1953 Queensland state election

* * *

| <- 1950 | 7 March 1953 (1953-03-07) | 1956 ->

|
|

* * *

All 75 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland
38 Assembly seats were needed for a majority
Turnout| 93.80 ( 1.29 pp)
|  | First party  | Second party

|
|

|  |
Leader  | Vince Gair | Frank Nicklin
Party  | Labor | Coalition
Leader since  | 17 January 1952 (1952-01-17) | 21 May 1941
Leader's seat  | South Brisbane | Landsborough
Last election  | 42 seats  | 31 seats
Seats won  | 50 | 23
Seat change  |  8  |  8
Popular vote  | 323,882 | 243,757
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

[edit]

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.[3]
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.[4]

## Results

[edit]

See also: Results of the Queensland state election, 1953

The result was a considerable swing to the Labor government.

Queensland state election, 7 March 1953[5]
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
| NQ 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
| Independent Labor | 824  | 0.13%  | –0.42  | 0  | ± 0
| Independent | 25,505  | 4.19%  | +2.90  | 1  | ± 0
Total  | 608,699  |  |  | 75  |

| Popular vote

|  |
Labor |

| 53.21%
Liberal |

| 21.30%
Country |

| 18.75%
NQ Labor |

| 1.10%
Social Credit |

| 0.67%
Communist |

| 0.65%
Independents |

| 4.33%

| Seats

|  |
Labor |

| 66.67%
Country |

| 20.00%
Liberal |

| 10.67%
NQ Labor |

| 1.33%
Independents |

| 1.33%

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.

## Seats changing party representation

[edit]

This table lists changes in party representation at the 1953 election.

Seat | Incumbent member | Party | New member | Party
Condamine | Eric Allpass |  | Country  | Les Diplock |  | Labor
Cook | Carlisle Wordsworth |  | Country  | Bunny Adair |  | Labor
Mulgrave | Bob Watson |  | Country  | Charles English |  | Labor
Norman | Louis Luckins |  | Liberal  | Bill Baxter |  | Labor
Roma | William Ewan |  | Country  | Alfred Dohring |  | Labor
Sandgate | Eric Decker |  | Liberal  | Herbert Robinson |  | Labor
Somerset | Duncan MacDonald |  | Country  | Alexander Skinner |  | Labor

* Members listed in italics did not recontest their seats.
* In addition, Labor retained the seat of Kedron, which it had won from the Liberals at the 1951 by-election.

## See also

[edit]

* 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

[edit]

1. ^ "A Proclamation". Queensland Government Gazette. 6 February 1953. p. 182:469.
2. ^ "Untitled". Queensland Government Gazette. 6 February 1953. p. 172:471.
3. ^ "Put a '1' in that square". The Courier-Mail. Brisbane. 6 March 1953. p. 3. Retrieved 19 December 2020 - via National Library of Australia.
4. ^ "A Proclamation". Queensland Government Gazette. 2 July 1953. p. 183:1151.
5. ^ Australian Government and Politics Database. "Parliament of Queensland, Assembly election, 7 March 1953". Retrieved 25 January 2010.

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