The 1901 Australian federal election for the inaugural Parliament of Australia was held in Australia on Friday 29 March and Saturday 30 March 1901. The elections followed Federation and the establishment of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901. All 75 seats in the Australian House of Representatives, six of which were uncontested, as well as all 36 seats in the Australian Senate, were up for election.
This is a list of the members of the Australian Senate in the First Australian Parliament, which was elected on 29 March 1901. There were 36 senators in this initial parliament. Terms were deemed to start on 1 January 1901. In accordance with section 13 of the Constitution, the Senate resolved that in each State the three senators who received the most votes would sit for a six-year term, finishing on 31 December 1906 while the other half would sit for a three-year term, finishing on 31 December 1903. The process for filing of casual vacancies was complex, with an initial appointment followed by an election. The status of political parties varied, being national, State based, and informal.
David Watkins was an Australian politician. He was an Australian Labor Party member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for Wallsend from 1894 until 1901. At Federation, he was elected to the new Australian House of Representatives as the Labor member for Newcastle and served until his death in 1935. Watkins' death left former Prime Minister Billy Hughes as the only remaining member of the First Parliament still in the House.
The 1903 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 16 December 1903. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Protectionist Party minority government led by Prime Minister Alfred Deakin retained the most House of Representatives seats of the three parties and retained government with the parliamentary support of the Labour Party led by Chris Watson. The Free Trade Party led by George Reid remained in opposition.
The 1906 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 12 December 1906. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 18 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Protectionist Party minority government led by Prime Minister Alfred Deakin retained government, despite winning the fewest House of Representatives votes and seats of the three parties. Parliamentary support was provided by the Labour Party led by Chris Watson, while the Anti-Socialist Party, led by George Reid, remained in opposition.
Francis Clarke was an Australian politician.
Alexander Hay was a New Zealand-born Australian pastoralist, businessman and politician. He was a member of the Australian House of Representatives from 1919 to 1922, representing the electorate of New England for the Nationalist Party (1919–1920), Country Party (1920–1921) and as an independent (1921–1922).
Francis Edward McLean was an Australian politician. Born in Sydney, he received a primary education before becoming a clerk, and eventually an accountant and businessman. In 1894 he was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as the member for Marrickville, a member of the Free Trade Party. He held the seat until 1901, when he transferred to federal Parliament, winning the House of Representatives seat of Lang, again for the Free Trade Party. In 1903, he unsuccessfully attempted to defeat prominent Protectionist and former Premier of New South Wales William Lyne in his seat of Hume. He retired from politics and died in 1926.
Albert Clayton Palmer was an Australian politician. He was a member of the Australian House of Representatives from 1906 to 1907 and from 1907 until his death, representing the electorate of Echuca for the Anti-Socialist Party and its successors the Commonwealth Liberal Party and Nationalist Party.
Robert Harper was an Australian politician. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, he was educated at Glasgow Academy and migrated to Australia in 1856, becoming a tea and coffee merchant and a pastoralist. In 1879, he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly as the member for West Bourke; he was defeated in 1880, but in 1882 returned to the Assembly as the member for East Bourke. He was defeated again in 1889, but was returned as member for East Bourke 1891–97. In the first federal election in 1901, he was elected to the Australian House of Representatives as the Protectionist member for Mernda. He joined the Commonwealth Liberal Party when it was formed out of the fusion of the Protectionists and the Anti-Socialists. Harper's seat of Mernda was abolished in 1913, and he retired. He died in 1919.
Thomas Kennedy was an Australian politician. Born in Gisborne, Victoria, he received a primary education and was a farmer by the age of 17.
Thomas Macdonald-Paterson was an Australian politician, a member of the Parliament of Queensland, and later, the Parliament of Australia.
David John O'Keefe was an Australian politician and journalist. He was a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and served in both houses of federal parliament, as a Senator for Tasmania and holding the House of Representatives (1922–1925). He subsequently entered state parliament, serving as Speaker of the Tasmanian House of Assembly (1934–1942). Prior to entering politics he had been the editor of the Zeehan and Dundas Herald on Tasmania's west coast.
John George Barrett was an Australian politician, a senator in the federal Australian parliament.
This article provides information on candidates who stood for the 1901 Australian federal election. The election was held on 29/30 March 1901.
Thomas Glassey was an Irish-born Australian politician.
The following tables show state-by-state results in the Australian Senate at the 1901 federal election. Senators total 17 Free Trade, 11 Protectionist, and eight Labour. The terms were deemed to start on 1 January 1901. In each state, the first three elected received full six-year terms, and the three senators elected with the lowest number of votes retire after three years.
Chanter v Blackwood and the related case of Maloney v McEacharn were a series of decisions of the High Court of Australia, sitting as the Court of Disputed Returns arising from the 1903 federal election for the seats of Riverina and Melbourne in the House of Representatives. Chanter v Blackwood , and Maloney v McEacharn , determined questions of law as to the validity of certain votes. In Chanter v Blackwood Griffith CJ held that 91 votes were invalid and because this exceeded the majority, the election was void, while Chanter v Blackwood dealt with questions of costs. In Maloney v McEacharn more than 300 votes were found to be invalid and the parties agreed it was appropriate for the election to be declared void.
The Liberal Party, often known simply as the Liberals, was the name used by a number of political groupings and parties in the Victorian Parliament from the late 19th century until around 1917.
The National Liberal Union of Queensland, also referred to simply as the Liberals, was an Australian protectionist organisation that was active in the early 1900s. It endorsed candidates at elections and provided extra-parliamentary support for anti-Labour politics.
