Australian federal election, 1943

Australian federal election, 1943

21 August 1943

All 74 seats in the Australian House of Representatives 38 seats were needed for a majority in the House 19 (of the 36) seats in the Australian Senate   First party Second party   Leader John Curtin Arthur Fadden Party Labor Country/UAP coalition Leader since 1 October 1935 (1935-10-01) 29 August 1941 (1941-08-29) Leader's seat Fremantle Darling Downs Last election 32 seats 37 seats Seats won 49 seats 19 seats Seat change 17 18 Percentage 58.20% 41.80% Swing 7.90% 7.90%

Prime Minister before election John Curtin Labor Elected Prime Minister John Curtin Labor

Federal elections were held in Australia on 21 August 1943. All 74 seats in the House of Representatives, and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Australian Labor Party led by Prime Minister of Australia John Curtin defeated, in a still-existing record landslide by both two-party vote and swing, the opposition Country Party led by Arthur Fadden and coalition partner the United Australia Party led by Billy Hughes.

Although the UAP was the nominal senior partner in the Coalition, it found itself bereft of leadership following the forced resignation of its leader, Robert Menzies. Hughes succeeded him as UAP leader, but at the age of 77 was too old and frail to be a wartime Prime Minister. Country Party leader Fadden was thus forced to take over as Prime Minister, but only stayed in office for six weeks before two independents joined Labor in voting down his budget. Governor-General Lord Gowrie was reluctant to call an election for a Parliament barely a year old, especially considering the international situation. At his urging, the independents threw their support to Labor for the remainder of the parliamentary term.

Over the next two years, Curtin proved to be a very popular and effective leader, and the Coalition was unable to get the better of him. Labor thus went into the election in a strong position, and scored an 18-seat swing. Notably, the Coalition was completely shut out in Western Australia, and lost all but one of its seats in South Australia.

This election was significant in the fact that it resulted in the election of the first female member of the House of Representatives, Enid Lyons, and the first female Senator, Dorothy Tangney. The election remains Labor's greatest federal victory in terms of proportion of seats and two party preferred votes in the lower house, and primary vote in the Senate.

Seats changing hands

• *Oliver Badman and Archie Cameron ran as candidates for the UAP, Thomas Marwick ran as an independent.

See also

• Candidates of the Australian federal election, 1943
• Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1943–1946
• Members of the Australian Senate, 1944–1947

Notes

References

• University of WA election results in Australia since 1890
• Two-party-preferred vote since 1937

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