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1915 Queensland state election

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Field	Value
election_name	1915 Queensland state election
country	Queensland
type	parliamentary
ongoing	no
previous_election	1912 Queensland state election
outgoing_members	Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, 1912–1915
previous_year	1912
next_election	1918 Queensland state election
next_year	1918
elected_members	Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, 1915–1918
seats_for_election	All 72 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland
37 Assembly seats were needed for a majority
turnout	88.14 (12.62 pp)
registered	302,061
election_date
image1	[[File:TJRyanPortrait.jpg	170x170px]]
leader1	T. J. Ryan
leader_since1
party1	Australian Labor Party (Queensland Branch)
leaders_seat1	Barcoo
percentage1	52.06%
swing1	5.36
last_election1	25 seats, 46.70%
seats1	45
seat_change1	20
popular_vote1	136,419
image2	[[File:Denham, unknown date (cropped).jpg	170x170px]]
leader2	Digby Denham
leader_since2	7 February 1911
party2	Liberal
colour2	8CB4D2
leaders_seat2	Oxley (lost seat)
percentage2	41.97%
swing2	4.73
last_election2	46 seats, 51.37%
seats2	21
seat_change2	25
popular_vote2	109,985
image3	FU
leader3	No leader
leader_since3	N/A
party3	Farmers' Union
colour3	008000
leaders_seat3	N/A
percentage3	5.05%
swing3	5.05
last_election3	Did not contest
seats3	5
seat_change3	5
popular_vote3	13,233
title	Premier
before_election	Digby Denham
before_party	Liberal
after_election	T. J. Ryan
after_party	Australian Labor Party (Queensland Branch)
map_image	Queensland Legislative Assembly 1915.svg
map_size	300px
map_caption	Legislative Assembly after the election

37 Assembly seats were needed for a majority

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.

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.
15 April 1915	Writs were issued by the Governor to proceed with an election.
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.
21 June 1915	The writ was returned and the results formally declared.
13 July 1915	Parliament resumed for business.

Results

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

| turnout % = 88.14 | informal % = 1.57 |votes % = 52.06 |votes % = 41.97 |votes % = 5.05 |votes % = 0.92 |}

: 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.

Seats changing party representation

This table lists changes in party representation at the 1915 election.

Seat	Incumbent member	Party
Albert	John Appel	Liberal	John Appel
Aubigny	Alfred Luke	Liberal	Arthur Moore
Bowen	Edwin Caine	Liberal	Charles Collins
Bremer	James Cribb	Liberal	Frank Cooper
Bulimba	Walter Barnes	Liberal	Hugh McMinn
Charters Towers	Robert Williams	Liberal	William Wellington
Cook	Henry Douglas	Liberal	Henry Ryan
Drayton	William Bebbington	Liberal	William Bebbington
Enoggera	Richard Trout	Liberal	William Lloyd
Fitzroy	Kenneth Grant	Liberal	Harry Hartley
Gympie	George Mackay	Liberal	Thomas Dunstan
Ipswich	James Blair	Liberal	David Gledson
Kurilpa	James Allan	Liberal	William Hartley
Mackay	Walter Paget	Liberal	William Smith
Maryborough	Edward Corser	Liberal	Alfred Jones
Merthyr	Thomas Welsby	Liberal	Peter McLachlan
Mount Morgan	James Crawford	Liberal	James Stopford
Musgrave	John White	Liberal	Thomas Armfield
Nanango	Robert Hodge	Liberal	Robert Hodge
Normanby	Edward Archer	Liberal	Jens Peterson
Oxley	Digby Denham	Liberal	Thomas Jones
Pittsworth	Donald Mackintosh	Liberal	Percy Bayley
Port Curtis	John Kessell	Liberal	George Carter
South Brisbane	Thomas Bouchard	Liberal	Edgar Free
Townsville	Robert Philp	Liberal	Daniel Ryan
Windsor	Hugh Macrossan	Liberal	Herbert McPhail

Members listed in italics did not recontest their seats.

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.

References

(January 2006). "Compulsory voting in Australia".
{{Gazette QLD. (15 April 1915)
{{Gazette QLD. (15 April 1915)
{{Gazette QLD. (1 June 1915)
{{Gazette QLD. (13 July 1915)
Australian Government and Politics Database. "Parliament of Queensland, Assembly election, 22 May 1915".

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.

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