Queensland state election, 1915

Queensland state election, 1915

22 May 1915

All 72 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland   First party Second party   Leader T. J. Ryan Digby Denham Party Labor Liberal Leader since 6 September 1912 7 February 1911 Leader's seat Barcoo Oxley (lost seat) Last election 25 seats 46 seats Seats won 45 seats 21 seats Seat change 20 25 Percentage 52.06% 41.97% Swing 5.36 4.73

Premier before election Digby Denham Commonwealth Liberal Elected Premier T. J. Ryan Labor

Elections were held in the Australian state of Queensland on 22 May 1915 to elect the 72 members of the state's Legislative Assembly.

The election was the second for the Liberal government of Digby Denham, who had been premier since 7 February 1911. The opposition Labor Party, led by T. J. Ryan, had two previous Premiers — Anderson Dawson in 1899 and William Kidston in 1906 — but the former did not command a majority of parliamentary support, while the latter maintained it by splitting the Labor Party. Labor had never before held majority government.

The election was the first in Australia to be conducted using compulsory voting due to Denham's concern that Trade Unions were effectively mobilising the ALP vote; he felt that compulsory voting would ensure a more level playing field. However, it turned out that the change to compulsory voting was not enough to save Denham's premiership.^[1]

The election resulted in the defeat of the government, and Queensland's first majority Labor government. All except two members of the Ministry up for election, including Denham himself, lost their seats.

Key dates

Date	Event
15 April 1915	The Parliament was dissolved.[2]
15 April 1915	Writs were issued by the Governor to proceed with an election.[3]
28 April 1915	Close of nominations.
22 May 1915	Polling day, between the hours of 8am and 6pm.
1 June 1915	The Denham Ministry resigned and the Ryan Ministry was sworn in.[4]
21 June 1915	The writ was returned and the results formally declared.
13 July 1915	Parliament resumed for business.[5]

Results

The election saw a landslide to Labor from the 1912 election.

Queensland state election, 22 May 1915[6] Legislative Assembly << 1912 — 1918 >>
Enrolled voters		302,061^[1]
Votes cast		266,240		Turnout	88.14	+12.62
Informal votes		4,188		Informal	1.57	+0.38
Summary of votes by party
Party		Primary votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Labor	136,419	52.06	+5.36	45	+20
	Liberal	109,985	41.97	–4.73	21	–25
	Farmers' Union	13,233	5.05	+5.05	5	+ 5
	Independent	2,415	0.92	–0.82	1	± 0
Total		262,052			72

¹ 335,195 electors were enrolled to vote at the election, but 8 seats (11.1% of the total) were uncontested—6 Labor seats representing 24,564 enrolled voters, one Liberal seat representing 3,999 voters, and one Farmers' Union seat representing 4,571 voters.

Aftermath

This was the start of a period of Labor hegemony over the Assembly which lasted until 1957; the only breach was the Moore ministry of the 1929–1932 period.

See also

• Candidates of the Queensland state election, 1915
• Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, 1912–1915
• Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, 1915–1918
• Denham Ministry
• Ryan Ministry

References

1. http://www.aec.gov.au/About_AEC/Publications/voting/index.htm
2. Queensland Government Gazette. 15 April 1915. p. 104:1101. Missing or empty |title= (help)
3. Queensland Government Gazette. 15 April 1915. p. 104:1103. Missing or empty |title= (help)
4. Queensland Government Gazette. 1 June 1915. p. 104:1513–1514. Missing or empty |title= (help)
5. Queensland Government Gazette. 13 July 1915. p. 105:141. Missing or empty |title= (help)
6. Australian Government and Politics Database. "Parliament of Queensland, Assembly election, 22 May 1915". Retrieved 14 January 2009.