Western Australian state election, 1943

Western Australian state election, 1943

20 November 1943

All 50 seats in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly   First party Second party   Leader John Willcock Arthur Watts Party Labor Country/Nationalist coalition Leader since 20 August 1936 8 October 1942 Leader's seat Geraldton Katanning Last election 27 seats 19 seats Seats won 30 seats 17 seats Seat change 3 2 Percentage 43.28% 36.70% Swing 4.00? (see Results) 0.72

Premier before election John Willcock Labor Elected Premier John Willcock Labor

Elections were held in the state of Western Australia on 20 November 1943 to elect all 50 members to the Legislative Assembly. The Labor Party, led by Premier John Willcock, won a fourth term in office against the Country and Nationalist parties, led by Opposition Leader Arthur Watts and Robert Ross McDonald respectively.

The election took place in the midst of World War II, and as such, turnout was considerably down on the previous election. The election was delayed from its intended date of February 1942 by the Legislative Assembly Duration and General Election Postponement Acts (No 51 of 1941, assented 16 January 1942, and No 18 of 1942, assented 9 December 1942) due to the war.

In the previous term, two changes of membership occurred at by-elections. George Lambert, the Labor member for Yilgarn-Coolgardie, died on 30 June 1941 and was replaced by former Labor branch secretary Lionel Kelly, running under the "Independent Country" banner. He ultimately joined the Labor Party and became a minister in the Bert Hawke government in the 1950s. In 1943, long-serving and colourful independent Thomas Hughes resigned his seat of East Perth to contest the federal seat of Perth. It was picked up by Labor's Herb Graham. Prior to the election, former Independent Nationalist Arthur Abbott joined the Nationalist Party.

Results

Apart from Labor gaining two seats from the Country Party (Avon and Greenough) and one from the Nationalists (Nelson, where Ernest Hoar defeated the incumbent member by just 17 votes), no changes took place at the election. An interesting race in Mount Marshall opened up by the retirement of incumbent Country member Frederick Warner ended with the Country candidate, Hugh Leslie, victorious against the ALP and former minister John Lindsay.

¹ 274,856 electors were enrolled to vote at the election, but 12 of the 50 seats were uncontested—11 Labor seats (seven more than 1939, including all of the Fremantle seats) representing 57,651 enrolled voters, and one Nationalist seat representing 4,829 voters. The estimated swing from 1939 and 1943 was approximately 4% to Labor.

See also

• Members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, 1939–1943
• Members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, 1943–1947
• Willcock Ministry

References

Elections and referendums in Western Australia
General elections	1890 1894 1897 1901 1904 1905 1908 1911 1914 1917 1921 1924 1927 1930 1933 1936 1939 1943 1947 1950 1953 1956 1959 1962 1965 1968 1971 1974 1977 1980 1983 1986 1989 1993 1996 2001 2005 2008 2013 2017 by-elections
Upper House Elections	1894 1896 1897 1898 1900 (Apr) 1900 (Sep) 1902 1904 1906 1908 1910 1912 1914 1916 1918 1920 1922 1924 1926 1928 1930 1932 1934 1936 1938 1940 1944 1946 1948 1950 1952 1954 1956 1958 1960 1962
Referendums	1900 1911 1921 1925 1933 1950 1975 1984 1992 2005 2009