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1944 Queensland state election

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Field	Value
election_name	1944 Queensland state election
country	Queensland
type	parliamentary
ongoing	no
previous_election	1941 Queensland state election
previous_year	1941
next_election	1947 Queensland state election
next_year	1947
elected_members	Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, 1944–1947
outgoing_members	Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, 1941–1944
registered	655,984 3.3%
seats_for_election	All 62 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland
majority_seats	32
election_date	15 April 1944
turnout	78.17% ( 6.44)
image1
leader1	Frank Arthur Cooper
leader_since1	9 September 1942
party1	Queensland Labor Party
leaders_seat1	Bremer
last_election1	41 seats
seats_before1	40
seats1	38
seat_change1	2
popular_vote1	237,042
percentage1	46.23%
swing1	3.51
image2
leader2	Frank Nicklin
leader_since2	18 June 1941
leaders_seat2	Murrumba
party2	Country
last_election2	14 seats
seats_before2	18
seats2	12
seat_change2	6
popular_vote2	88,608
percentage2	17.28%
swing2	2.93
image3
leader3	J. B. Chandler
leader_since3	27 October 1943
leaders_seat3	Hamilton
party3	Queensland People's Party
last_election3	Did not exist
seats_before3	1
seats3	7
seat_change3	6
popular_vote3	124,573
percentage3	24.29%
swing3	24.29
image4
leader4	Jack Henry
leader_since4	3 April 1937
party4	Communist Party of Australia – Queensland
leaders_seat4	None
last_election4	0 seats
seats_before4	0
seats4	1
seat_change4	1
popular_vote4	12,467
percentage4	2.43%
swing4	1.43
image5	{{CSS image crop	Image = Lou_Barnes.jpg
bSize	120	cWidth = 120	cHeight = 160	oTop = 40	oLeft = 0}}
leader5	Lou Barnes
leader_since5	1942
leaders_seat5	Cairns
party5	King O'Malley Labor
last_election5	Did not exist
seats_before5	1
seats5	1
seat_change5
popular_vote5	5,790
percentage5	1.13%
swing5	1.13
image6
leader6	Tom Aikens
leader_since6	1944
leaders_seat6	Mundingburra
(won seat)
party6	Hermit Park Labor
colour6
last_election6	Did not exist
seats_before6	0
seats6	1
seat_change6
popular_vote6	5,790
percentage6	1.13%
swing6	1.13
title	Premier
posttitle	Subsequent Premier
before_election	Frank Arthur Cooper
before_party	Queensland Labor Party
after_election	Frank Arthur Cooper
after_party	Queensland Labor Party

(won seat)

The 1944 Queensland state election was held on 15 April 1944 to elect all 62 members of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland. The Labor Party, led by premier Frank Cooper, was elected to a fifth term in office, albeit with a reduced majority.

Prior to the election, the electoral system was changed from contingency voting to first-past-the-post. The change was brought about by the state government three weeks after Labor lost the 1942 Cairns by-election, where it had led on primary votes but lost to King O'Malley Labor in the two-candidate-preferred count. First-past-the-post was in place for Queensland state elections until full preferential voting was introduced by the Country−Liberal coalition in 1963.

Background

Key dates

Date	Event
23 February 1944	The Parliament was dissolved.
24 February 1944	Writs were issued by the Governor to proceed with an election.
3 March 1944	Close of nominations.
15 April 1944	Polling day, between the hours of 8am and 6pm.
27 April 1944	The Cooper Ministry was reconstituted.
29 May 1944	The writ was returned and the results formally declared.
1 August 1944	Parliament resumed for business.

Parties and independents

Some ructions had developed between some sections of the Labor Party and the party's AWU-dominated executive, resulting in tiny splinter movements which were, however, locally effective. The Hermit Park branch in Townsville, which had dominated the Townsville City Council since 1939, was expelled from the ALP for alleged disloyalty in 1942, possibly due to association with Communists. Tom Aikens won the seat of Mundingburra at the election. Similar forces saw sitting left-wing members George Taylor (Enoggera) and George Marriott (Bulimba) expelled from the party; the former lost his seat to a QPP candidate, while the latter retained his at the 1944 and 1947 elections. Frank Barnes, a colourful identity who supported social credit theories popular since the Great Depression and declared himself opposed to the Labor government, retained his seat of Bundaberg.

Various changes were taking place in conservative politics as well, with the dissolution of the United Australia Party and the formation of the Queensland People's Party (QPP), led by the mayor of Brisbane and member for Hamilton, John Beals Chandler. The two independent conservatives elected in 1941 were both out of parliament by the election — Bruce Pie had resigned to contest the 1943 federal election, whilst William Deacon had died. One of the former United Australia Party members, Louis Luckins (Maree), did not join the QPP originally and retained his seat in 1944 as an independent.

Apart from the above, numerous independent candidates contested with a range of banners, including Democrat, Christian Socialist, Servicemen's Association, People's Party and Independent Country Party, none of them achieving more than a few hundred votes.

Fred Paterson was elected in Bowen, the only member of the Communist Party of Australia to be elected to an Australian parliament.

Candidates

Main article: Candidates of the 1944 Queensland state election

Results

Main article: Results of the 1944 Queensland state election

Party	Primary vote	Seats	Votes	%	Swing (pp)	Seats	Change
		Labor	237,042	46.23	–3.51	38	3
	People's Party	124,573	24.29	+24.29	7	7
	Country	88,608	17.28	–2.93	12	6
		Communist	12,467	2.43	+1.43	1	1
		King O'Malley Labor	5,790	1.13	+1.13	1	1
	Hermit Park Labor	5,521	1.08	+1.08	1	1
		Frank Barnes Labor	4,180	0.82	–0.2	1
		Democratic	999	0.19	-1.75	0	2
	All Services Association of Australia	325	0.06	+0.06	0
	Christian Socialist	230	0.04	+0.04	0
		Independent	23,680	4.62	+0.55	1	1
Total	512,768	100.00		62
Invalid/blank votes	9,352	1.82	–0.29	colspan=2
Turnout	512,768	78.17	–6.44	colspan=2
Registered voters	655,984	colspan=2	colspan=2

Seats changing hands

This table lists changes in party representation at the 1944 election.

Seat	Incumbent member	Party
Bowen	Ernest Riordan	Labor	Fred Paterson
Bulimba	George Marriott	Labor	George Marriott
Cunningham	William Deacon*	Independent Country	Malcolm McIntyre
Enoggera	George Taylor	Independent Labor	Kenneth Morris
Keppel	David Daniel	Country	Walter Ingram
Logan	John Brown	Labor	Thomas Hiley
Maree	Louis Luckins	People's Party	Louis Luckins
Mundingburra	John Dash	Labor	Tom Aikens
Sandgate	Eric Decker	Country	Eric Decker
Windsor	Harry Moorhouse	Independent Democrat	Bruce Pie
Wynnum	Bill Dart	Independent	Bill Gunn

Members listed in italics did not recontest their seats.
The sitting Independent Country member for Cunningham, William Deacon died in 1943. No by-election was held due to the proximity of the state election.
In addition, Frank Barnes Labor held the seat of Cairns, which it had won from Labor at the 1942 by-election.

Notes

References

(28 April 1941). "UAP–CP Form New State Party". [[The Courier-Mail]].
(21 November 1942). "Bill To Abolish Contingent Voting Passed". Morning Bulletin.
(20 November 1942). "DID CAIRNS BY-ELECTION CAUSE THIS?". The Evening Advocate.
(22 December 2020). "Candidates, Informal Voting and Optional Preferential Voting". Antony Green's Election Blog.
(23 February 1944). "A Proclamation".
{{Gazette QLD. (24 February 1944)
{{Gazette QLD. (27 April 1944)
{{Gazette QLD. (6 July 1944)
"JCU Library Archives - A.D. Murgatroyd Collection".
(1974). "Voting for the Queensland legislative assembly, 1890-1964". [[Australia National University]] (ANU).

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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