 May 1932 to elect 44 of the 65 members of the state's Legislative Assembly. The other 21 seats were uncontested.
The 1924 Victorian state election was held in the Australian state of Victoria on Thursday 26 June 1924 to elect the 65 members of the state's Legislative Assembly.
The 1917 Victorian state election was held in the Australian state of Victoria on Thursday 15 November 1917 for the state's Legislative Assembly. 51 of the 65 Legislative Assembly seats were contested.
The 1914 Victorian state election was held in the Australian state of Victoria on Thursday, 26 November 1914 to elect 49 of the 65 members of the state's Legislative Assembly.
The Victorian Labor Party, officially known as the Australian Labor Party and commonly referred to simply as Victorian Labor, is the Victorian state branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). Victorian Labor forms the incumbent government in the state of Victoria and is led by Jacinta Allan, who has served concurrently as Premier of Victoria since 2023.
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.
