The election was held following a period of parliamentary instability, with the Nationalists governing in minority. The main issue of the campaign was Hughes' leadership, which had become increasingly divisive and led to anti-Hughes factions running against endorsed Nationalists. The opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP), led by Matthew Charlton, emerged as the largest single party in the House but with no reasonable prospect of forming government. Page and the Country Party strengthened their parliamentary position and won a clear balance of power, which they used to force Hughes' resignation. A new government was not formed until February 1923, with Bruce as prime minister and Page as deputy prime minister.
A vote of confidence held in October 1921 on the government's budget passed by only a single vote, when Country MP Alexander Hay abstained from voting.[2] The following month, Hughes made an explicit offer of cabinet portfolios to Page, but on 30 November the Country Party "resolved to have no compromise with Hughes, but to concentrate on getting enough members at the next election to control parliament and insist on his removal".[3]
ALP leader Frank Tudor died in office in January 1922, after a long period of ill health.[4] He was replaced as party leader and opposition leader by New South Wales MP Matthew Charlton, who had been acting leader for some time, although he was not formally confirmed in the position until May 1922.[5][6]
Campaign
According to Hughes' biographer L. F. Fitzhardinge, "observers noted that the campaign that followed was one of the dullest on record, all parties being received with equal indifference".[7]Gavin Souter's history of the Australian Parliament likewise describes the 1922 election as "probably the dullest yet in federal history".[8]
Nationalist Party
Hughes opened the Nationalist campaign on 4 October 1922 at the Willoughby Town Hall in Chatswood, New South Wales. Following an electoral redistribution, he had declined to recontest his existing seat of Bendigo in Victoria and instead returned to his home state of New South Wales to contest the safe Nationalist seat of North Sydney. The government's platform included a constitutional convention, the introduction of industrial tribunals, public service reforms and acceleration of the construction of Canberra. Hughes also promised to reduce government regulation of the coal and sugar industries, increase government-sponsored migration and provide more assistance to farmers.[9]
For many voters, Hughes' leadership was the defining issue of the election. In Melbourne, disaffected liberals – including Hughes' former treasurer William Watt – stood on explicit anti-Hughes platform, with John Latham running under the slogan "Hughes must go!". The Nationalists in South Australia split into the pro-Hughes National Labor faction and the anti-Hughes Liberal Union faction, running separate House and Senate candidates.[7]
Charlton presented the ALP's campaign speech on the same day in Maitland, New South Wales, a "long and prosy exposition of orthodox Labor policies".[7] He advocated "policies of national development under a unified government with regional devolution of powers, tariff protection and limited immigration".[10] Charlton was briefly hospitalised during the campaign.[10]
Several ALP breakaway groups contested the election in opposition to official ALP candidates. New South Wales MP James Catts was expelled from the ALP in April 1922 and subsequently made "lurid allegations of corruption". He recontested his seat for a new Majority Labor Party which fielded seven candidates at the election.[11] On the left, Michael Considine quit the ALP in 1920 and recontested his seat for the Industrial Socialist Labor Party.[12]
Country Party
The Country Party platform presented by Page included decentralisation, reduction in government expenditure and public debt, tariff and agricultural marketing reforms, and rural credits (a form of government subsidy for primary producers).[13] He also supported placing the Commonwealth Bank under an independent board, tasked with supporting national development projects.[14] His speech was critical of Hughes, alleging broken promises and describing the prime minister as having "total disregard of the financial position of the country".[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.
↑Fitzhardinge, Laurence (1979). William Morris Hughes: A Political Biography / Vol. 2: The Little Digger, 1914–1952. Angus & Robertson. p.501. ISBN0207132453.
↑Souter, Gavin (1988). Acts of Parliament: A Narrative History of the Senate and House of Representatives. Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press. p.192. ISBN0522843670.
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