The 1951 by-election for the
Australian House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia.
The term of members of the ...
seat of
Macquarie Macquarie may refer to: People
* Lachlan Macquarie, Governor of the British colony of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821.
* Elizabeth Macquarie Campbell, Lachlan Macquarie's second wife
Locations
* Division of Macquarie, an electoral district in th ...
was held on 28 July after the death of the incumbent
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 ...
member, former
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 ...
Ben Chifley, who died on 14 June after suffering a heart attack. Chifley's death came less than three months after the
1951 general election.
Candidates
Contesting the seat for the Labor Party was
Tony Luchetti, who had been the
Lang Labor candidate in Macquarie in 1931 and 1934, his preferences defeating Chifley in 1931.
William Blanchard ran as an independent Labor candidate in protest at Luchetti's selection as Chifley's successor.
Their main opponent was William Hannam of the
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is a centre-right political party in Australia, one of the two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-left Australian Labor Party. It was founded in 1944 as the successor to the United Au ...
.
Vernon Moffitt, representing the
Communist Party of Australia
The Communist Party of Australia (CPA), known as the Australian Communist Party (ACP) from 1944 to 1951, was an Australian political party founded in 1920. The party existed until roughly 1991, with its membership and influence having been i ...
, also ran.
Results
Aftermath
At the following
1954 general election Luchetti retained the seat and was the sole Labor candidate.
See also
*
List of Australian federal by-elections
References
{{Aus by-elections 20th parl
1951 elections in Australia
New South Wales federal by-elections