1953 Queensland state election

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1953 Queensland state election
Flag of Queensland.svg
  1950 7 March 1953 (1953-03-07) 1956  

All 75 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland
38 Assembly seats were needed for a majority
Turnout93.80 (Increase2.svg 1.29 pp)
 First partySecond party
  Queensland State Archives 4750 Hon VC Gair Premier of Queensland c 1953.png Frank Nicklin 1959.jpg
Leader Vince Gair Frank Nicklin
Party Labor Coalition
Leader since17 January 1952 (1952-01-17)21 May 1941
Leader's seat South Brisbane Landsborough
Last election42 seats31 seats
Seats won5023
Seat changeIncrease2.svg 8Decrease2.svg 8
Popular vote323,882243,757
Percentage53.21%40.05%
SwingIncrease2.svg 6.34Decrease2.svg 9.11

Premier before election

Vince Gair
Labor

Elected Premier

Vince Gair
Labor

Elections were held in the Australian state of Queensland on 7 March 1953 to elect the 75 members of the state's Legislative Assembly. The Labor government was seeking its eighth continuous term in office since the 1932 election. It was the first electoral test for Vince Gair, who had become Premier of Queensland 14 months earlier after the death of Ned Hanlon.

Contents

Key dates

DateEvent
6 February 1953The Parliament was dissolved. [1]
6 February 1953Writs were issued by the Governor to proceed with an election. [2]
13 February 1953Close of nominations.
7 March 1953Polling day, between the hours of 8am and 6pm. [3]
16 March 1953The Gair Ministry was reconstituted.
5 June 1953The writ was returned and the results formally declared.
4 August 1953Parliament was summoned for business. [4]

Results

The result was a considerable swing to the Labor government.

Queensland state election, 7 March 1953 [5]
Legislative Assembly
<< 19501956 >>

Enrolled voters657,349 [1]
Votes cast616,611 Turnout 93.80+1.29
Informal votes7,912Informal1.28+0.17
Summary of votes by party
PartyPrimary votes %SwingSeatsChange
  Labor 323,88253.21%+6.3450+ 8
  Liberal 129,63321.30%–8.618– 3
  Country 114,12418.75%–0.5015– 5
  NQ Labor 6,6801.10%–0.121± 0
  Social Credit 4,1030.67%+0.670± 0
  Communist 3,9480.65%+0.280± 0
  Independent Labor 8240.13%–0.420± 0
  Independent 25,5054.19%+2.901± 0
Total608,699  75 
Popular vote
Labor
53.21%
Liberal
21.30%
Country
18.75%
NQ Labor
1.10%
Social Credit
0.67%
Communist
0.65%
Independents
4.33%
Seats
Labor
66.67%
Country
20.00%
Liberal
10.67%
NQ Labor
1.33%
Independents
1.33%
1 737,579 electors were enrolled to vote at the election; however, 11 seats (14.7% of the total) were uncontested, eight of them Labor-held seats representing 49,466 enrolled voters, as well as two Country seats representing 20,053 voters and one Liberal seat representing 10,711 voters.

Seats changing party representation

This table lists changes in party representation at the 1953 election.

SeatIncumbent memberPartyNew memberParty
Condamine Eric Allpass  Country Les Diplock  Labor
Cook Carlisle Wordsworth  Country Bunny Adair  Labor
Mulgrave Bob Watson  Country Charles English  Labor
Norman Louis Luckins  Liberal Bill Baxter  Labor
Roma William Ewan  Country Alfred Dohring  Labor
Sandgate Eric Decker  Liberal Herbert Robinson  Labor
Somerset Duncan MacDonald  Country Alexander Skinner  Labor

See also

References

  1. "A Proclamation". Queensland Government Gazette . 6 February 1953. p. 182:469.
  2. "Untitled". Queensland Government Gazette . 6 February 1953. p. 172:471.
  3. "Put a '1' in that square". The Courier-Mail . Brisbane. 6 March 1953. p. 3. Retrieved 19 December 2020 via National Library of Australia.
  4. "A Proclamation". Queensland Government Gazette . 2 July 1953. p. 183:1151.
  5. Australian Government and Politics Database. "Parliament of Queensland, Assembly election, 7 March 1953" . Retrieved 25 January 2010.