A federal election was 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 called after the Senate rejected the Commonwealth Bank Bill. The incumbent Liberal–Country coalition led by Prime Minister Robert Menzies defeated the opposition Labor Party led by Ben Chifley with a modestly reduced majority, and secured a majority in the Senate. Chifley died just over a month after the election.

Issues Although the Coalition had won a comfortable majority in the House in 1949, Labor still had a four-seat majority in the Senate. Chifley thus made it his business to obstruct Menzies's agenda at every opportunity. Realizing this, Menzies sought to call a double dissolution at the first opportunity in hopes of gaining control of both houses. He thought he had his chance in 1950, when he introduced a bill to ban the Australian Communist Party. However, after a redraft, Chifley let the bill pass.

A few months later, the Senate rejected the Commonwealth Bank Bill 1950, in which the Coalition government aimed to establish a "Commonwealth Bank Board", which Labor believed would be filled with private banking interests. This finally gave Menzies an excuse to call a double dissolution. While the Coalition lost five House seats to Labor, it still had a solid mandate. More importantly, it picked up six Senate seats, giving it control over both chambers.

The 1951 election was the first double dissolution election since single transferable vote with proportional representation became the method for electing the Senate in 1949. With close opinion polls and no minor parties having a credible chance of winning a seat, it was feared and forecast that under the new system the Senate would finish deadlocked at 30–30, since the 54.55% majority that either major party required to win a sixth Senate seat from any single state was greater than polling margins, and there were proposals for further amendments to Senate voting rules ahead of the election, none of which were passed. In the end, Queensland and Western Australia elected 6–4 Senator majorities to the Coalition; the other states were tied 5–5.

Results House of Representatives

+ House of Reps (IRV) — 1951–54—Turnout 96.00% (CV) — Informal 1.90% Party First preference votes % Swing Seats Change   Liberal–Country coalition 2,298,512 50.34 +0.08 69 –5  Liberal 1,854,799 40.62 +1.23 52 –3  Country 443,713 9.72 –1.15 17 –2   Labor 2,174,840 47.63 +1.65 54 +6   Communist 44,782 0.98 +0.09 0 0   Independents 47,765 1.05 –1.11 0 –1  Total 4,565,899     123 Two-party-preferred   Liberal–Country coalition Win 50.70 −0.30 69 −5   Labor 49.30 +0.30 52 +5

Notes Three members were elected unopposed – two Labor and one Liberal.

Senate + Senate (STV) — 1951–53—Turnout 95.99% (CV) — Informal 7.13% Party First preference votes % Swing Seats won Seats held Change   Liberal–Country coalition 2,198,687 49.70 –0.71 32 32 +6   Liberal–Country joint ticket 1,925,631 43.52 –1.12 22 N/A N/A   Liberal 273,056 6.17 +0.41 10 26 +5   Country N/A N/A N/A N/A 6 +1   Labor 2,029,751 45.88 +0.99 28 28 −6   Communist 93,561 2.11 +0.02 0 0 0   Lang Labor 60,549 1.37 +1.37 0 0 0   Protestant People's 13,090 0.30 –0.59 0 0 0   Henry George Justice 6,015 0.14 +0.14 0 0 0   Independents 22,584 0.51 –1.20 0 0 0   Total 4,424,237     60 60

Seats changing hands

Seat Pre-1951 Swing Post-1951 Party Member Margin Margin Member Party Australian Capital Territory, ACT  Independent Lewis Nott 3.8 6.7 2.9 Jim Fraser Labor  Ballaarat, Vic  Liberal Alan Pittard 0.4 1.6 1.2 Bob Joshua Labor  Hume, NSW  Country Charles Anderson 1.0 1.3 0.3 Arthur Fuller Labor  Kingston, SA  Liberal Jim Handby 1.6 3.4 1.8 Pat Galvin Labor  Leichhardt, Qld  Country Tom Gilmore 1.0 1.3 0.3 Harry Bruce Labor  Wannon, Vic  Liberal Dan Mackinnon 0.8 1.9 1.1 Don McLeod Labor 

Opinion polling Graphical summary

Voting intention Date FirmFirst preference vote 28 Apr 19511951 election50.3%47.6%2.0% Apr 1951 Gallup49%43%1% Mar 1951 Gallup49%44%1% Dec 1950 Gallup52%47%1% Nov 1950 Gallup50%49%1% Aug 1950 Gallup57%42%1% 5 May 1950 Gallup54%46%1% Apr 1950 Gallup54%46% 24 Mar 1950 Gallup54%46% Feb 1950 Gallup56%44% 10 Dec 19491949 election50.3%46.0%3.8%

See also Candidates of the 1951 Australian federal election Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1951–1954 Members of the Australian Senate, 1951–1953

Notes

References

External links University of WA election results in Australia since 1890 AEC 2PP vote Adam Carr's Election Archive - Senate 1951