New South Wales state election, 1953

New South Wales state election, 1953

1950 ← 14 February 1953 (1953-02-14) → 1956

All 94 seats in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly.   First party Second party   Leader Joseph Cahill Vernon Treatt Party Labor Liberal/Country coalition Leader since 2 April 1952 20 March 1946 Leader's seat Cook's River Woollahra Last election 46 seats 46 seats Seats won 57 seats 36 seats Seat change 11 10 Percentage 55.03% 39.54% Swing 8.3 7.2

Premier before election Joseph Cahill Labor Elected Premier Joseph Cahill Labor

The 1953 New South Wales state election was held on 14 February 1953. It was conducted in single member constituencies with compulsory preferential voting and was held on boundaries created at a 1952 redistribution. The election was for all of the 94 seats in the Legislative Assembly.

Issues

In February 1953, Labor had been in power for 12 years and James McGirr, who had led the party to a near defeat in 1950, had lost the premiership to Joe Cahill 10 months earlier. McGirr's period as the Labor leader had been marked by policy indecisiveness, budget overspending and internal conflict. Cahill had won popular support as a vigorous and impressive minister who had resolved problems with New South Wales' electricity supply and in his first 10 months as premier had reinvigorated the party. He appeared decisive and brought order to the government's chaotic public works program. In addition, he astutely attacked the increasingly unpopular federal Coalition government of Robert Menzies.^[1] In contrast, the Liberal Party and Country Party coalition led by Vernon Treatt and Michael Bruxner was racked with internal divisions and Treatt, despite having been opposition leader for 7 years had been unable to present a coherent alternative to the government or find a resonance with the public. .^[2]

Results

The result of the election was a land-slide victory for Labor:

• Australian Labor Party 57 seats
• Independent Labor 1 seat
• Liberal 22 seats
• Country Party 14 seats

Labor's vote was particularly strong in the Western and Southern suburbs of Sydney. It won the seats of Concord, Coogee, Drummoyne, Kogarah, Parramatta, Ryde and Sutherland from the Liberal Party and picked up the new suburban seats of East Hills and Fairfield . Labor's vote was resurgent in rural New South Wales where it won the seats of Armidale, Dubbo and Mudgee from the Country party. Labor also picked up the seat of North Sydney from Independent member James Geraghty who was the last of the 4 Independent members of parliament who had been expelled from the Labor party for disloyalty during an indirect election of the Legislative Council in 1949. John Seiffert, another rebel from 1949 and the member for Monaro, had been readmitted to the party in 1950 and retained the seat at this election, giving a further boost to Labor's numbers. Labor's losses included Ashfield which had been won from the Liberal Party at the 1952 by-election and Hartley which was retained by Jim Chalmers who stood as an Independent Labor candidate after he resigned from the party over a pre-selection dispute. The Minister for Labour, Industry and Social Welfare, Frank Finnan was unseated when his electorate of Darlinghurst was abolished and he failed in an attempt to win Albury. Arthur Greenup also retired when his seat of Newtown-Annandale was abolished.

Seats changing party representation

Seat	Incumbent member	Party		New member	Party
Armidale	Davis Hughes		Country Party	Jim Cahill		Labor
Ashfield	Jack Richardson		Labor	Richard Murden		Liberal
Concord	John Adamson		Liberal Party of Australia	Thomas Murphy		Australian Labor Party
Coogee	Kevin Ellis		Liberal	Lou Walsh		Labor
Darlinghurst	Frank Finnan		Labor	Seat abolished
Drummoyne	Robert Dewley		Liberal	Roy Jackson		Labor
Dubbo	Robert Medcalf		Country	Clarrie Robertson		Labor
East Hills	New seat			Arthur Williams		Labor
Fairfield	New seat			Clarrie Earl		Labor
Hartley	Jim Chalmers		Labor	Jim Chalmers		Independent Labor
Kogarah	Douglas Cross		Liberal	Bill Crabtree		Labor
Monaro	John Seiffert		Independent Labor	John Seiffert		Labor
Mudgee	Frederick Cooke		Country	Leo Nott		Labor
Newtown-Annandale	Arthur Greenup		Labor	Seat abolished
North Sydney	James Geraghty		Independent Labor	Ray Maher		Labor
Parramatta	George Gollan		Liberal	Kevin Morgan		Labor
Ryde	Ken Anderson		Liberal	Frank Downing		Labor
Sutherland	Cecil Monro		Liberal	Tom Dalton		Labor

Key dates

Date	Event
14 January 1953	The Legislative Assembly was dissolved, and writs were issued by the Governor to proceed with an election.
19 January 1953	Nominations for candidates for the election closed at noon.
14 February 1953	Polling day.
14 March 1953	Last day for the writs to be returned and the results formally declared.
11 March 1953	Opening of 37th Parliament.

Tabulated Results

New South Wales state election, 14 February 1953 Legislative Assembly << 1950 — 1956 >>
Enrolled Voters		1,953,953[1]
Votes Cast		1,548,877		Turnout	93.86	+1.11
Informal Votes		39,416		Informal	2.48	+ .71
Summary of votes by party
Party		Primary Votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Labor	852,276	55.03	+ 8.28	57	+11
	Liberal	432,739	27.94	-9.57	22	-7
	Country	179,680	11.60	+2.63	14	-3
	Independent	38,822	2.51	+.20	0	-
	Communist	21,421	1.38	+0.54	0	-
	Independent Labor	16,533	1.07	-0.58	1	- 1
	Lang Labor	7,046	0.48	-0.74	0	-
Total		1,588,293			94

¹ There were 1,692,231 enrolled voters in 81 contested electorates and 261,722 were enrolled in 13 uncontested electorates (9 Labor, 3 Liberal and 1 Country ).

^[3]

Aftermath

Joe Cahill's triumph at this election ensured that he remained premier during the course of the parliament. Treatt faced increasing opposition within the Liberal Party and was replaced as Leader of the Opposition by Murray Robson in August 1954. Bruxner continued as the Leader of the Country Party, a position he had held since 1932. During the parliament there were 7 by-elections with no change of party representation except for Kahibah where an Independent Labor candidate Tom Armstrong defeated the endorsed Labor candidate.

References

1. ^ McMullin, Ross (1991). The Light on the Hill: The Australian Labor Party 1891-1991. Oxford University Press. pp. 266–7. ISBN 019554966X. 
2. ^ McMullin, Ross (1991). The Light on the Hill: The Australian Labor Party 1891-1991. Oxford University Press. ISBN 019554966X. 
3. ^ *Antony Green. "1953 New South Wales state election". New South Wales Parliament. http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/resources/nswelectionsanalysis/1953/Home.htm. Retrieved 12 January 2009. 

See also

• Candidates of the New South Wales state election, 1953
• Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, 1953–1956