1925 Australian federal election

Background

Anti-Labor electoral pact

In 1924, Bruce and Page formulated an electoral pact between the Nationalist Party and Country Party, whereby each party agreed not to oppose incumbent candidates from the other party and to co-operate to choose the strongest candidate in seats held by the ALP. Both parties agreed to accept the pact, although only after both Bruce and Page made clear they would resign as party leaders if the pact was rejected. The pact proved particularly controversial within the Country Party, with cabinet minister Percy Stewart resigning in protest and some members of the organisational wing seeing it as an attack on the party's independence.

Introduction of compulsory voting

The 1925 federal election was the first at which compulsory voting applied, following the passage of a private senator's bill introduced by Herbert Payne in 1924. Both the government and opposition supported Payne's bill, which had been introduced in response to a substantial decrease in voter turnout at the 1922 election.

Campaign issues

The government made industrial relations and law and order central issues in the election campaign, largely in response to industrial unrest in the maritime industry. In June 1925, the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration had deregistered the Seamen's Union of Australia, in response to what it viewed as illegal industrial action that had disrupted Australia's trade-reliant economy. The union subsequently called a seven-week strike. In response, the government rapidly passed the Immigration Act 1925 and Navigation Act 1925, allowing it to deport foreign-born union leaders and to use foreign seamen as strikebreakers.

Bruce and the Nationalists also made Red Scare tactics a key part of their campaign for the first time, attributing the strikes to "militant union leaders intent on spreading revolutionary, Bolshevik or communist ideas" rather than merely workers intent on improving their employment campaigns. He presented the government as a bulwark against communism and appealed in campaign speeches to the "men and women of moderate sane views", promising a "moderate, sensible, middle way" in response to what he saw as the ALP's political extremism.

Both Bruce and opposition leader Matthew Charlton reaffirmed their support for the White Australia policy during the election campaign. Bruce stated that "we intend to keep this country white and not allow its people to be faced with the problems that at present are practically insoluble in many parts of the world". Charlton called for "the development of our race in body, in mind and social status" and pledged "a continuance of the present embargo against the introduction of black grown sugar in Australia" to protect the status of Australia as "the only country in the world where cane sugar is produced by white labour".

Results

For the first time since the inaugural federal election in 1901, no female candidates stood for either house of parliament.

House of Representatives

Notes

• Independents: Percy Stewart (Wimmera, Vic.), William Watson (Fremantle, WA).
• Labor lost Kennedy, Qld., when the sitting member Charles McDonald died on the day before the election, leading to his opponent Grosvenor Francis being declared elected unopposed.

Senate

Seats changing hands

• Members listed in italics did not contest their seat at this election.
• *Figure is Nationalist versus Labor.

Post-election pendulum

Notes

References

References

1. Wilks, Stephen. (2020). "'Now is the Psychological Moment': Earle Page and the Imagining of Australia". ANU Press.
2. Souter, Gavin. (1988). "Acts of Parliament : A Narrative History of the Senate and House of Representatives". Melbourne University Press.
3. Brett, Judith. (2003). "Australian Liberals and the Moral Middle Class: From Alfred Deakin to John Howard". Cambridge University Press.
4. Bowen, James. (2002). "The Great Barrier Reef: History, Science, Heritage". [[Cambridge University Press]].
5. "1925: Matthew Charlton". Museum of Australian Democracy.
6. Sherrard, Kathleen. (1943). "The Political History of Women in Australia". [[Australian Quarterly]].
7. (14 November 1925). "Kennedy Seat". [[The Courier-Mail.