Australian federal election, 1943

Australian federal election, 1943

1940 ← 21 August 1943 → 1946

All 74 seats in the Australian House of Representatives 38 seats were needed for a majority in the House 19 (of the 36) seats in the Australian Senate   First party Second party   Leader John Curtin Arthur Fadden Party Labor Country/UAP coalition Leader since 1 October 1935 (1935-10-01) 29 August 1941 (1941-08-29) Leader's seat Fremantle Darling Downs Last election 32 seats 37 seats Seats won 49 seats 19 seats Seat change 17 18 Percentage 58.20% 41.80% Swing 7.90% 7.90%

Prime Minister before election John Curtin Labor Elected Prime Minister John Curtin Labor

Federal elections were held in Australia on 21 August 1943. All 74 seats in the House of Representatives, and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Australian Labor Party led by Prime Minister of Australia John Curtin easily defeated the opposition Country Party led by Arthur Fadden, with coalition partner the United Australia Party led by Billy Hughes. Fadden had also served as Prime Minister for six weeks in 1941 as leader of the coalition, before independents switched their support to Curtin, giving him a majority in the lower house, thus taking government.

This election was significant in the fact that it resulted in the election of the first female member of the House of Representatives, Enid Lyons, and the first female Senator, Dorothy Tangney. The election remains Labor's greatest federal victory in terms of proportion of seats and two party preferred votes in the lower house, and primary vote in the Senate.

House of Reps (IRV) — 1943–46 — Turnout 96.32% (CV) — Informal 2.89%

	Party	Votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Australian Labor Party	2,058,578	49.94	+9.78	49	+17	(1 elected unopposed)
	United Australia Party	661,750	16.05	−14.17	12	−11
	Country Party	287,000	6.96	−6.74	7	−7
	Country-National Party (QLD)	166,419	4.04	*	3	+3
	Liberal Country Party (VIC)	145,665	3.53	*	1	+1
	One Parliament for Australia	87,112	2.11	*	0	0
	Country Party (QLD)	61,196	1.48	*	1	+1
	State Labor Party	29,752	0.72	−1.89	0	0
	Independents	501,054	12.15	+4.08	1	0
	Other	123,965	3.01		0	−4
	Total	4,122,491			74
	Australian Labor Party	WIN	58.20	+7.90	49	+17
	Country/UAP coalition		41.80	−7.90	19	−17

Independent: Arthur Coles (Henty, Vic)

Senate (PBV) — 1943–46 — Turnout 96.31% (CV) — Informal 9.73%

	Party	Votes	%	Swing	Seats Won	Seats Held
	Australian Labor Party	2,139,164	55.09	+17.57	19	22
	Country/UAP (Joint Ticket)	995,910	25.65	−18.05	0
	Country-National Party (QLD)	184,181	4.74	*	0	0
	Liberal & Country League (SA)	148,419	3.82	*	0	0
	Nationalist Country Party (WA)	101,738	2.62	*	0	0
	Christian New Order (NSW)	101,247	2.61	*	0	0
	Country Party	37,350	0.96	*	0	2
	United Australia Party	*	*	−6.71	0	12
	Other	175,161	4.51		0	0
	Total	3,883,170			19	36

Seats changing hands

Seat	Pre-1943				Swing	Post-1943
	Party		Member	Margin		Margin	Member	Party
Adelaide, SA		United Australia	Fred Stacey	4.7	20.3	15.6	Cyril Chambers	Labor
Barker, SA		Country	Archie Cameron *	N/A	14.2	1.7	Archie Cameron	United Australia
Boothby, SA		United Australia	Grenfell Price	6.6	16.1	0.9	Thomas Sheehy	Labor
Denison, Tas		United Australia	Arthur Beck	1.1	10.1	9.0	John Gaha	Labor
Eden-Monaro, NSW		United Australia	John Perkins	4.8	10.8	5.4	Allan Fraser	Labor
Grey, SA		Country	Oliver Badman*	7.7	10.2	2.5	Edgar Russell	Labor
Hume, NSW		Country	Thomas Collins	0.9	7.2	6.3	Arthur Fuller	Labor
Lilley, Qld		United Australia	William Jolly	9.6	9.9	0.4	James Hadley	Labor
Maranoa, Qld		Labor	Frank Baker	1.6	2.6	1.0	Charles Adermann	Country
Martin, NSW		United Australia	William McCall	2.6	8.3	5.7	Fred Daly	Labor
Parkes, NSW		United Australia	Charles Marr	7.4	10.3	2.9	Les Haylen	Labor
Perth, WA		United Australia	Walter Nairn	14.5	20.5	6.0	Tom Burke	Labor
Robertson, NSW		United Australia	Eric Spooner	0.3	9.2	8.9	Thomas Williams	Labor
Swan, WA		Country	Thomas Marwick*	7.5	10.5	3.0	Donald Mountjoy	Labor
Wakefield, SA		United Australia	Jack Duncan-Hughes	3.4	4.6	1.2	Albert Smith	Labor

• *Oliver Badman and Archie Cameron ran as candidates for the UAP, Thomas Marwick ran as an independent.

See also

• Candidates of the Australian federal election, 1943
• Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1943–1946
• Members of the Australian Senate, 1944–1947

References

• University of WA election results in Australia since 1890
• 1940 two party preferred reference – 1943 two party preferred reference