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The 1931 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 19 December 1931. All 75 seats in the
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
and 18 of the 36 seats in the
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
were up for election.
The incumbent first-term
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...
(ALP) government led by
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
James Scullin
James Henry Scullin (18 September 1876 – 28 January 1953) was an Australian Labor Party politician and the ninth Prime Minister of Australia. Scullin led Labor to government at the 1929 Australian federal election. He was the first Cathol ...
was defeated in a landslide by the
United Australia Party
The United Australia Party (UAP) was an Australian political party that was founded in 1931 and dissolved in 1945. The party won four federal elections in that time, usually governing in coalition with the Country Party. It provided two prim ...
(UAP) led by
Joseph Lyons
Joseph Aloysius Lyons (15 September 1879 – 7 April 1939) was an Australian politician who served as the List of prime ministers of Australia by time in office, 10th Prime Minister of Australia, in office from 1932 until his death in 1939. He ...
. To date, this is the last time that a sitting government at federal level has been defeated after a single term.
The election was held at a time of great social and political upheaval, coming at the peak of the
Great Depression in Australia
Australia suffered badly during the period of the Great Depression of the 1930s. The Depression began with the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and rapidly spread worldwide. As in other nations, Australia suffered years of high unemployment, povert ...
. The UAP had only been formed a few months before the election, when Lyons and a few ALP dissidents joined forces with the
Nationalist Party and the
Australian Party
The Australian Party was a political party founded and led by Billy Hughes after his expulsion from the Nationalist Party. The party was formed in 1929, and at its peak had four members of federal parliament. It was merged into the new Unite ...
. Although it was dominated by former Nationalists, Lyons became the merged party's leader, with Nationalist leader
John Latham as his deputy.
Scullin's position eroded further when five left-wing Labor MPs from New South Wales who supported NSW Premier
Jack Lang broke away and moved to the crossbenches in protest of Scullin's economic policy, reducing Scullin to a
minority government
A minority government, minority cabinet, minority administration, or a minority parliament is a government and Cabinet (government), cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when a political party or Coalition government, coalition of parties do ...
. Late in 1931, they supported a UAP no-confidence motion and brought down the government. The two Labor factions were decimated; massive vote-splitting left them with only 18 seats between them (14 for the official ALP and four for the Langites).
Prior to the election, it was assumed that the
Country Party, led by
Earle Page
Sir Earle Christmas Grafton Page (8 August 188020 December 1961) was an Australian surgeon and politician who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Australia, holding office for 19 days after the death of Joseph Lyons in 1939. He was the leade ...
, would hold the
balance of power, and Page tentatively agreed to support the UAP if that were the case. The two parties campaigned separately and stood candidates against each other in the House of Representatives, but ran joint tickets in Senate. However, the UAP came up four seats short of a majority. The five MPs from the
Emergency Committee of South Australia
The Emergency Committee of South Australia was the major anti-Labor grouping in South Australia at the 1931 federal election.
History
The Emergency Committee arose as a consequence of the financial turmoil brought about by the Great Depression in ...
, which contested the election in that state in place of the UAP and Country Party, joined the UAP party room, giving the UAP enough numbers to form a
majority government
A majority government is a government by one or more governing parties that hold an absolute majority of seats in a legislature. This is as opposed to a minority government, where the largest party in a legislature only has a plurality of seats. ...
by two seats. Page was still willing to form a
coalition
A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces.
Formation
According to ''A Gui ...
with the Country Party, but negotiations broke down and Lyons decided the UAP would govern by itself. As a result, the
First Lyons Ministry was composed solely of UAP members.
Page, Sir Earle Christmas (1880–1961)
''Australian Dictionary of Biography
The ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' (ADB or AuDB) is a national co-operative enterprise founded and maintained by the Australian National University (ANU) to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's ...
''
Labor spent the next 10 years in opposition; it did not return to power until 1941.
Issues
The election was dominated by the Great Depression in Australia
Australia suffered badly during the period of the Great Depression of the 1930s. The Depression began with the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and rapidly spread worldwide. As in other nations, Australia suffered years of high unemployment, povert ...
, which was at its height. As the Labor Government had come to office two days before the Wall Street Crash of 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...
, it was seen as being responsible for many of the economic and social problems Australia faced, which sparked the historic Australian Labor Party split of 1931 in which Lyons and four other Labor dissidents crossed the floor to the opposition, ultimately merging into the UAP. Although the UAP was seen as an upper- and middle-class conservative party, the presence of ex-Labor MPs allowed the party to project an image of national unity.
By the time the writs were issued, official Labor and Lang Labor were in open warfare, making a UAP victory all but certain. Due to the massive vote splitting brought on by a large number of three-cornered contests, Labor tallied its lowest primary vote since Federation, while the two Labor factions, official Labor and Lang Labor
Lang Labor was a faction of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) consisting of the supporters of Jack Lang, who served two terms as Premier of New South Wales and was the party's state leader from 1923 to 1939.
Following the expulsion of the N ...
, won only 18 seats between them, with official Labor losing a record 32 seats on a massive 15.2% swing to the UAP.
The two Labor factions would not reunite until 1936.
Results
House of Representatives
Results by electorate
Senate
Results by electorate
Seats changing hands
* Members listed in italics did not contest their seat at this election.
See also
* Candidates of the Australian federal election, 1931
This article provides information on candidates who stood for the 1931 Australian federal election. The election was held on 19 December 1931.
In 1931, the Nationalist Party had become the United Australia Party, absorbing several Labor defectors ...
* Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1931–1934
This is a list of the members of the Australian House of Representatives in the 13th Australian Parliament, which was elected at the 1931 election on 19 December 1931. The incumbent Australian Labor Party led by Prime Minister of Australia J ...
* Members of the Australian Senate, 1932–1935
Notes
Notes
References
Further reading
* Cook, Peter. "Labor and the Premiers' Plan." ''Labour History'' (1969): 97–110
in JSTOR
* Denning, Warren, and Alan Douglas Reid. ''Caucus crisis: the rise & fall of the Scullin government'' (Hale & Iremonger, 1982)
* Head, Brian. "Economic crisis and political legitimacy: the 1931 federal election." ''Journal of Australian Studies'' (1978) 2#3 pp: 14-29
online
* Richardson, Nick. "The 1931 Australian Federal Election—Radio Makes History." ''Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television'' (2010) 30#3 pp: 377-389. DOI:10.1080/01439685.2010.505037
* Roberts, Stephen H. "The Crisis in Australia: September, 1930-January, 1932." ''Pacific Affairs'' (1932) 5#4 pp: 319-332
in JSTOR
* Robinson, Geoff. "The Australian class structure and Australian politics 1931-40." APSA 2008: Australasian Political Science Association 2008 Conference. Australasian Political Science Association, 2008
online
* Robertson, J. R. "Scullin as Prime Minister: seven critical decisions." ''Labour History'' (1969): 27–36
in JSTOR
* Robertson, John. ''J.H. Scullin: A political biography'' (University of Western Australia Press, 1974)
References
University of WA
election results in Australia since 1890
Two-party-preferred vote since 1919
{{DEFAULTSORT:Australian Federal Election, 1931
Federal elections in Australia
1931 elections in Australia
December 1931 events