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1956 Queensland state election

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Field	Value
election_name	1956 Queensland state election
country	Queensland
type	parliamentary
ongoing	no
previous_election	1953 Queensland state election
previous_year	1953
next_election	1957 Queensland state election
next_year	1957
seats_for_election	All 75 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland
38 Assembly seats were needed for a majority
turnout	93.01 ( 0.79 pp)
election_date
image1	[[File:Queensland State Archives 4750 Hon VC Gair Premier of Queensland c 1953.png	150x150px]]
leader1	Vince Gair
leader_since1
party1	Australian Labor Party (Queensland Branch)
leaders_seat1	South Brisbane
popular_vote1	335,311
percentage1	51.22%
swing1	1.99
last_election1	50 seats
seats1	49
seat_change1	1
image2	[[File:Frank_Nicklin_1959.jpg	150x150px]]
leader2	Frank Nicklin
leader_since2	21 May 1941
party2	Country–Liberal Coalition
leaders_seat2	Landsborough
popular_vote2	290,299
percentage2	44.34%
swing2	4.30
last_election2	23 seats
seats2	24
seat_change2	1
title	Premier
before_election	Vince Gair
before_party	Australian Labor Party (Queensland Branch)
after_election	Vince Gair
after_party	Australian Labor Party (Queensland Branch)

38 Assembly seats were needed for a majority

Elections were held in the Australian state of Queensland on 19 May 1956 to elect the 75 members of the state's Legislative Assembly. The Labor government was seeking its ninth continuous term in office since the 1932 election; it would be Vince Gair's second election as Premier.

Labor would not win another election in the state until 1989.

Key dates

Date	Event
17 April 1956	The Parliament was dissolved.
17 April 1956	Writs were issued by the Governor to proceed with an election.
27 April 1956	Close of nominations.
19 May 1956	Polling day, between the hours of 8am and 6pm.
26 May 1956	Polling day in the seat of Warrego, delayed due to absence of the presiding officer.
28 May 1956	The Gair Ministry was re-sworn in.
2 June 1956	Polling day in the seat of Tablelands, delayed due to floods.
30 June 1956	The writ was returned and the results formally declared.
31 July 1956	Parliament resumed for business.

Results

| turnout % = 93.01 | informal % = 1.21 |votes % = 51.22 |votes % = 25.07 |votes % = 19.27 |votes % = 1.32 |votes % = 0.20 |votes % = 0.06 |votes % = 2.86 |}

: 775,258 electors were enrolled to vote at the election, but 6 seats representing 62,750 enrolled voters were unopposed: three Country seats (28,062 voters), two Liberal seats (23,119 voters) and one Labor seat (11,569 voters).

Seats changing party representation

This table lists changes in party representation at the 1956 election.

Seat	Incumbent member	Party	New member	Party
Mackenzie	Paddy Whyte			Labor	Nev Hewitt

Aftermath

This was to be Labor's last successful election until the 1989 election. On 18 April 1957, the Queensland Central Executive of the Labor Party passed a vote of no confidence in Premier Gair, and on 24 April, despite having gained a unanimous vote of support from the Cabinet, he was expelled from the Labor Party. On 26 April, Gair convened a meeting of 25 MLAs, including all of the Cabinet except Deputy Premier John Duggan and two ex-Labor Independents, and formed the Queensland Labor Party (QLP) with those present, while the Labor Party moved to the opposition benches. All these were also expelled from the party. The resulting government was denied supply in parliament, and an election was called for 3 August, at which the QLP government and the Labor Party were defeated by the Country-Liberal coalition led by Frank Nicklin.

References

(17 April 1956). "A Proclamation".
{{Gazette QLD. (17 April 1956)
(31 July 1956). "Order in Council".
{{Gazette QLD. (28 May 1956)
{{Gazette QLD. (21 June 1956)
Australian Government and Politics Database. "Parliament of Queensland, Assembly election, 19 May 1956".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

elections-in-queensland 1956-elections-in-australia 1950s-in-queensland may-1956-in-australia

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