1928 Tasmanian state election

1928 Tasmanian state election
All 30 seats to the House of Assembly
	Results of the election
Premier before election; Joseph Lyons; Labor	Resulting Premier ; John McPhee; Nationalist

The 1928 Tasmanian state election was held on Wednesday, 30 May 1928 in the Australian state of Tasmania to elect 30 members of the Tasmanian House of Assembly. The election used the Hare-Clark proportional representation system^[1] — six members were elected from each of five electorates.

Labor had won the 1925 election in a landslide, with the Nationalist Party losing five seats in the House of Assembly. In 1928, leading up to the election, the Nationalists reverted to "hard politics", criticising Labor Premier Joseph Lyons for an increasing unemployment problem and economic stagnation. This shift was much to the chagrin of Lyons, who had encouraged cordial relations with the Nationalists, and referred to their leader John McPhee as a "colleague and mate".^[2]

The Labor Party won a slim majority of the vote in the 1928 election, but only fourteen seats. As the Nationalist Party held half the seats in the House of Assembly and had the support of one Independent, Nationalist leader McPhee became Premier of Tasmania, and praised Lyons for his statesmanship.^[2]

Lyons stood for the federal seat of Wilmot in 1929, and he became Prime Minister of Australia in 1932.^[2]

Results



Party		Votes	%	+/–	Seats	+/–
	Labor	41,829	47.16	1.32	14	2
	Nationalist^[a]	37,432	42.20	2.83	15	4
	Independents	7,461	8.41	0.30	1	2
	Independent Labor	1,982	2.23	1.22	0
Total		88,704	100.00	–	30	–

Valid votes		88,704	96.76
Invalid/blank votes		2,973	3.24	1.02
Total votes		91,677	100.00	–
Registered voters/turnout		111,956	81.89	14.63

Popular vote

Labor			47.15%
Nationalist			42.20%
Independents			10.65%

Seats

Nationalist			50.00%
Labor			46.67%
Independents			3.33%

^a Prior to the 1925 election, the Nationalist Party had split with a number of candidates, including former Premier Walter Lee, contesting the election under a "Liberal" banner. The grouping subsequently reunited with the Nationalists.

Distribution of votes

Primary vote by division

	Bass	Darwin	Denison	Franklin	Wilmot
Labor Party	54.6%	46.7%	40.9%	43.5%	50.9%
Nationalist	45.4%	45.7%	40.4%	37.4%	42.0%
Other	–	7.5%	18.7%	19.1%	7.0%

Distribution of seats

Electorate	Seats won
Bass
Darwin
Denison
Franklin
Wilmot

	Labor
	Nationalist
	Independent

References

^ House of Assembly Elections, Parliament of Tasmania.
^ ^a ^b ^c P. R. Hart, C. J. Lloyd, Lyons, Joseph Aloysius (1879 - 1939), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 10, Melbourne University Press, 1986, pp 184-189.

External links

Assembly Election Results, 1928, Parliament of Tasmania.
Report on General Election, 1928, Tasmanian Electoral Commission, 24 September 1928.

[1] House of Assembly Elections, Parliament of Tasmania.

[adb-lyons-2] P. R. Hart, C. J. Lloyd, Lyons, Joseph Aloysius (1879 - 1939), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 10, Melbourne University Press, 1986, pp 184-189.

[1]

[2]