Australian Senate election, 1953

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Half-senate elections were held in Australia on 9 May 1953. 32 of the seats in the Senate were up for election. This was the first time a Senate election had been held without an accompanying election of the House of Representatives. The two election cycles fell out of synchronisation after the 1951 double dissolution. While the term of the House was not due to expire until 1954, a Senate election was due by 1 July 1953.

Australian Senate upper house of the Australian Parliament

The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. There are a total of 76 Senators: 12 are elected from each of the six states regardless of population and 2 from each of the two autonomous internal territories. Senators are popularly elected under the single transferable vote system of proportional representation.

Australian House of Representatives Lower house of Australia

The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia.

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Although the Australian Labor Party won a majority of the contested seats, the Liberal-Country Coalition retained a majority of the overall seats in the upper house.

Australian Labor Party Political party in Australia

The Australian Labor Party is a major centre-left political party in Australia. The party has been in opposition at the federal level since the 2013 election. Bill Shorten has been the party's federal parliamentary leader since 13 October 2013. The party is a federal party with branches in each state and territory. Labor is in government in the states of Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, and in both the Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory. The party competes against the Liberal/National Coalition for political office at the federal and state levels. It is the oldest political party in Australia.

Liberal Party of Australia Australian political party

The Liberal Party of Australia is a major centre-right political party in Australia, one of the two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-left Australian Labor Party (ALP). It was founded in 1944 as the successor to the United Australia Party (UAP).

The Coalition is an alliance of centre-right political parties that forms one of the two major groupings in Australian federal politics. Its main opponent is the Australian Labor Party (ALP), and the two forces are often regarded as operating in a two-party system. The Coalition has been in government since the 2013 federal election. The party is currently led by Scott Morrison as Prime Minister of Australia since August 2018.

Senate (STV) — 1953–55—Turnout 94.93% (CV) — Informal 4.56%
Party Votes % Swing Seats Won Seats Held Change
  Labor 2,323,968 50.61 +4.74 17 29 +1
  Liberal–Country coalition 2,039,938 44.43 –5.27 15 31 –1
  Liberal–Country joint ticket1,214,28526.45–17.078N/AN/A
  Liberal  825,65317.98+11.817260
  Country  N/AN/AN/AN/A5–1
  Communist 140,073 3.05 +0.94 0 0 0
  Democratic 40,109 0.87 +0.87 0 0 0
  Henry George Justice 13,590 0.30 +0.16 0 0 0
  Tasmanian Labor 8,990 0.20 +0.20 0 0 0
  Independents 24,921 0.54 +0.03 0 0 0
  Total 4,591,589   32 60

See also

This is a list of members of the Australian Senate from 1953 to 1956. Half of its members were elected at the 28 April 1951 election and had terms deemed to start on 1 July 1950 and finishing on 30 June 1956; the other half were elected at the 9 May 1953 election and had terms starting on 1 July 1953 and finishing on 30 June 1959.

Notes

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