The 1956 Tasmanian state election was held on 13 October 1956 in the

Australian state The states and territories are federated administrative divisions in Australia, ruled by regional governments that constitute the second level of governance between the federal government and local governments. States are self-governing ...

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

to elect 30 members of the

Tasmanian House of Assembly The House of Assembly, or Lower House, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of Tasmania in Australia. The other is the Legislative Council or Upper House. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Hobart. The Assembly has 25 m ...

. The election used the Hare-Clark

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

system — six members were elected from each of five electorates.

Background

The 1955 election had resulted in a parliamentary deadlock between the

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

and

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

parties, although

Robert Cosgrove Sir Robert Cosgrove (28 December 1884 – 25 August 1969) was an Australian politician who was the 30th and longest-serving Premier of Tasmania. He held office for over 18 years, serving from 1939 to 1947 and from 1948 to 1958. His involve ...

remained

Premier of Tasmania The premier of Tasmania is the head of the executive government in the Australian state of Tasmania. By convention, the leader of the party or political grouping which has majority support in the House of Assembly is invited by the governor of Ta ...

. On 11 September 1956, Cosgrove's minister for housing,

Carrol Bramich Carrol Athelstone Bramich (30 October 1893 – 1 October 1964) was an Australian politician. He was a member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly from 1946 to 1964, representing the electorate of Darwin for both the Labor Party (1946–1956) ...

, resigned from the ALP following an internal row,

party switching Party switching is any change in political party affiliation of a partisan public figure, usually one currently holding elected office. Party switching also occurs quite commonly in Brazil, Italy, Romania, Ukraine, India, Malaysia , and the Ph ...

and giving the Liberal opposition a majority. Cosgrove obtained a

dissolution of parliament The dissolution of a legislative assembly is the mandatory simultaneous resignation of all of its members, in anticipation that a successive legislative assembly will reconvene later with possibly different members. In a democracy, the new assemb ...

from the

Governor of Tasmania The governor of Tasmania is the representative in the Australian state of Tasmania of the Monarch of Australia, currently King Charles III. The incumbent governor is Barbara Baker, who was appointed in June 2021. The official residence of the ...

, and an election was called for 13 October.W. A. Townsley
Cosgrove, Sir Robert (1884 - 1969)
''

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 ...

'', Volume 13, Melbourne University Press, 1993, pp 505-507. The electorate of Darwin had been renamed in 1955 to Braddon, after former Premier

Sir Edward Braddon ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

Results

Following the 1956 election, the ALP and Liberals remained in a 15-seat deadlock. Despite Bramich's defection to the Liberals, Labor picked up a seat in Bramich's electorate of Braddon, maintaining the status quo with Cosgrove and the ALP still in power.

Distribution of votes

Primary vote by division

Distribution of seats

Aftermath

The subsequent election in 1959 saw the number of seats in the

increased to 35, which would prevent the kind of deadlock which resulted from having an even number of seats in the house.

References

External links

Assembly Election Results, 1956

Parliament of Tasmania The Parliament of Tasmania is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of Tasmania. It follows a Westminster-derived parliamentary system and consists of the Governor of Tasmania, the Tasmanian House of Assembly (the lower house), and T ...

.
Report on Parliamentary Elections, 1956
Tasmanian Electoral Commission. {{Tasmanian elections Elections in Tasmania 1956 elections in Australia 1950s in Tasmania October 1956 events in Australia