1959 Western Australian state election

Elections were held in the state of Western Australia on 21 March 1959 to elect all 50 members to the Legislative Assembly. The result was a hung parliament—the two-term Labor government, led by Premier Albert Hawke, was defeated with an average swing against it of about 7 per cent, but the Liberal-Country Party coalition, led by Opposition Leader David Brand, won exactly half of the seats, and needed the support of at least one of the two Independent Liberal members to obtain a majority in the Assembly. The situation remained precarious throughout the term—while Bill Grayden joined the LCL the following year, giving the Coalition a one-seat majority, the other Independent Liberal, Edward Oldfield, joined the Labor Party.

1959 Western Australian state election
21 March 1959 (1959-03-21)
All 50 seats in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly
26 Assembly seats were needed for a majority
  First party Second party
 
Leader David Brand Albert Hawke
Party Liberal/Country coalition Labor
Leader since 1 March 1957 3 July 1951
Leader's seat Greenough Northam
Last election 19 seats 29 seats
Seats won 25 seats 23 seats
Seat change 6 6
Percentage 44.03% 44.92%
Swing 5.65 4.78
Premier before election

Albert Hawke
Labor

 Resulting Premier

David Brand
Liberal/Country coalition

Results

Western Australian state election, 21 March 1959
Legislative Assembly
<< 1956–1962 >>

Enrolled voters 292,596[1]
Votes cast 269,322 Turnout 92.05% –0.13%
Informal votes 6,937 Informal 2.58% –0.26%
Summary of votes by party
Party Primary votes % Swing Seats Change
  Labor 117,861 44.92% –4.78% 23 – 6
  Liberal and Country 98,335 37.48% +4.34% 17 + 6
  Country 17,179 6.55% +1.31% 8 ± 0
  Democratic Labor 13,436 5.12% +5.12% 0 ± 0
  Ind. Lib. 10,008 3.81% –2.92% 2 ± 0
  Communist 2,216 0.84% +0.35% 0 ± 0
  Independent 3,350 1.28% –3.42% 0 ± 0
Total 262,385     50  
1 362,629 electors were enrolled to vote at the election, but 11 seats (22% of the total) were uncontested—2 Labor seats (three less than 1956) representing 16,115 enrolled voters, 5 LCL seats (the same as 1956) representing 33,484 enrolled voters, and 4 Country seats (two less than 1956) representing 20,434 enrolled voters.

See also

References
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