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44 (of the 65) seats in the Victorian Legislative Assembly | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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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 previous election for the Legislative Assembly took place on 30 November 1929. At the 1929 election, the Labor Party won 30 seats, the Nationalist Party won 17, the Victorian Country Party won 11, Country Progressive Party won 4, and there were 3 Independents. Since that date a number of political changes took place.
The Nationalist Party gained the seat of Caulfield in a by-election on 22 November 1930, arising from the death of independent member Frederick Forrest. The seat was won by Harold Luxton, who at the time was Lord Mayor of Melbourne. [1]
The Victorian Country Party and the Country Progressive Party—two separate parties representing rural interests—amalgamated in late 1930 to form the United Country Party. After years of negotiations, between 300 and 400 delegates of the parties met at a joint conference, and on 23 September, voted to amalgamate into a single party. [2] The proposal was put to the parties' branches, and confirmed at a joint meeting of their parliamentary parties on 28 October. [3]
In 1931, the federal Nationalist Party of Australia merged with a group of defectors from the Labor Party who supported Joseph Lyons, and formed the United Australia Party (UAP). A meeting of the state Nationalist Party on 15 September 1931 confirmed the name change of the party's state branch in line with the federal party. [3] [4]
One of the key factors in the 1932 election was the Premiers' Plan—a deflationary economic policy to negate the effects of the Great Depression—which had been agreed to by Australia's state Premiers in June 1931. Although supported by Victoria's Labor Premier, Edmond Hogan, several of his ministers, and a majority of the Labor parliamentary caucus, the Labor Party in general did not support the plan—a meeting of the Victorian Labor Conference in August 1931 passed a motion 143 to 87 opposing the plan, and calling upon the Victorian parliament to reject any legislation to enact it. [5]
Suffering from ill health, Hogan departed by sea to London in February 1932 and arrived in April. Although his journey was principally a "health trip", he also undertook to perform some official duties, including investigating the functions of the Agent-General's office, and marketing Victorian products in the United Kingdom. [6]
On 12 April, opposition leader Sir Stanley Argyle gave notice that he would raise a motion of no confidence against the government, following what he saw as an equivocal reply from the Acting Premier, Tom Tunnecliffe, to a question regarding the government's intentions to re-enact the Financial Emergency Act—in effect, a continuation of the Premiers' Plan. [7] On 13 April, Argyle's motion was carried, defeating the government in the assembly. Tunnecliffe consulted the Lieutenant Governor (Sir William Irvine), and the parliament sat on 19 April to pass the supply bill and was then prorogued with the Assembly dissolved. [8]
As Hogan was overseas when the election was called, the Labor Party was led into the election by Tunnecliffe. As cables from Hogan affirmed his support of the plan which included wage reductions, the central executive of the Victorian Labor Party refused to endorse Hogan as the Labor candidate for the seat of Warrenheip and Grenville, nor Ernie Bond for the seat of Port Fairy and Glenelg. Despite Tunnecliffe's denials, Hogan confirmed via cable that the government had offered him the role of Agent-General which he had declined. [9]
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 13 April 1932 | The Hogan government was defeated in the Victorian Legislative Assembly by a motion of no-confidence. [7] |
| 22 April 1932 | The Parliament was prorogued, [10] and the Legislative Assembly dissolved. [11] |
| 23 April 1932 | Writs were issued by the Lieutenant Governor to proceed with an election. [11] |
| 29 April 1932 | Close of nominations. [11] |
| 14 May 1932 | Day of polling. |
| 19 May 1932 | The Lieutenant Governor accepts the resignation of the Hogan ministry, and appoints the Argyle ministry. [12] |
| 14 June 1932 | Parliament resumed for business. |
Victorian state election, 14 March 1932 [3] [13] | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enrolled voters | 729,332 | |||||
| Votes cast | 687,042 | Turnout | 94.20 | +0.48 | ||
| Informal votes | 9,676 | Informal | 1.41 | +0.34 | ||
| Summary of votes by party | ||||||
| Party | Primary votes | % | Swing | Seats | Change | |
| United Australia | 271,778 | 40.12 | +1.86 | 31 | +13 | |
| Labor | 237,993 | 35.14 | −3.95 | 16 | −14 | |
| United Country | 83,519 | 12.33 | −1.84 | 14 | −1 | |
| Premiers' Plan Labor | 17,347 | 2.56 | +2.56 | 2 | +2 | |
| Communist | 953 | 0.14 | −0.17 | 0 | ±0 | |
| Independent | 65,776 | 9.71 | +1.55 | 2 | −1 | |
| Total | 677,366 | 65 | ||||
Notes:
The United Australia Party (UAP) was an Australian political party that was founded in 1931 and dissolved in 1945. The party won four federal elections in that time, usually governing in coalition with the Country Party. It provided two Prime Ministers of Australia – Joseph Lyons (1932–1939) and Robert Menzies (1939–1941).
The Nationalist Party, also known as the National Party was an Australian political party. It was formed on 17 February 1917 from a merger between the Commonwealth Liberal Party and the National Labor Party, the latter formed by Prime Minister Billy Hughes and his supporters after the 1916 Labor Party split over World War I conscription. The Nationalist Party was in government until electoral defeat in 1929. From that time it was the main opposition to the Labor Party until it merged with pro-Joseph Lyons Labor defectors to form the United Australia Party (UAP) in 1931. The party is a direct ancestor of the Liberal Party of Australia, the main centre-right party in Australia.
Joseph Aloysius Lyons was an Australian politician who served as the 10th Prime Minister of Australia, in office from 1932 until his death in 1939. He began his career in the Australian Labor Party (ALP), but became the founding leader of the United Australia Party (UAP) after the 1931 ALP split. He had earlier served as Premier of Tasmania from 1923 to 1928.
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 doctor, radiologist, businessman, and politician. Argyle was the former Leader of the Opposition, Treasurer and Premier of Victoria, achieving the latter in May 1932, following the 1932 Victorian state election.
Thomas Tuke Hollway was the 36th Premier of Victoria, and the first to be born in the 20th century. He held office from 1947 to 1950, and again for a short period in 1952. He was originally a member and the leader of the United Australia Party (UAP) in Victoria, and was the inaugural leader of the UAP's successor, the Victorian division of the Liberal Party, but split from the Liberals after a dispute over electoral reform issues.
The 1931 Australian federal election was held in Australia 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.
David Charles McGrath was an Australian politician. Originally a member of the Australian Labor Party, he joined Joseph Lyons in the 1931 Labor split that led to the formation of the United Australia Party.
The 1932 New South Wales state election was held on 11 June 1932. This election was for all of the 90 seats in the 30th New South Wales Legislative Assembly and it was conducted in single member constituencies with compulsory preferential voting. It was a landslide victory for the UAP/Country Party coalition of Bertram Stevens, which had a majority of 42 in the Assembly.
This is a list of members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly from 1929 to 1932, as elected at the 1929 state election.
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 Lyons government was the federal executive government of Australia led by Prime Minister Joseph Lyons. It was made up of members of the United Australia Party in the Australian Parliament from January 1932 until the death of Joseph Lyons in 1939. Lyons negotiated a coalition with the Country Party after the 1934 Australian federal election. The Lyons government stewarded Australia's recovery from the Great Depression and established the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Henry Stephen Bailey was an Australian politician. He was a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly from 1914 to 1932 and from 1935 to 1950, representing the electorates of Port Fairy (1914–27) and Warrnambool. Initially an Australian Labor Party member, he served as Minister for Lands and Water Supply in the Prendergast and Hogan governments of 1924, 1927–28 and 1929–32, but was expelled from the party in 1932 during the 1931-32 Labor split and defeated at that year's election. He joined the Country Party in 1934 and won his old seat back for his new party in 1935, subsequently serving as Minister Without Portfolio (1935–36), Minister of Labour (1936), Chief Secretary (1936-43) and Attorney-General (1938–43) in the Dunstan government.
The 1940 Victorian state election was held in the Australian state of Victoria on Saturday 16 March 1940 to elect 44 of the 65 members of the state's Legislative Assembly.
The 1935 Victorian state election was held in the Australian state of Victoria on Saturday 2 March 1935 to elect 53 of the 65 members of the state's Legislative Assembly. 12 seats were uncontested.
The 1929 Victorian state election was held in the Australian state of Victoria on Saturday 30 November 1929 to elect the 65 members of the state's Legislative Assembly.
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 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.
The Australian Labor Party , commonly known as Victorian Labor, is the semi-autonomous Victorian branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). The Victorian branch comprises two major wings: the parliamentary wing and the organisational wing. The parliamentary wing comprising all elected party members in the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council, which when they meet collectively constitute the party caucus. The parliamentary leader is elected from and by the caucus, and party factions have a strong influence in the election of the leader. The leader's position is dependent on the continuing support of the caucus and the leader may be deposed by failing to win a vote of confidence of parliamentary members. By convention, the premier sits in the Legislative Assembly, and is the leader of the party controlling a majority in that house. The party leader also typically is a member of the Assembly, though this is not a strict party constitutional requirement.
The Liberal Party of Australia , branded as Liberal Victoria, and commonly known as the Victorian Liberals, is the state division of the Liberal Party of Australia in Victoria. It was formed in 1949 as the Liberal and Country Party (LCP), and simplified its name to the Liberal Party in 1965.
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