1944 New South Wales state election
27 May 1944 (1944-05-27)
All 90 seats in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
46 Assembly seats were needed for a majority
  First party Second party
 
Leader William McKell Reginald Weaver
Party Labor Democratic/Country coalition
Leader since 23 September 1939 10 February 1944
Leader's seat Redfern Neutral Bay
Last election 54 seats 26 seats
Seats won 56 22
Seat change Increase2 Decrease4
Percentage 45.20% 29.32%
Swing Decrease5.60 Increase0.74
Legislative Assembly after the election
Premier before election

William McKell
Labor

 Elected Premier

William McKell
Labor

The 1944 New South Wales state election was held on 27 May 1944. It was conducted in single member constituencies with compulsory preferential voting and was held on boundaries created at a 1940 redistribution. The election was for all of the 90 seats in the Legislative Assembly.

Issues

The Labor government of William McKell faced its first challenge at a general election in May 1944. The campaign was overshadowed by the course of World War II and the Sydney Morning Herald noted that in such an uncertain environment it was difficult for any party to make extensive plans for the future. This was particularly the case as many of the responsibilities of the states had been usurped by the Commonwealth Government under emergency war powers.[1]

McKell's three years in government had enhanced his reputation as a moderate and cautious leader. Under his leadership the extreme left wing of the party had been expelled and had contested the 1941 as the State Labor Party. Its poor showing had resulted in its dissolution shortly after the election and most members then joined the Communist Party of Australia. However, Labor unity was again threatened by Jack Lang who had been expelled from the Labor Party in 1943 and had formed another version of the Lang Labor Party. On this occasion he received no support from the rest of the caucus and spent the rest of the term as the sole member.

In comparison to the Labor Party, the urban conservative political forces were in complete disarray. The very poor results of the United Australia Party (UAP) under Billy Hughes at the 1943 federal election had increased the divisions within the party. The Democratic Party, which was a merger of the Commonwealth Party and UAP in November 1943, had emerged as the main conservative party in New South Wales state politics.[2] It was led by Reginald Weaver and had the support of most of the former UAP members of parliament. However the Liberal Democratic Party, which had been founded by the Sydney timber merchant and businessman Ernest White (later Sir Ernest), attracted significant media attention and had a large and expensive advertising campaign. White claimed that the UAP and Democratic Party had been overly concerned with infighting and were no longer able to give coherence to conservative political aspirations. His party while supporting an extension of the welfare safety-net called for an increased effort to win the war including the mandatory deregistration of unions involved in unreasonable strike action.[3] The Sydney Morning Herald commented that the Liberal Democratic Party was "a mouse" attempting to "swallow the Democratic Party lion".[4]

Key dates

Date Event
24 April 1944 The Legislative Assembly was dissolved, and writs were issued by the Governor to proceed with an election.
28 April 1944 Nominations for candidates for the election closed at noon.
27 May 1944 Polling day.
8 June 1944 Second McKell ministry sworn in
22 June 1944 Last day for the writs to be returned and the results formally declared.
22 June 1944 Opening of 34th Parliament.

Results

There was little change in the composition of parliament, with Labor retaining its large majority.

At the election Lang's party won 2 of the 23 seats in which it stood candidates. Its total primary vote of 9.33%, which significantly reduced Labor's primary vote but made little difference to the distribution of seats. The Liberal Democratic Party did not fulfill pre-election predictions and gained less than 4% of the vote with no seats.

New South Wales state election, 27 May 1944 [5]
Legislative Assembly
<< 1941–1947 >>

Enrolled voters 1,732,706 [lower-alpha 1]
Votes cast 1,310,270 Turnout 91.42 −1.10
Informal votes 43,329 Informal 3.31 +0.78
Summary of votes by party
Party Primary votes  % Swing Seats Change
  Labor 572,600 45.20 −5.60 56 +2
  Democratic 239,610 18.91 +1.38 [lower-alpha 2] 12 −2 [lower-alpha 2]
  Country 131,950 10.41 −0.64 10 −2
  Lang Labor 118,174 9.33 +9.33 2 +2
  Independent 72,431 5.72 −0.41 5 +1
  Liberal Democratic 49,325 3.89 +3.89 0 0
  Independent Democrat 30,532 2.41 −0.84 [lower-alpha 3] 4 −1 [lower-alpha 3]
  Independent Labor 22,697 1.79 −0.35 0 –1
  Communist 21,982 1.74 +1.74 0 –
  Independent Country 6,670 0.53 +0.53 1 +1
  State Labor 0 0 −5.64 0 –
  All others 970 0.08 −0.62 0 –
Total 1,266,941     90  

Seats changing party representation

This table lists changes in party representation since the 1941 election but does not include United Australia Party members who retained their seats as Democratic Party members

Seat 1941 1944
Party Member Member Party
Auburn   Labor Jack Lang [lower-alpha 4] Jack Lang Lang Labor  
Burwood   Ind. United Australia Gordon Jackett Gordon Jackett Democratic  
Dubbo [lower-alpha 5]   Country Clarrie Robertson Labor  
Lachlan [lower-alpha 6] John Chanter
Lane Cove   United Australia Herbert FitzSimons Henry Woodward
Manly Alfred Reid Alfred Reid Independent Democrat  
Murrumbidgee   Independent Labor George Enticknap George Enticknap Labor  
Nepean   United Australia Joseph Jackson Joseph Jackson Independent  
Newtown   Labor Frank Burke Lilian Fowler Lang Labor  
Oxley   Independent George Mitchell Les Jordan Independent Country  
Tamworth Ind. United Australia Bill Chaffey Bill Chaffey Independent

Aftermath

McKell remained premier until he was appointed Governor General in early 1947. Weaver became the leader of the United Democratic Party, formed from the urban conservative parties in late 1944. The Democratic Party became the New South Wales division of the Liberal Party of Australia in early 1945, with Weaver becoming its inaugural leader. However, he died in November that year and was succeeded by former Premier Alexander Mair, who was then succeeded by Vernon Treatt in March 1946. Michael Bruxner retained his leadership of the Country Party, which he had held since 1932, throughout the parliament.

There were 9 by-elections during the parliament but the overall composition of the parties stayed intact.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ There were 1,433,166 enrolled voters in 74 contested electorates and 299,540 were enrolled in 16 uncontested electorates (13 Labor, 1 Democrat, 1 Country and 1 Independent).[5]
  2. 1 2 Compared to United Australia Party at 1941 election
  3. 1 2 Compared to Independent UAP at 1941 election
  4. ↑ Lang had been expelled from the Labor Party in 1943
  5. ↑ Clarrie Robertson (Labor) won Dubbo from the Country Party at the 1942 by-election caused by the death of George Wilson
  6. ↑ John Chanter (Labor) won Lachlan from the Country Party at the 1943 by-election caused by the death of Griffith Evans

References

  1. ↑ "Today's election". Sydney Morning Herald 27 May 1944 p2. Australian National Library. 27 May 1944. Retrieved 11 January 2009.
  2. ↑ ""Democratic Party" Formed". Sydney Morning Herald. 25 November 1943. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
  3. ↑ "Liberal Democratic Policy: White attacks old parties". Sydney Morning Herald 18 May 1944 p3. Australian National Library. 18 May 1944. Retrieved 11 January 2009.
  4. ↑ "Election prospects: Discord in opposition". Sydney Morning Herald 24 May 1944 p2. Australian National Library. 24 May 1944. Retrieved 11 January 2009.
  5. 1 2 Green, Antony. "1944 election totals". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.