1931 Tasmanian state election

The 1931 Tasmanian state election was held on 9 May 1931 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 — six members were elected from each of five electorates. For the first time, voting was compulsory, resulting in a high voter turnout.

1931 Tasmanian state election

9 May 1931
All 30 seats to the House of Assembly
First party Second party   Leader John McPhee Albert Ogilvie Party Nationalist Labor Leader since July 1925 October 1929 Leader's seat Denison Franklin Last election 15 seats 14 seats Seats won 19 seats 10 seats Seat change 4 4 Percentage 56.40% 34.92% Swing 14.20 12.23
Results of the election
Premier before election John McPhee Nationalist Elected Premier John McPhee Nationalist

The Nationalist Party had defeated Labor by one seat at the 1928 election, and John McPhee had been Premier of Tasmania since then. Joseph Lyons left state politics in 1929 to enter federal politics, and was succeeded by Albert Ogilvie as leader of the dispirited Labor Party. The depression had struck Tasmania hard with unemployment nearly 30% and unions impotent.

The Nationalist Party won the 1931 election in a landslide, with 19 seats in the House of Assembly and a margin over Labor of more than 22%, the largest victory over Labor in Tasmania since Hare-Clark elections began in 1909. The win was attributed to public endorsement of McPhee's expenditure cuts over Ogilvie's expansionist policies. It has been said that Ogilvie's error was in identifying with an unpopular federal Labor government.

Despite the scale of the Nationalist victory, the non-Labor forces in Tasmania did not win another election until 1969.

Results

See also: Results of the Tasmanian state election, 1931

Party		Votes	%	+/–	Seats	+/–
	Nationalist	61,414	56.40	14.20	19	4
	Labor	38,030	34.92	12.23	10	4
	Independents	9,450	8.68	2.07	1
Total		108,894	100.00	–	30	–
Valid votes		108,894	96.56
Invalid/blank votes		3,885	3.44	0.20
Total votes		112,779	100.00	–
Registered voters/turnout		118,730	94.99	13.10

Popular vote Nationalist   56.40% Labor   34.92% Independents   8.68%

Seats Nationalist   63.33% Labor   33.33% Independents   3.33%

Distribution of votes

Primary vote by division

	Bass	Darwin	Denison	Franklin	Wilmot
Labor Party	37.2%	31.4%	40.3%	31.8%	34.2%
Nationalist	62.8%	60.0%	53.7%	43.9%	62.1%
Other	–	8.5%	6.1%	24.3%	3.7%

Distribution of seats

Electorate	Seats won
Bass
Darwin
Denison
Franklin
Wilmot

	Nationalist
	Labor
	Independent

See also

• Members of the Tasmanian House of Assembly, 1931–1934
• Candidates of the 1931 Tasmanian state election

External links

• Assembly Election Results, 1931, Parliament of Tasmania.
• Report on General Election, 1931, Tasmanian Electoral Commission.

Further reading

• Batt, Neil (1969). "Tasmania's Depression elections". Labour History. 17 (17). Liverpool University Press: 111–120. doi:10.2307/27507957. JSTOR 27507957.