Queensland state election, 1938

Queensland state election, 1938

2 April 1938

All 62 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland   First party Second party   Leader William Forgan Smith Ted Maher Party Labor Country/UAP coalition Leader since 27 May 1929 15 July 1936 Leader's seat Mackay West Moreton Last election 46 seats 16 seats Seats won 44 seats 17 seats Seat change 2 1 Percentage 47.17% 36.62% Swing 6.26 2.82

Premier before election William Forgan Smith Labor Elected Premier William Forgan Smith Labor

Elections were held in the Australian state of Queensland on 2 April 1938 to elect the 62 members of the state's Legislative Assembly. The Labor government of Premier William Forgan Smith was seeking a third term in office. During the previous term, the Country and United Australia parties had emerged from the united Country and Progressive National Party, which had represented conservative forces for over a decade.

The most notable feature of the election campaign was the Protestant Labor Party, established in 1937, which claimed that the Forgan Smith Ministry was disproportionately Catholic and made extravagant claims that three-quarters of all police and public servants in the State were Catholic.^[1] Despite the campaign, Labor only lost one seat, Kelvin Grove, to the party.

The unsuccessful Protestant Labor candidate for Ithaca, George Webb, lodged a petition against the return of Labor member Ned Hanlon.^[2] He was initially successful in the Supreme Court when the case was heard by Justice E.A. Douglas, who voided the election result on 12 October on the basis of a finding that two men who had acted improperly were Hanlon's agents, but Hanlon appealed to the Full Bench of the Supreme Court and on 16 December 1938, his appeal was allowed.^[3] A further appeal by Webb to the High Court was refused leave on 31 March 1939.^[4]

Key dates

Date	Event
5 March 1938	The Parliament was dissolved.[5]
7 March 1938	Writs were issued by the Governor to proceed with an election.[6]
14 March 1938	Close of nominations.
2 April 1938	Polling day, between the hours of 8am and 6pm.
12 April 1938	The Forgan Smith Ministry was re-sworn in.[7]
16 April 1938	The poll was retaken in Gregory.[8]
30 April 1938	The writ was returned and the results formally declared.
9 August 1938	Parliament resumed for business.[9]

Results

Queensland state election, 2 April 1938[10] Legislative Assembly << 1935 — 1941 >>
Enrolled voters		582,711^[1]
Votes cast		539,037		Turnout	92.51%	–0.19
Informal votes		7,058		Informal	1.31%	–0.43
Summary of votes by party
Party		Primary votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Labor	250,943	47.17%	–6.26	44	– 2
	Country	120,469	22.65%	·	13	·
	United Australia	74,328	13.97%	·	4	·
	Protestant Labor	46,568	8.75%	+8.75%	1	+ 1
	Social Credit	27,758	5.22%	–1.80%	0	± 0
	Communist	8,510	1.60%	+0.28	0	± 0
	Independent	3,403	0.64%	–2.73	0	± 0
Total		531,979			62

¹ 606,559 electors were enrolled to vote at the election, but 3 seats were uncontested—2 Labor seats (4 less than in 1935) representing 15,007 enrolled voters and one Country seat (one less than in 1935) representing 8,841 enrolled voters.

See also

• Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, 1935–1938
• Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, 1938–1941
• Candidates of the Queensland state election, 1938
• Forgan Smith Ministry

References

1. Evans, Raymond (2007). A History of Queensland. Cambridge University Press. p. 184. ISBN 978-0-521-87692-6.
2. "In the Supreme Court of Queensland - The Election Acts 1915–1936". Queensland Government Gazette. 4 June 1938. p. 150:2012–2013.
3. The Ithaca Election Petition: Webb v Hanlon (1939) St. R. Qd. 90, heard by Blair CJ, Douglas J and Hart AJ (dissenting).
4. Webb v Hanlon (1939) 61 CLR 313.
5. Queensland Government Gazette. 5 March 1938. p. 150:591. Missing or empty |title= (help)
6. Queensland Government Gazette. 7 March 1938. p. 150:595. Missing or empty |title= (help)
7. Queensland Government Gazette. 12 April 1938. p. 150:1371. Missing or empty |title= (help)
8. "Order in Council". Queensland Government Gazette. 7 May 1938. p. 150:1585. The cause of the delayed poll was that a poll could not be held at Arrabury.
9. Queensland Government Gazette. 11 July 1938. p. 151:109. Missing or empty |title= (help)
10. Australian Government and Politics Database. "Parliament of Queensland, Assembly election, 11 May 1935". Retrieved 23 December 2009.

External links