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1931 Australian federal election

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Field	Value
election_name	1931 Australian federal election
country	Australia
type	parliamentary
vote_type	Primary
ongoing	no
previous_election	1929 Australian federal election
previous_year	1929
next_election	1934 Australian federal election
next_year	1934
outgoing_members	Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1929–1931
elected_members	Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1931–1934
registered	3,649,954 3.13%
turnout	3,286,474 (95.04%)
(0.19 pp)
seats_for_election	All 76 seats of the House of Representatives
38 seats were needed for a majority in the House
18 (of the 36) seats of the Senate
election_date	19 December 1931
<!-- United Australia Party -->	image1
leader1	Joseph Lyons
leader_since1	7 May 1931
party1	United Australia Party
leaders_seat1	Wilmot (Tas.)
last_election1	New party
seats1	33
popular_vote1	1,155,809
seat_change1	14
percentage1	36.4%
swing1	New party
seats_before1	24 seats
<!-- Country Party -->	image2
leader2	Earle Page
leader_since2	5 April 1921
party2	Country Party of Australia (1920)
leaders_seat2	Cowper (NSW)
last_election2	10 seats
seats2	16
popular_vote2	388,544
seat_change2	6
percentage2	12.2%
swing2	1.9%
seats_before2	10 seats
<!-- Australian Labor Party -->	image3
leader3	James Scullin
leader_since3	[26 April 1928](1928-australian-labor-party-leadership-election)
party3	Australian Labor Party
leaders_seat3	Yarra (Vic.)
last_election3	46 seats
seats3	15 + NT
popular_vote3	860,260
seat_change3	21
percentage3	27.1%
swing3	21.7%
seats_before3	36 seats
<!-- Australian Labor Party -->	image4
leader4	Jack Lang
leader_since4	N/A
party4	Lang Labor
colour4
leaders_seat4	N/A
last_election4	New party
seats4	4
popular_vote4	335,309
seat_change4	1
percentage4	10.6%
swing4	10.6%
seats_before4	5 seats
image5
leader5	N/A
leader_since5	31 July 1923
party5	Emergency Committee
color5
leaders_seat5	N/A
last_election5	New party
seats5	5
popular_vote5	174,288
seat_change5	5
percentage5	5.5%
swing5	New party
seats_before5	0 seats
image6
leader6	N/A
leader_since6	N/A
party6	Independent politicians in Australia
leaders_seat6	N/A
popular_vote6	260,786
percentage6	6%
swing6	–0.02
last_election6	4 seats
seats6	3 seats
seat_change6	1
title	Prime Minister
before_election	James Scullin
before_party	Australian Labor Party
posttitle	Subsequent Prime Minister
after_election	Joseph Lyons
after_party	United Australia Party
map_image	1931_Australian_federal_election.svg
map_caption	Results by division for the House of Representatives, shaded by winning party's margin of victory.

(0.19 pp) 38 seats were needed for a majority in the House 18 (of the 36) seats of the Senate

The 1931 Australian federal election was held on 19 December 1931 to elect all 75 seats in the House of Representatives and 18 of the 36 seats in the Senate.

The incumbent first-term Australian Labor Party (ALP) government led by Prime Minister James Scullin was defeated in a landslide by the United Australia Party (UAP) led by Joseph Lyons. As of 2025, this is the last time that a sitting government at federal level has been defeated after a single term.

The election was held at a time of great social and political upheaval, coming at the peak of the Great Depression in Australia. The UAP had only been formed a few months before the election, when Lyons and a few ALP dissidents joined forces with the Nationalist Party and the Australian Party. Although it was dominated by former Nationalists, Lyons became the merged party's leader, with Nationalist leader John Latham as his deputy.

Scullin's position eroded further when five left-wing Labor MPs from New South Wales who supported NSW Premier Jack Lang broke away and moved to the crossbenches in protest of Scullin's economic policy, reducing Scullin to a minority government. Late in 1931, they supported a UAP no-confidence motion and brought down the government. The two Labor factions were decimated; massive vote-splitting left them with only 18 seats between them (14 for the official ALP and four for the Langites).

Prior to the election, it was assumed that the Country Party, led by Earle Page, would hold the balance of power, and Page tentatively agreed to support the UAP if that were the case. The two parties campaigned separately and stood candidates against each other in the House of Representatives, but ran joint tickets in Senate. However, the UAP came up four seats short of a majority. The five MPs from the Emergency Committee of South Australia, which contested the election in that state in place of the UAP and Country Party, joined the UAP party room, giving the UAP enough numbers to form a majority government by two seats. Page was still willing to form a coalition with the Country Party, but negotiations broke down and Lyons decided the UAP would govern by itself. As a result, the First Lyons Ministry was composed solely of UAP members.

Labor spent the next 10 years in opposition; it did not return to power until 1941.

Issues

The election was dominated by the Great Depression in Australia, which was at its height. As the Labor government had come to office two days before the Wall Street crash of 1929, it was seen as being responsible for many of the economic and social problems Australia faced, which sparked the historic Australian Labor Party split of 1931 in which Lyons and four other Labor dissidents crossed the floor to the opposition, ultimately merging into the UAP. Although the UAP, like the Nationalists, was a mostly upper- and middle-class conservative party. However, the presence of Lyons and other ex-Labor MPs allowed the party to project an image of national unity.

By the time the writs were issued, official Labor and Lang Labor were in open warfare. Combined with the Labor defections to the UAP, this made a UAP victory all but certain. Due to the massive vote splitting brought on by a large number of three-cornered contests, Labor tallied its lowest primary (first preference) vote since Federation, while the two Labor factions, official Labor and Lang Labor, won only 18 seats between them, with official Labor losing a record 32 seats on a massive 15.2% swing to the UAP.

The two Labor factions did not reunite until 1936.

Results

House of Representatives

Party	First preference vote	Seats	Votes	%	Swing (pp)	Seats	Change
United Australia Party}};"		United Australia Party	UAP	1,155,809	36.4	+36.4	33	15
National Party of Australia}};"		Country	CP	388,544	12.2	+1.93	16	6
Australian Labor Party}};"		Labor	ALP	860,260	27.1	–21.74	16	22
	Emergency Committee	ECSA	174,288	5.5	+5.5	5	6
lang labor}};"		Labor (NSW)	L (NSW)	335,309	10.6	+10.6	4	1
Communist Party of Australia}};"		Communist	CPA	8,511	0.3	+0.3	0	0
	Independent	260,786	6	–0.02	3	1
Total	3,287,992	100.00		76
Valid votes	3,173,515	96.52	rowspan=4	rowspan=4	rowspan=4
Informal ballots	114,477	3.5
Turnout	3,287,992	90
Registered voters	3,652,196

Results by electorate

Constituency	Total
seats	Seats won	UAP	CP	ALP	ECSA	L (NSW)	Independent	United Australia Party}};"	National Party of Australia}};"	Australian Labor Party}};"	Lang Labor}};"	Independent}};"	New South Wales	28	Victoria	20	Queensland	10	South Australia	7	Western Australia	5	Tasmania	5	Northern Territory	1	Total	76	33	16	15	5	4	3
13	8	3	0	4	0
12	4	4	0	0	0
2	2	5	0	0	1
0	0	1	5	0	1
1	2	1	0	0	1
5	0	0	0	0	0
0	0	1	0	0	0

Senate

First preference votes	%	Swing	Seats won	Seats held	Change
	UAP/Country (Joint Ticket)	945,741	30.16	*	6
	Australian Labor Party	917,218	29.25	−19.70	3	10
	United Australia Party	791,870	25.26	−14.02	9	21
	Australian Labor Party (NSW)	379,870	12.12	*	0	0
	Communist Party of Australia	29,443	0.94	*	0	0
	Country Party	*	*	−11.18	0	5
	Independents	71,181	2.27	+1.68	0	0
Total	3,135,323			18	36

Results by electorate

Constituency	Total
seats	Seats won	UAP	CP	ALP	United Australia Party}};"	National Party of Australia}};"	Australian Labor Party}};"	New South Wales	3	Victoria	3	Queensland	3	South Australia	3	Western Australia	3	Tasmania	3	Total	18	12	3	3
2	1	0
3	0	0
0	0	3
2	1	0
2	1	0
3	0	0

Seats changing hands

Seat	Post-1931	Party	Member	Margin	Margin	Member	Party
Adelaide, SA	Labor	George Edwin Yates	11.4	21.0	9.6	Fred Stacey	Emergency Committee
Angas, SA	Labor	Moses Gabb	4.7	31.5	26.8	Moses Gabb	Ind. Emergency Committee
Ballaarat, Vic	Labor	Charles McGrath	7.4	20.7	13.3	Charles McGrath	United Australia
Barton, NSW	Labor	James Tully	17.6	20.8	3.2	Albert Lane	United Australia
Bass, Tas	Labor	Allan Guy	10.4	24.9	14.5	Allan Guy	United Australia
Batman, Vic	Labor	Frank Brennan	25.8	26.6	0.8	Samuel Dennis	United Australia
Bendigo, Vic	Labor	Richard Keane	5.1	14.6	9.5	Eric Harrison	United Australia
Boothby, SA	Labor	John Price	5.6	29.6	24.0	John Price	Emergency Committee
Brisbane, Qld	United Australia	Donald Charles Cameron	2.4	3.1	0.7	George Lawson	Labor
Calare, NSW	Labor	George Gibbons	1.6	11.7	10.1	Harold Thorby	Country
Corangamite, Vic	Labor	Richard Crouch	2.1	15.0	12.9	William Gibson	Country
Corio, Vic	Labor	Arthur Lewis	6.0	16.6	10.6	Richard Casey	United Australia
Dalley, NSW	Labor	Ted Theodore	N/A	8.9	14.0	Sol Rosevear	Labor (NSW)
Darling Downs, Qld	United Australia	Arthur Morgan	N/A	17.7	9.8	Littleton Groom	Independent
Denison, Tas	Labor	Charles Culley	9.2	14.2	5.0	Arthur Hutchin	United Australia
East Sydney, NSW	Labor (NSW)	Eddie Ward	5.7	11.7	1.7	John Clasby	United Australia
Eden-Monaro, NSW	Labor	John Cusack	0.1	13.7	13.6	John Perkins	United Australia
Fawkner, Vic	Independent Nationalist	George Maxwell	N/A	21.7	20.3	George Maxwell	United Australia
Flinders, Vic	Labor	Jack Holloway	0.2	18.5	18.3	Stanley Bruce	United Australia
Franklin, Tas	Labor	Charles Frost	1.9	13.0	17.9	Archibald Blacklow	United Australia
Fremantle, WA	Labor	John Curtin	7.0	13.5	5.5	William Watson	United Australia
Grey, SA	Labor	Andrew Lacey	9.6	17.1	7.5	Philip McBride	Emergency Committee
Gwydir, NSW	Labor	Lou Cunningham	3.7	13.5	9.8	Aubrey Abbott	Country
Hume, NSW	Labor	Parker Moloney	6.6	14.1	7.5	Thomas Collins	Country
Hunter, NSW	Labor	Rowley James	100.0	57.2	7.2	Rowley James	Labor (NSW)
Indi, Vic	Labor	Paul Jones	1.4	14.4	13.0	William Hutchinson	United Australia
Lang, NSW	Labor	William Long	16.2	20.4	4.2	Dick Dein	United Australia
Macquarie, NSW	Labor	Ben Chifley	15.6	16.2	0.6	John Lawson	United Australia
Maribyrnong, Vic	Labor	James Fenton	23.2	23.6	0.4	James Fenton	United Australia
Martin, NSW	Labor	John Eldridge	6.4	22.7	16.3	William Holman	United Australia
North Sydney, NSW	Independent Nationalist	Billy Hughes	16.1	23.6	7.5	Billy Hughes	United Australia
Oxley, Qld	United Australia	James Bayley	0.1	5.9	5.8	Francis Baker	Labor
Parramatta, NSW	Labor	Albert Rowe	3.3	19.5	16.2	Frederick Stewart	United Australia
Reid, NSW	Labor	Percy Coleman	N/A	55.3	5.3	Joe Gander	Labor (NSW)
South Sydney, NSW	Labor	Edward Riley	16.3	21.4	5.1	John Jennings	United Australia
Wannon, Vic	Labor	John McNeill	2.0	14.3	12.3	Thomas Scholfield	United Australia
Wentworth, NSW	Independent Nationalist	Walter Marks	8.3	58.3	15.8	Eric Harrison	United Australia
Werriwa, NSW	Labor	Bert Lazzarini	15.4	17.1	1.7	Walter McNicoll	Country
West Sydney, NSW	Labor	Jack Beasley	36.5	11.4	15.1	Jack Beasley	Labor (NSW)
Wimmera, Vic	Country Progressive	Percy Stewart	N/A	21.8	11.8	Hugh McClelland	Country
Wilmot, Tas	Labor	Joseph Lyons	2.9	25.0	22.1	Joseph Lyons	United Australia

Members listed in italics did not contest their seat at this election.

Notes

References

[https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/page-sir-earle-christmas-7941 Page, Sir Earle Christmas (1880–1961)], ''[[Australian Dictionary of Biography]]''

Info: Wikipedia Source

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