1931 Australian federal election

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1931 Australian federal election
Flag of Australia (converted).svg
  1929 19 December 1931 1934  

All 76 [lower-alpha 1] seats of the House of Representatives
38 seats were needed for a majority in the House
18 (of the 36) seats of the Senate
Registered3,649,954 Increase2.svg3.13%
Turnout3,286,474 (95.04%) [lower-alpha 2]
(Increase2.svg0.19 pp)
 First partySecond party
  Joseph Lyons 1932-01 (cropped).jpg Earle Page 1931 (cropped).jpg
Leader Joseph Lyons Earle Page
Party United Australia Country
Leader since7 May 1931 5 April 1921
Leader's seat Wilmot (Tas.) Cowper (NSW)
Last electionNew party10 seats
Seats before24 seats10 seats
Seats won38 [lower-alpha 3] 16
Seat changeIncrease2.svg 14Increase2.svg 6
Popular vote1,155,809388,544
Percentage36.4%12.2%
SwingNew partyIncrease2.svg1.9%

 Third partyFourth party
  Portrait of James H. Scullin (cropped).jpg Jack Lang 1930 03 (cropped).jpg
Leader James Scullin Jack Lang
Party Labor Labor (NSW)
Leader since 26 April 1928 31 July 1923
Leader's seat Yarra (Vic.)
Last election46 seatsNew party
Seats before36 seats5 seats
Seats won15 + NT 4
Seat changeDecrease2.svg 21Decrease2.svg 1
Popular vote860,260335,309
Percentage27.1%10.6%
SwingDecrease2.svg21.7%New party

1931 Australian federal election.svg
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. Smash the Red Wreckers and Save Australia.jpg
Red-baiting poster from the 1931 election.

The 1931 Australian federal election was held on 19 December 1931. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives and 18 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election.

Contents

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 2024, 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 was seen as an upper- and middle-class conservative party, the presence of 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, making 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

House of Representatives (IRV) – Turnout: 95.04% (CV)
1931 Australian House.svg
PartyPrimary voteSeats
Votes %Swing (pp)SeatsChange
United Australia Party UAP1,155,80936.4+36.433 [lower-alpha 3] Increase2.svg 15
Country CP388,54412.2+1.9316Increase2.svg 6
Labor ALP860,26027.1–21.7416 [lower-alpha 4] Decrease2.svg 22
Emergency Committee ECSA174,2885.5+5.55 [lower-alpha 3] Increase2.svg 6
Labor (NSW) L (NSW)335,30910.6+10.64Decrease2.svg 1
Communist CPA8,5110.3+0.30Steady2.svg 0
Independent 260,7866–0.023Decrease2.svg 1
Total3,287,992100.0076
Valid votes3,173,51596.52
Informal ballots114,4773.5
Turnout3,287,99290
Registered voters3,652,196


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

ConstituencyTotal
seats
Seats won
UAP CP ALP ECSA L (NSW) Independent
New South Wales 281383040
Victoria 201244000
Queensland 10225001
South Australia 7001501
Western Australia 5121001
Tasmania 5500000
Northern Territory 1001000
Total76331615543

Senate

Senate (P BV) — 1931–34—Turnout 95.02% (CV) — Informal 9.60%
1931 Australian Senate.svg
PartyVotes %SwingSeats wonSeats heldChange
 UAP/Country (Joint Ticket)945,74130.16*6
  Australian Labor Party 917,21829.2519.70310+3
  United Australia Party 791,87025.2614.029213
  Australian Labor Party (NSW) 379,87012.12*000
  Communist Party of Australia 29,4430.94*000
  Country Party **11.18050
  Independents 71,1812.27+1.68000
 Total3,135,323  1836

Results by electorate

ConstituencyTotal
seats
Seats won
UAP CP ALP
New South Wales 3210
Victoria 3300
Queensland 3003
South Australia 3210
Western Australia 3210
Tasmania 3300
Total181233

Seats changing hands

SeatPre-1931SwingPost-1931
PartyMemberMarginMarginMemberParty
Adelaide, SA  Labor George Edwin Yates 11.421.09.6 Fred Stacey Emergency Committee 
Angas, SA  Labor Moses Gabb 4.731.526.8 Moses Gabb Ind. Emergency Committee [lower-alpha 3]  
Ballaarat, Vic  Labor Charles McGrath 7.420.713.3 Charles McGrath United Australia 
Barton, NSW  Labor James Tully 17.620.83.2 Albert Lane United Australia 
Bass, Tas  Labor Allan Guy 10.424.914.5 Allan Guy United Australia 
Batman, Vic  Labor Frank Brennan 25.826.60.8 Samuel Dennis United Australia 
Bendigo, Vic  Labor Richard Keane 5.114.69.5 Eric Harrison United Australia 
Boothby, SA  Labor John Price 5.629.624.0 John Price Emergency Committee 
Brisbane, Qld  United Australia Donald Charles Cameron 2.43.10.7 George Lawson Labor 
Calare, NSW  Labor George Gibbons 1.611.710.1 Harold Thorby Country 
Corangamite, Vic  Labor Richard Crouch 2.115.012.9 William Gibson Country 
Corio, Vic  Labor Arthur Lewis 6.016.610.6 Richard Casey United Australia 
Dalley, NSW  Labor Ted Theodore N/A8.914.0 Sol Rosevear Labor (NSW) 
Darling Downs, Qld  United Australia Arthur Morgan N/A17.79.8 Littleton Groom Independent 
Denison, Tas  Labor Charles Culley 9.214.25.0 Arthur Hutchin United Australia 
East Sydney, NSW  Labor (NSW) Eddie Ward 5.711.71.7 John Clasby United Australia 
Eden-Monaro, NSW  Labor John Cusack 0.113.713.6 John Perkins United Australia 
Fawkner, Vic  Independent Nationalist George Maxwell N/A21.720.3 George Maxwell United Australia 
Flinders, Vic  Labor Jack Holloway 0.218.518.3 Stanley Bruce United Australia 
Franklin, Tas  Labor Charles Frost 1.913.017.9 Archibald Blacklow United Australia 
Fremantle, WA  Labor John Curtin 7.013.55.5 William Watson United Australia 
Grey, SA  Labor Andrew Lacey 9.617.17.5 Philip McBride Emergency Committee 
Gwydir, NSW  Labor Lou Cunningham 3.713.59.8 Aubrey Abbott Country 
Hume, NSW  Labor Parker Moloney 6.614.17.5 Thomas Collins Country 
Hunter, NSW  Labor Rowley James 100.057.27.2 Rowley James Labor (NSW) 
Indi, Vic  Labor Paul Jones 1.414.413.0 William Hutchinson United Australia 
Lang, NSW  Labor William Long 16.220.44.2 Dick Dein United Australia 
Macquarie, NSW  Labor Ben Chifley 15.616.20.6 John Lawson United Australia 
Maribyrnong, Vic  Labor James Fenton 23.223.60.4 James Fenton United Australia 
Martin, NSW  Labor John Eldridge 6.422.716.3 William Holman United Australia 
North Sydney, NSW  Independent Nationalist Billy Hughes 16.123.67.5 Billy Hughes United Australia 
Oxley, Qld  United Australia James Bayley 0.15.95.8 Francis Baker Labor 
Parramatta, NSW  Labor Albert Rowe 3.319.516.2 Frederick Stewart United Australia 
Reid, NSW  Labor Percy Coleman N/A55.35.3 Joe Gander Labor (NSW) 
South Sydney, NSW  Labor Edward Riley 16.321.45.1 John Jennings United Australia 
Wannon, Vic  Labor John McNeill 2.014.312.3 Thomas Scholfield United Australia 
Wentworth, NSW  Independent Nationalist Walter Marks 8.358.315.8 Eric Harrison United Australia 
Werriwa, NSW  Labor Bert Lazzarini 15.417.11.7 Walter McNicoll Country 
West Sydney, NSW  Labor Jack Beasley 36.511.415.1 Jack Beasley Labor (NSW) 
Wimmera, Vic  Country Progressive Percy Stewart N/A21.811.8 Hugh McClelland Country 
Wilmot, Tas  Labor Joseph Lyons 2.925.022.1 Joseph Lyons United Australia 

See also

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. 1 2 3 4 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

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References

Further reading