Australian federal election, 1951

Federal election major party leaders
< 1949 1951 1954 >
Liberal Robert Menzies Prime Minister Parliament: 17 years Leader since: 1945 Division: Kooyong WIN
Labor Ben Chifley Opposition leader Parliament: 23 years Leader since: 1945 Division: Macquarie

Federal elections were held in Australia on 28 April 1951. All 121 seats in the House of Representatives, and all 60 seats in the Senate were up for election, due to a double dissolution by Menzies in attempts to ban the Communist Party of Australia. The incumbent Liberal Party of Australia led by Prime Minister of Australia Robert Menzies with coalition partner the Country Party led by Arthur Fadden defeated the Australian Labor Party led by Ben Chifley.

House of Reps (IRV) — 1951-54 — Turnout 96.00% (CV) — Informal 1.90%

	Party	Votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Australian Labor Party	2,174,840	47.63	+1.65	52	+5	(2 elected unopposed)
	Liberal Party of Australia	1,854,799	40.62	+1.23	52	-3	(1 elected unopposed)
	Country Party	443,713	9.72	-1.15	17	-2
	Independents	46,788	1.02	-1.13	0	0
	Other	45,759	1.00		0	0
	Total	4,565,899			121
	Liberal/Country coalition	WIN	50.70	-0.30	69	-5
	Australian Labor Party		49.30	+0.30	52	+5

Senate (STV) — 1951-53 — Turnout 95.99% (CV) — Informal 7.13%

	Party	Votes	%	Swing	Seats Won	Seats Held
	Australian Labor Party	2,029,751	45.88	+0.99	28	28
	Liberal/Country (Joint Ticket)	1,925,631	43.52	-1.12	*	*
	Liberal Party of Australia	273,056	6.17	+0.41	26	26
	Communist Party of Australia	93,561	2.11	+0.02	0	0
	Country Party	*	*	*	6	6
	Other	102,238	2.31		0	0
	Total	4,424,237			60	60

Contents 1 History 2 See also 3 Notes 4 References

History

In 1944, Sir Robert Menzies founded the Liberal Party of Australia (descended from the United Australia Party). After winning government at the 1949 election Menzies led the Party for 16 years through successive re-elections with the traditional coalition in place with the Country Party (the predecessor of the current National Party). Labor remained out of government for 23 years after the defeat of the Chifley Government in 1949, largely due to the split of the Democratic Labor Party from Labor - also three times the party won the two-party preferred vote (the 1954, 1961 and 1969 elections) but not enough seats to form government.

Attempts by Menzies to ban the Communist Party of Australia came to a head when the legislation was declared invalid by the High Court of Australia, and failed in the subsequent 1951 Australian referendum.

See also

• Candidates of the Australian federal election, 1951
• Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1951-1954
• Members of the Australian Senate, 1951–1953

Notes

References

• University of WA election results in Australia since 1890
• AEC 2PP vote
• Prior to 1984 the AEC did not undertake a full distribution of preferences for statistical purposes. The stored ballot papers for the 1983 election were put through this process prior to their destruction. Therefore the figures from 1983 onwards show the actual result based on full distribution of preferences.

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