1931 Australian federal election

1931 Australian federal election

←  1929 19 December 1931 1934  →
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All 76 [a] seats of the House of Representatives 38 seats were needed for a majority in the House 18 (of the 36) seats of the Senate
Registered	3,649,954 3.13%
Turnout	3,286,474 (95.04%) [b] (0.19 pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Joseph Lyons Earle Page James Scullin Party United Australia Country Labor Leader since 7 May 1931 5 April 1921 26 April 1928 Leader's seat Wilmot (Tas.) Cowper (NSW) Yarra (Vic.) Last election New party 10 seats 46 seats Seats before 24 seats 10 seats 36 seats Seats won 33 [c] 16 15 + NT [a] Seat change 14 6 21 Primary  vote 1,155,809 388,544 860,260 Percentage 36.4% 12.2% 27.1% Swing New party 1.9% 21.7%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   ECSA IND Leader Jack Lang "N/A" N/A Party Lang Labor Emergency Committee Independents Leader since N/A 31 July 1923 N/A Leader's seat N/A N/A N/A Last election New party New party 4 seats Seats before 5 seats 0 seats Seats won 4 5 [c] 3 seats Seat change 1 5 1 Primary  vote 335,309 174,288 260,786 Percentage 10.6% 5.5% 6% Swing 10.6% New party –0.02
Results by division for the House of Representatives, shaded by winning party's margin of victory.
Prime Minister before election James Scullin Labor Subsequent Prime Minister Joseph Lyons United Australia

Red-baiting poster from the 1931 election.

The 1931 Australian federal election was held on 19 December 1931 to elect all 75 seats in the House of Representatives and 18 of the 36 seats in the Senate.

The incumbent first-term Australian Labor Party (ALP) government led by Prime Minister James Scullin was defeated in a landslide by the United Australia Party (UAP) led by Joseph Lyons. As of 2025, this is the last time that a sitting government at federal level has been defeated after a single term.

The election was held at a time of great social and political upheaval, coming at the peak of the Great Depression in Australia. The UAP had only been formed a few months before the election, when Lyons and a few ALP dissidents joined forces with the Nationalist Party and the Australian Party. Although it was dominated by former Nationalists, Lyons became the merged party's leader, with Nationalist leader John Latham as his deputy.

Scullin's position eroded further when five left-wing Labor MPs from New South Wales who supported NSW Premier Jack Lang broke away and moved to the crossbenches in protest of Scullin's economic policy, reducing Scullin to a minority government. Late in 1931, they supported a UAP no-confidence motion and brought down the government. The two Labor factions were decimated; massive vote-splitting left them with only 18 seats between them (14 for the official ALP and four for the Langites).

Prior to the election, it was assumed that the Country Party, led by Earle Page, would hold the balance of power, and Page tentatively agreed to support the UAP if that were the case. The two parties campaigned separately and stood candidates against each other in the House of Representatives, but ran joint tickets in Senate. However, the UAP came up four seats short of a majority. The five MPs from the Emergency Committee of South Australia, which contested the election in that state in place of the UAP and Country Party, joined the UAP party room, giving the UAP enough numbers to form a majority government by two seats. Page was still willing to form a coalition with the Country Party, but negotiations broke down and Lyons decided the UAP would govern by itself. As a result, the First Lyons Ministry was composed solely of UAP members. ^[1]

Labor spent the next 10 years in opposition; it did not return to power until 1941.

Issues

The election was dominated by the Great Depression in Australia, which was at its height. As the Labor government had come to office two days before the Wall Street crash of 1929, it was seen as being responsible for many of the economic and social problems Australia faced, which sparked the historic Australian Labor Party split of 1931 in which Lyons and four other Labor dissidents crossed the floor to the opposition, ultimately merging into the UAP. Although the UAP, like the Nationalists, was a mostly upper- and middle-class conservative party. However, the presence of Lyons and other ex-Labor MPs allowed the party to project an image of national unity.

By the time the writs were issued, official Labor and Lang Labor were in open warfare. Combined with the Labor defections to the UAP, this made a UAP victory all but certain. Due to the massive vote splitting brought on by a large number of three-cornered contests, Labor tallied its lowest primary vote since Federation, while the two Labor factions, official Labor and Lang Labor, won only 18 seats between them, with official Labor losing a record 32 seats on a massive 15.2% swing to the UAP.

The two Labor factions did not reunite until 1936.

Results

House of Representatives

See also: Results of the Australian federal election, 1931 (House of Representatives)

House of Representatives (IRV) – Turnout: 95.04% (CV)

Party			Primary vote			Seats
			Votes	%	Swing (pp)	Seats	Change
	United Australia Party	UAP	1,155,809	36.4	+36.4	33 [c]	15
	Country	CP	388,544	12.2	+1.93	16	6
	Labor	ALP	860,260	27.1	–21.74	16 [d]	22
	Emergency Committee	ECSA	174,288	5.5	+5.5	5 [c]	6
	Labor (NSW)	L (NSW)	335,309	10.6	+10.6	4	1
	Communist	CPA	8,511	0.3	+0.3	0	0
	Independent		260,786	6	–0.02	3	1
Total			3,287,992	100.00	—	76	—
Valid votes			3,173,515	96.52	—	—	—
Informal ballots			114,477	3.5
Turnout			3,287,992	90
Registered voters			3,652,196	—

Popular vote United Australia   36.4% Labor   27.1% Country   12.2% Labor (NSW)   10.6% Independent   6.0% Emergency Committee   5.5% Communist   0.3%

Parliament seats United Australia   43.4% Country   21.1% Labor   19.7% Emergency Committee   6.6% Labor (NSW)   5.3% Independent   3.9%

Results by electorate

Constituency	Total seats	Seats won
		UAP	CP	ALP	ECSA	L (NSW)	Independent
New South Wales	28	13	8	3	0	4	0
Victoria	20	12	4	4	0	0	0
Queensland	10	2	2	5	0	0	1
South Australia	7	0	0	1	5	0	1
Western Australia	5	1	2	1	0	0	1
Tasmania	5	5	0	0	0	0	0
Northern Territory	1	0	0	1	0	0	0
Total	76	33	16	15	5	4	3

Senate

Senate (P BV) — 1931–34—Turnout 95.02% (CV) — Informal 9.60%

Party		Votes	%	Swing	Seats won	Seats held	Change
	UAP/Country (Joint Ticket)	945,741	30.16	*	6
	Australian Labor Party	917,218	29.25	−19.70	3	10	+3
	United Australia Party	791,870	25.26	−14.02	9	21	−3
	Australian Labor Party (NSW)	379,870	12.12	*	0	0	0
	Communist Party of Australia	29,443	0.94	*	0	0	0
	Country Party	*	*	−11.18	0	5	0
	Independents	71,181	2.27	+1.68	0	0	0
	Total	3,135,323			18	36

Results by electorate

Constituency	Total seats	Seats won
		UAP	CP	ALP
New South Wales	3	2	1	0
Victoria	3	3	0	0
Queensland	3	0	0	3
South Australia	3	2	1	0
Western Australia	3	2	1	0
Tasmania	3	3	0	0
Total	18	12	3	3

Seats changing hands

Seat	Pre-1931				Swing	Post-1931
	Party		Member	Margin		Margin	Member	Party
Adelaide, SA		Labor	George Edwin Yates	11.4	21.0	9.6	Fred Stacey	Emergency Committee
Angas, SA		Labor	Moses Gabb	4.7	31.5	26.8	Moses Gabb	Ind. Emergency Committee [c]
Ballaarat, Vic		Labor	Charles McGrath	7.4	20.7	13.3	Charles McGrath	United Australia
Barton, NSW		Labor	James Tully	17.6	20.8	3.2	Albert Lane	United Australia
Bass, Tas		Labor	Allan Guy	10.4	24.9	14.5	Allan Guy	United Australia
Batman, Vic		Labor	Frank Brennan	25.8	26.6	0.8	Samuel Dennis	United Australia
Bendigo, Vic		Labor	Richard Keane	5.1	14.6	9.5	Eric Harrison	United Australia
Boothby, SA		Labor	John Price	5.6	29.6	24.0	John Price	Emergency Committee
Brisbane, Qld		United Australia	Donald Charles Cameron	2.4	3.1	0.7	George Lawson	Labor
Calare, NSW		Labor	George Gibbons	1.6	11.7	10.1	Harold Thorby	Country
Corangamite, Vic		Labor	Richard Crouch	2.1	15.0	12.9	William Gibson	Country
Corio, Vic		Labor	Arthur Lewis	6.0	16.6	10.6	Richard Casey	United Australia
Dalley, NSW		Labor	Ted Theodore	N/A	8.9	14.0	Sol Rosevear	Labor (NSW)
Darling Downs, Qld		United Australia	Arthur Morgan	N/A	17.7	9.8	Littleton Groom	Independent
Denison, Tas		Labor	Charles Culley	9.2	14.2	5.0	Arthur Hutchin	United Australia
East Sydney, NSW		Labor (NSW)	Eddie Ward	5.7	11.7	1.7	John Clasby	United Australia
Eden-Monaro, NSW		Labor	John Cusack	0.1	13.7	13.6	John Perkins	United Australia
Fawkner, Vic		Independent Nationalist	George Maxwell	N/A	21.7	20.3	George Maxwell	United Australia
Flinders, Vic		Labor	Jack Holloway	0.2	18.5	18.3	Stanley Bruce	United Australia
Franklin, Tas		Labor	Charles Frost	1.9	13.0	17.9	Archibald Blacklow	United Australia
Fremantle, WA		Labor	John Curtin	7.0	13.5	5.5	William Watson	United Australia
Grey, SA		Labor	Andrew Lacey	9.6	17.1	7.5	Philip McBride	Emergency Committee
Gwydir, NSW		Labor	Lou Cunningham	3.7	13.5	9.8	Aubrey Abbott	Country
Hume, NSW		Labor	Parker Moloney	6.6	14.1	7.5	Thomas Collins	Country
Hunter, NSW		Labor	Rowley James	100.0	57.2	7.2	Rowley James	Labor (NSW)
Indi, Vic		Labor	Paul Jones	1.4	14.4	13.0	William Hutchinson	United Australia
Lang, NSW		Labor	William Long	16.2	20.4	4.2	Dick Dein	United Australia
Macquarie, NSW		Labor	Ben Chifley	15.6	16.2	0.6	John Lawson	United Australia
Maribyrnong, Vic		Labor	James Fenton	23.2	23.6	0.4	James Fenton	United Australia
Martin, NSW		Labor	John Eldridge	6.4	22.7	16.3	William Holman	United Australia
North Sydney, NSW		Independent Nationalist	Billy Hughes	16.1	23.6	7.5	Billy Hughes	United Australia
Oxley, Qld		United Australia	James Bayley	0.1	5.9	5.8	Francis Baker	Labor
Parramatta, NSW		Labor	Albert Rowe	3.3	19.5	16.2	Frederick Stewart	United Australia
Reid, NSW		Labor	Percy Coleman	N/A	55.3	5.3	Joe Gander	Labor (NSW)
South Sydney, NSW		Labor	Edward Riley	16.3	21.4	5.1	John Jennings	United Australia
Wannon, Vic		Labor	John McNeill	2.0	14.3	12.3	Thomas Scholfield	United Australia
Wentworth, NSW		Independent Nationalist	Walter Marks	8.3	58.3	15.8	Eric Harrison	United Australia
Werriwa, NSW		Labor	Bert Lazzarini	15.4	17.1	1.7	Walter McNicoll	Country
West Sydney, NSW		Labor	Jack Beasley	36.5	11.4	15.1	Jack Beasley	Labor (NSW)
Wimmera, Vic		Country Progressive	Percy Stewart	N/A	21.8	11.8	Hugh McClelland	Country
Wilmot, Tas		Labor	Joseph Lyons	2.9	25.0	22.1	Joseph Lyons	United Australia

• Members listed in italics did not contest their seat at this election.

See also

• Candidates of the Australian federal election, 1931
• Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1931–1934
• Members of the Australian Senate, 1932–1935

Notes

1. 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.
2. Turnout in contested seats
3. Labor-turned-Independent MP Moses Gabb was endorsed in the Division of Angas by the Emergency Committee of South Australia (formed by the state UAP for this election) who did not run their own candidate in Angas. Though Gabb is often listed as Emergency Committee, he remained an Independent and did not help form or sit with the government and as such has been removed from government tallies, meaning that though six MPs are listed elected as Emergency Committee candidates, there were only five Emergency Committee MPs.
4. Including Northern Territory

References

1. Page, Sir Earle Christmas (1880–1961), Australian Dictionary of Biography

External links

• University of WA Archived 18 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine election results in Australia since 1890
• Two-party-preferred vote since 1919

Further reading

• Cook, Peter. "Labor and the Premiers' Plan." Labour History (1969): 97–110. in JSTOR
• Denning, Warren, and Alan Douglas Reid. Caucus crisis: the rise & fall of the Scullin government (Hale & Iremonger, 1982)
• Head, Brian. "Economic crisis and political legitimacy: the 1931 federal election." Journal of Australian Studies (1978) 2#3 pp: 14–29. online
• Richardson, Nick. "The 1931 Australian Federal Election—Radio Makes History." Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television (2010) 30#3 pp: 377–389. DOI:10.1080/01439685.2010.505037
• Roberts, Stephen H. "The Crisis in Australia: September, 1930-January, 1932." Pacific Affairs (1932) 5#4 pp: 319-332. in JSTOR
• Robinson, Geoff. "The Australian class structure and Australian politics 1931-40." APSA 2008: Australasian Political Science Association 2008 Conference. Australasian Political Science Association, 2008. online
• Robertson, J. R. "Scullin as Prime Minister: seven critical decisions." Labour History (1969): 27–36. in JSTOR
• Robertson, John. J.H. Scullin: A political biography (University of Western Australia Press, 1974)