The 1904 Victorian state election was held 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 ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

on 1 June 1904 to elect 67 members to the state's Legislative Assembly. It was the first election to be held in Victoria since the passing of the Constitution Act 1903 (also known as the "Constitution Reform Act"), which reduced the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly from 95 to 67 and removed all two-member electorates. It also created three new electorates representing public and railways officers: the Electoral province for Public Officers and Railway Officers the " Electoral district for Public Officers" and a two-member "

Electoral district for Railway Officers The Electoral district of Railway Officers was an electoral district of the Victorian Legislative Assembly. Members of Railway Officers : = resigned in November 1906 See also * Parliaments of the Australian states and territories * List of m ...

". Members of the public service had previously not been eligible to stand as candidates without first resigning. Under these changes, they could stand while a state employee, and if successful in winning a seat, would have a leave of absence while sitting as an MP.

Background

Ministerialists were a group of members of parliament who supported a government in office but were not bound by tight party discipline. Ministerialists represented loose pre-party groupings who held seats in state parliaments up to 1914. Such members ran for office as independents or under a variety of political labels but saw themselves as linked to other candidates by their support for a particular premier or government.

Thomas Bent Sir Thomas Bent (7 December 1838 – 17 September 1909) was an Australian politician and the 22nd Premier of Victoria. Early life Bent was born in Penrith, New South Wales the eldest of four sons and two daughters of James Bent, a hotel-keeper ...

was elected on 16 February 1904 leader of the

Commonwealth Liberal Party The Liberal Party was a parliamentary party in Australian federal politics between 1909 and 1917. The party was founded under Alfred Deakin's leadership as a merger of the Protectionist Party and Anti-Socialist Party, an event known as the Fu ...

, replacing Premier William Irvine who went into federal politics, and went into the election as the incumbent Premier. At the June 1904 election Bent won a comfortable majority with 35 of the 67 seats, and the Labour Party became the second largest party in the Assembly with 17 seats.

Results

Legislative Assembly

References

1904 elections in Australia Elections in Victoria (Australia) 1900s in Victoria (Australia) June 1904 events {{Australia-gov-stub