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1956 Tasmanian state election

State election in Australia

Summary

State election in Australia

Field	Value
election_name	1956 Tasmanian state election
country	Tasmania
type	parliamentary
ongoing	no
previous_election	1955 Tasmanian state election
previous_year	1955
next_election	1959 Tasmanian state election
next_year	1959
seats_for_election	All 30 seats to the House of Assembly
election_date	13 October 1956
image1
leader1	Robert Cosgrove
leader_since1	25 February 1948
party1	Australian Labor Party (Tasmanian Branch)
leaders_seat1	Denison
last_election1	15 seats
seats1	15 seats
seat_change1	0
percentage1	50.27%
swing1	2.36
image2
leader2	Tim Jackson
leader_since2	26 June 1956
party2	Liberal Party of Australia (Tasmanian Division)
leaders_seat2	Franklin
last_election2	15 seats
seats2	15 seats
seat_change2	0
percentage2	43.61%
swing2	1.74
map_image	1956 Tasmanian state election.svg
map_size	350px
map_caption	Results of the election
title	Premier
posttitle	Resulting Premier
before_election	Robert Cosgrove
before_party	Australian Labor Party (Tasmanian Branch)
after_election	Robert Cosgrove
after_party	Australian Labor Party (Tasmanian Branch)

The 1956 Tasmanian state election was held on 13 October 1956 in the Australian state of Tasmania to elect 30 members of the Tasmanian House of Assembly. The election used the Hare-Clark proportional representation system — six members were elected from each of five electorates.

Background

The 1955 election had resulted in a parliamentary deadlock between the Labor and Liberal parties, with each holding 15 seats in the House of Assembly. Under the terms of a constitutional amendment introduced in 1954, the ALP had been declared the "majority party" as the winner of the most primary votes, with the Liberal Party entitled to appoint the speaker of the House of Assembly and thereby give the ALP a working majority of one seat.

On 11 September 1956, Cosgrove's minister for housing, Carrol Bramich, resigned from the ALP following an internal row, party switching and giving the Liberal opposition a 16–14 majority in the House of Assembly. Cosgrove obtained a dissolution of parliament from the Governor of Tasmania, and an election was called for 13 October.

The electorate of Darwin had been renamed in 1955 to Braddon, after former Premier Sir Edward Braddon.

Results

Following the 1956 election, the ALP and Liberals remained in a 15-seat deadlock. Despite Bramich's defection to the Liberals, Labor picked up a seat in Bramich's electorate of Braddon, maintaining the status quo with Cosgrove and the ALP still in power.

Distribution of votes

Primary vote by division

Braddon	Denison	Franklin	Wilmot
Labor Party	51.5%	48.5%	48.7%	49.0%
Liberal Party	44.5%	46.9%	41.4%	42.9%
Other	4.0%	4.6%	9.9%	8.1%

Distribution of seats

Electorate	Seats won
	Bass	Labor}}
	Braddon
	Denison
	Franklin
	Wilmot

		Liberal

Government formation and aftermath

As both major parties finished with 15 seats, the deadlock provisions of the constitution were again invoked and the ALP was deemed to be the "majority party", having recorded the most popular votes. Cosgrove continued as premier with Liberal MP Kevin Lyons elected as speaker, giving the ALP a working majority.

The subsequent election in 1959 saw the number of seats in the Tasmanian House of Assembly increased to 35, which would prevent the kind of deadlock which resulted from having an even number of seats in the house.

References

[http://www.parliament.tas.gov.au/tpl/Backg/HAElections.htm House of Assembly Elections], [[Parliament of Tasmania]].
(1955). "Australian Political Chronicle January-June, 1955". Australian Journal of Politics & History.
[https://web.archive.org/web/20020919110134/http://www.parliament.tas.gov.au/php/Almanac.htm Tasmanian Political Alamanc - On This Day], [[Parliament of Tasmania]].
W. A. Townsley, [https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cosgrove-sir-robert-9832 Cosgrove, Sir Robert (1884 - 1969)], ''[[Australian Dictionary of Biography]]'', Volume 13, Melbourne University Press, 1993, pp 505-507.
(1957). "Australian Political Chronicle July-December, 1956". Australian Journal of Politics & History.

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-tasmania 1956-elections-in-australia 1950s-in-tasmania october-1956-in-australia

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