Queensland state election, 1953

Queensland state election, 1953

7 March 1953

All 75 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland   First party Second party   Leader Vince Gair Frank Nicklin Party Labor Country/Liberal coalition Leader since 17 January 1952 21 May 1941 Leader's seat South Brisbane Landsborough Last election 42 seats 31 seats Seats won 50 seats 23 seats Seat change 8 8 Percentage 53.21% 40.05% Swing 6.34 9.11

Premier before election Vince Gair Labor Elected Premier Vince Gair Labor

Elections were held in the Australian state of Queensland on 7 March 1953 to elect the 75 members of the state's Legislative Assembly. The Labor government was seeking its eighth continuous term in office since the 1932 election. It was the first electoral test for Vince Gair, who had become Premier of Queensland 14 months earlier after the death of Ned Hanlon.

Key dates

Date	Event
6 February 1953	The Parliament was dissolved.[1]
6 February 1953	Writs were issued by the Governor to proceed with an election.[2]
13 February 1953	Close of nominations.
7 March 1953	Polling day, between the hours of 8am and 6pm.
16 March 1953	The Gair Ministry was reconstituted.
5 June 1953	The writ was returned and the results formally declared.
4 August 1953	Parliament was summoned for business.[3]

Results

The result was a considerable swing to the Labor government.

Queensland state election, 7 March 1953[4] Legislative Assembly << 1950 — 1956 >>
Enrolled voters		657,349^[1]
Votes cast		616,611		Turnout	93.80	+1.29
Informal votes		7,912		Informal	1.28	+0.17
Summary of votes by party
Party		Primary votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Labor	323,882	53.21%	+6.34	50	+ 8
	Liberal	129,633	21.30%	–8.61	8	– 3
	Country	114,124	18.75%	–0.50	15	– 5
	North Queensland Labor	6,680	1.10%	–0.12	1	± 0
	Social Credit	4,103	0.67%	+0.67	0	± 0
	Communist	3,948	0.65%	+0.28	0	± 0
	Ind. Labor	824	0.13%	–0.42	0	± 0
	Independent	25,505	4.19%	+2.90	1	± 0
Total		608,699			75

¹ 737,579 electors were enrolled to vote at the election; however, 11 seats (14.7% of the total) were uncontested, eight of them Labor-held seats representing 49,466 enrolled voters, as well as two Country seats representing 20,053 voters and one Liberal seat representing 10,711 voters.

See also

• Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, 1950–1953
• Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, 1953–1956
• Candidates of the Queensland state election, 1953
• Gair Ministry

References

1. "A Proclamation". Queensland Government Gazette. 6 February 1953. p. 182:469.
2. Queensland Government Gazette. 6 February 1953. p. 172:471. Missing or empty |title= (help)
3. "A Proclamation". Queensland Government Gazette. 2 July 1953. p. 183:1151.
4. Australian Government and Politics Database. "Parliament of Queensland, Assembly election, 7 March 1953". Retrieved 25 January 2010.