1949 Australian federal election
The 1949 Australian federal elections was held on Saturday December 10, All 121 seats in the House of Representatives and 42 of the 60 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Labor Party, led by Prime Minister Ben Chifley, was defeated by the opposition Liberal–Country coalition under Robert Menzies in a landslide. Menzies became prime minister for a second time, his first period having ended in 1941. This election marked the end of the 8-year Curtin-Chifley Labor government that had been in power since 1941 and started the 23-year Liberal/Country Coalition government. This was the first time the Liberal party won government at the federal level.
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All 123 seats of the House of Representatives 61 seats were needed for a majority in the House 42 (of the 60) seats of the Senate | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Opinion polls | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Registered | 4,895,227 3.28% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 4,697,800 (95.97%) (2.00 pp) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Results by division for the House of Representatives, shaded by winning party's margin of victory. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The number of MPs in both houses had been increased at the election, and single transferable vote under a proportional voting system had been introduced in the Senate. Though Labor lost government, Labor retained a Senate majority at the election. However, this ended at the 1951 election. With the Senate changes in place, Labor has not held a Senate majority since.
Future Prime Ministers William McMahon and John Gorton both entered parliament at this election.