1917 Australian federal election


The 1917 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 5 May 1917. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives and 18 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Nationalist Party, led by Prime Minister Billy Hughes, defeated the opposition Labor Party led by Frank Tudor in a landslide.
Hughes, at the time a member of the ALP, had become prime minister when Andrew Fisher retired in 1915. The Australian Labor Party split of 1916 over [World War I Conscription in Australia|conscription in Australia|the conscription issue] had led Hughes and 24 other pro-conscription Labor MPs to split off as the National Labor Party, which was able to form a minority government supported by the Commonwealth Liberal Party under Joseph Cook. Later that year, National Labor and the Liberals merged to form the Nationalist Party, with Hughes as leader and Cook as deputy leader. The election was fought in the aftermath of the 1916 plebiscite on conscription, which had been narrowly defeated. The Nationalists won a decisive victory, securing the largest majority government since Federation. The ALP suffered a large electoral swing against it, losing almost seven percentage points of its vote share compared with 1914. The swing was magnified by the large number of former Labor MPs who followed Hughes out of the party. This election would be the last federal election using the first past the post election system as Australia switched to the preferential voting system in 1919.

Background

Labor split and aftermath

In November 1916 the ALP formally split over the issue of conscription, following the referendum defeat of the government's proposal to require conscript soldiers to serve overseas. Hughes and his supporters were expelled from the ALP and formed a separate National Labor Party, continuing to govern in minority with the support of the Liberal Party despite holding only 16 out of 75 seats in the House. The remnant ALP, now led by Frank Tudor, retained its Senate majority, making the passage of legislation difficult.
Discussions around an alliance between the NLP and the Liberals began shortly after the split. Although Hughes would have preferred a national unity government of all parties, the ALP was unwilling to co-operate and by mid-December 1916 Hughes had accepted the principle that Liberals would have to join his cabinet. Negotiations between Hughes and Liberal leader Joseph Cook lasted for several months, with terms finally agreed by Hughes on 31 January 1917 and approved by the Liberal Party. A new coalition ministry was sworn in on 17 February, with Cook taking the second rank in cabinet and the Liberals gaining five out of the nine portfolios.

Attempted postponement

Hughes had initially planned to call an election for April or May 1917 to allow him to attend the Imperial War Cabinet and Imperial War Conference in London. However, at the urging of the Liberals, a plan was instead developed to postpone the election – "until October 1918 or six months after the end of the war, whichever was sooner". As this would have violated section 28 of the constitution, the government sought to prolong the parliament by petitioning the British government to directly amend the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900 and thereby circumvent the standard referendum process for constitutional amendments. This mechanism was viewed by some in Australia as legally permissible prior to the adoption of the Statute of Westminster 1931.
Hughes received advice from the British government that a joint resolution of the Australian parliament would be necessary before the British parliament could consider the matter. He succeeded in passing a resolution through the House, but faced difficulties in the Senate where the ALP still held a majority. Hughes was accused by some opponents of improperly influencing ALP senators to miss the vote – as with James Guy, James Long, and David Watson – or resign from the Senate altogether, as with Rudolph Ready. The postponement of the election was ultimately thwarted when Liberal senators Thomas Bakhap and John Keating crossed the floor to vote against the resolution.
Hughes eventually advised Governor-General Ronald Munro Ferguson to dissolve parliament on 23 March 1917 with the election date set for 5 May. He was consequently unable to attend the Imperial War Cabinet.

Results

House of Representatives

Notes
  • Ten members were elected unopposed – seven Nationalist and three Labor.
  • The changes recorded for the Nationalist Party are with regard to the Commonwealth Liberal Party's performance in 1914.

Senate

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Notes

Seats changing hands

  • Members listed in italics did not contest their seat at this election.