1943 Australian federal election

21 August 1943
All 75[lower-alpha 1] seats in the House of Representatives 38 seats were needed for a majority in the House 19 (of the 36) seats in the Senate
Registered	4,466,637 5.36%
Turnout	4,245,369 (96.32%)[lower-alpha 2] (1.50 pp)
First party Second party   Leader John Curtin Arthur Fadden Party Labor Country (Coalition) Leader since 1 October 1935 (1935-10-01) 12 March 1941 (1941-03-12)[lower-alpha 3] Leader's seat Fremantle (WA) Darling Downs (Qld.) Last election 32 seats 36 seats Seats won 49 seats 23 seats Seat change 17 13 Popular vote 2,058,582 1,248,506[lower-alpha 4] Percentage 58.20% 41.80% Swing 7.90% 7.90%
Results by division for the House of Representatives, shaded by winning party's margin of victory.
Prime Minister before election John Curtin Labor Subsequent Prime Minister John Curtin Labor

Advertisement used by the UAP during the 1943 Australian federal election, its final campaign before the party was wound up

The 1943 Australian federal election was 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 Labor Party, led by Prime Minister John Curtin, defeated the opposition Country–UAP coalition led by Arthur Fadden in a landslide.

Fadden, the leader of the Country Party, was serving as Leader of the Opposition despite the Country Party holding fewer seats in parliament than the United Australia Party (UAP). He was previously the Prime Minister in August 1941, after he was chosen by the coalition parties to lead the government after the forced resignation of Prime Minister Robert Menzies, the UAP leader. However, he stayed in office for only six weeks before the two independents who held the balance of power 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. A number of groups also split away from the UAP prior to the election, the most prominent of which was the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Labor thus went into the election in a commanding position, and flipped 13 seats on a 7.9% swing, winning 50.2% of the primary vote and 58.2% of the two-party preferred vote.

The Coalition was reduced to 23 seats, including only nine for the Country Party. Notably, Labor won every seat in Western Australia and all but one in South Australia: Archie Cameron, the member for Barker in South Australia, was left as the only Coalition MP outside the eastern states. The LDP did not win any seats.

This election was significant in the fact that it resulted in the election of the first female member of the House of Representatives, the UAP's Enid Lyons for Darwin, Tasmania, and the first female Senator, Labor's Dorothy Tangney, in Western Australia. The election also remains Labor's greatest federal victory in terms of proportion of seats and two-party votes in the lower house, and primary vote in the Senate as of 2022.

The lack of effective opposition to the Labor party in the lead up to and following the election became the catalyst for the creation of the Liberal Party of Australia from the ashes of the UAP, and for George Cole, Keith Murdoch and other big business magnates to form the conservative think tank the Institute of Public Affairs.

This was the last major election that did not involve the current Liberal and Labor Party competition.

Results

House of Representatives

Main article: Results of the 1943 Australian federal election (House of Representatives)

1943 Australian Federal Election (House of Representatives)

Australian federal election, 21 August 1943[3] House of Representatives << 1940–1946 >>
Enrolled voters		4,466,749
Votes cast		4,249,369		Turnout	95.13	+1.27
Informal votes		148,785		Informal	3.50	+0.95
Summary of votes by party
Party		Primary votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Labor	2,058,582	49.93%	+9.77%	49	+13
	United Australia	898,128	21.90%	–8.34%	14	–9
	Country	350,378	8.54%	–4.97%	9	–4
	One Parliament	87,112	2.11%	+2.11%	0	±0
	Communist	81,816	1.98%	+1.98%	0	±0
	Liberal Democratic	42,149	1.48%	+1.48%	0	±0
	State Labor	29,752	0.72%	–1.89%	0	±0
	Independent	501,054	12.15%	+4.69%	3[lower-alpha 5]	±0
Total		4,100,584			75

Popular vote Labor   49.93% United Australia   21.90% Independent   12.15% Country   8.54% One Parliament   2.11% Communist   1.98% Liberal Democratic   1.48% State Labor   0.72%

Two-party-preferred vote (estimated) Labor   58.20% Coalition   41.80%

Parliament seats Labor   66.22% United Australia   18.92% Country   12.16% Independent   2.70%

Senate

Senate (PBV) — 1943–46 — Turnout 96.31% (CV) — Informal 9.73%

Party			Votes[4]	%	Swing	Seats won	Seats held	Change
	Labor		2,139,164	55.10	+17.57	19	22	+5
	Country– UAP Coalition		1,481,563	38.15	–12.26	0	14	–5
		Country–UAP joint ticket (NSW & Vic)	995,910	25.65	—			±0
		Country–National (Qld)	184,181	4.74	—			±0
		Liberal & Country League (SA)	148,419	3.82	—			±0
		Nationalist–Country joint ticket (WA)	101,738	2.62	—			±0
		United Australia (Tas)	51,315	1.32	—			±0
	Christian New Order		101,247	2.61	—			±0
	Queensland Country		37,350	0.96	—			±0
	One Parliament		29,700	0.77	—			±0
	Monetary Reform		19,401	0.48	—			±0
	Independent		75,105	1.93	–0.39	0	0	±0
Total			3,882,120	100		19	36

Seats changing hands

• *Oliver Badman and Archie Cameron ran as candidates for the UAP.

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

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Australian federal election, 1943.

• University of WA Archived 18 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine election results in Australia since 1890
• Two-party-preferred vote since 1937