1955 Victorian state election

Background

John Cain had led the Labor Party in Victoria since 1937, and had been Premier since defeating John McDonald's Country Party government at the 1952 election, forming the first majority Labor government in Victoria's history.

The leader of the opposition Liberal and Country Party, Trevor Oldham, had died on 2 May 1953 in a plane crash on his way to attend the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Oldham's deputy, Henry Bolte, succeeded him a few days later.

The election was triggered by events related to the Australian Labor Party split of 1955, in which followers of B. A. Santamaria's "Movement"—Catholic, anti-Communist, right-aligned members of the Labor Party—were accused by federal leader H. V. Evatt of contributing to his loss of the 1954 federal election to Robert Menzies. The federal executive set about expelling "disloyal" members who supported the Movement.

In the Victorian parliament, the anti-Communists were known as the Barry–Coleman group after the leaders of the faction: Bill Barry in the Legislative Assembly and Les Coleman in the Legislative Council. In April 1955, Barry and Coleman wrote to Cain requesting a unity conference, but the request was rejected, with Cain telling the group that they could only achieve unity within the ALP, by accepting the authority of the Labor federal conference and executive, and the Victorian central executive.

On the night of 19 April, Bolte moved a motion of no-confidence against Cain's government in the Legislative Assembly. In the early hours of 20 April, following a twelve-hour debate, eleven anti-Communist Labor members crossed the floor to support Bolte's motion. With his government defeated, Cain sought and received a dissolution of parliament later that day.

Key dates

Results

Legislative Assembly

| turnout % = 94.02 | informal % = 2.19 |votes % = 37.78 |votes % = 32.57 |votes % = 12.61 |votes % = 9.53 |votes % = 3.53 |votes % = 3.46 |votes % = 0.35 |votes % = 0.14 |2pp % 1 = 57.9 |2pp % 2 = 42.1 |}

Notes:

• The seat of Gippsland South was retained uncontested by Sir Herbert Hyland for the Country Party. Figures for enrolled voters and ballots cast are for contested seats only.
• The Victorian Liberal Party contested the previous election as the Electoral Reform League. The party was formed by a group of disaffected former Liberal and Country Party members who followed Thomas Hollway when he was expelled from the L&CP.
• Boundaries after the 1952 election had been redistributed, with every two state districts nesting into one federal electorate, reducing malapportionment.

References

References

1. (3 June 1955). "One-party rule from LCP's win". The Argus.
2. (16 April 1955). "Labor split widens CAIN SNUBS BARRY MEN; POLL 'SURE'.". [[The Argus (Melbourne).
3. (21 April 1955). "Victorian Govt. Defeated; Election On May 28.". [[The Central Queensland Herald]].
4. Ainsley Symons (2012), 'Democratic Labor Party members in the Victorian Parliament of 1955–1958,' in ''Recorder'' (Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, Melbourne Branch) No. 275, November, Pages 4-5.
5. (22 April 1955). "Discharging members of the Legislative Council from attendance and dissolving the Legislative Assembly".
6. (7 June 1955). "Ministers of the Crown".
7. (8 June 1955). "Ministers of the Crown".
8. (27 July 1961). "Fixing the time for holding the first session of the forty-second Parliament of Victoria".
9. [http://elections.uwa.edu.au/elecdetail.lasso?keyvalue=903 Election held on 28 May 1955], Australian Politics and Elections Database (University of Western Australia).
10. Colin A Hughes, ''A Handbook of Australian Government and Politics 1890–1964'', Canberra: Australian National University Press, 1968 ({{ISBN. 0708102700).
11. Dunstan, David. (2007). "Biography - Sir Henry Edward Bolte - Australian Dictionary of Biography".