1953 Queensland state election
7 March 1953 (1953-03-07)
All 75 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland
38 Assembly seats were needed for a majority
Turnout93.80 (Increase 1.29 pp)
  First party Second party
 
Leader Vince Gair Frank Nicklin
Party Labor Coalition
Leader since 17 January 1952 (1952-01-17) 21 May 1941
Leader's seat South Brisbane Landsborough
Last election 42 seats 31 seats
Seats won 50 23
Seat change Increase 8 Decrease 8
Popular vote 323,882 243,757
Percentage 53.21% 40.05%
Swing Increase 6.34 Decrease 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.

Key dates

Date Event
6 February 1953 The Parliament was dissolved.[1]
6 February 1953 Writs were issued by the Governor to proceed with an election.[2]
13 February 1953 Close of nominations.
7 March 1953 Polling day, between the hours of 8am and 6pm.[3]
16 March 1953 The Gair Ministry was reconstituted.
5 June 1953 The writ was returned and the results formally declared.
4 August 1953 Parliament 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
<< 1950–1956 >>

Enrolled voters 657,349[1]
Votes cast 616,611 Turnout 93.80 +1.29
Informal votes 7,912 Informal 1.28 +0.17
Summary of votes by party
Party Primary votes  % Swing Seats Change
  Labor 323,882 53.21% +6.34 50 + 8
  Liberal 129,633 21.30% –8.61 8 – 3
  Country 114,124 18.75% –0.50 15 – 5
  NQ Labor 6,680 1.10% –0.12 1 ± 0
  Social Credit 4,103 0.67% +0.67 0 ± 0
  Communist 3,948 0.65% +0.28 0 ± 0
  Independent Labor 824 0.13% –0.42 0 ± 0
  Independent 25,505 4.19% +2.90 1 ± 0
Total 608,699     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
  • Members listed in italics did not recontest their seats.
  • In addition, Labor retained the seat of Kedron, which it had won from the Liberals at the 1951 by-election.

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.
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