# 1922 Australian federal election

The 1922 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 16 December 1922. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Nationalist Party, led by Prime Minister Billy Hughes lost its majority. However, the opposition Labor Party led by Matthew Charlton did not take office as the Nationalists sought a coalition with the fledgling Country Party led by Earle Page. The Country Party made Hughes's resignation the price for joining, and Hughes was replaced as Nationalist leader by Stanley Bruce.
Future Prime Minister Frank Forde and future opposition leader John Latham both entered parliament at this election.
At this election, Hughes as the sitting prime minister made his second seat transfer, in this case, from Bendigo to North Sydney. Hughes had held Bendigo since transferring there from West Sydney at the 1917 election also as the sitting prime minister.
Hughes remains the only sitting Prime Minister to transfer to another seat, not once but twice.
Aside from the 1917 and 1922 elections, all other elections have seen the sitting prime minister recontest the seat that they held prior to the election.

## Background

The 1919 federal election had resulted in a hung parliament, with the newly formed Country Party holding the balance of power. Prime Minister Billy Hughes' Nationalist Party government was reliant on the support of the Country Party to pass legislation. Country Party leader Earle Page used the situation to his advantage, bargaining for concessions and refusing to guarantee support for confidence motions. A vote of confidence held in October 1921 on the government's budget passed by only a single vote, when Country MP Alexander Hay abstained from voting.
ALP leader Frank Tudor died in office in January 1922, after a long period of ill health. He was replaced as party leader and opposition leader by New South Wales MP Matthew Charlton, who had been acting leader for some time, although he was not formally confirmed in the position until May 1922.

## Campaign

Charlton and the ALP presented "policies of national development under a unified government with regional devolution of powers, tariff protection and limited immigration". He was briefly hospitalised during the campaign.
Page presented the Country Party platform in October 1922, which included decentralisation, reduction in government expenditure and public debt, tariff and agricultural marketing reforms, and rural credits (a form of government subsidy for primary producers). He also supported placing the Commonwealth Bank under an independent board, tasked with supporting national development projects. His speech was critical of Hughes, alleging broken promises and describing the prime minister as having "total disregard of the financial position of the country".

## Results
### House of Representatives

House of Reps (IRV) – 1922–25—Turnout 59.36% (Non-CV) – Informal 4.51% :
| Party | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Seats | Change |
| | Labor | 665,145 | 42.30 | −0.19 | 30 | 4 |
| | Nationalist | 553,920 | 35.23 | −9.85 | 26 | 11 |
| | Country | 197,513 | 12.56 | +3.30 | 14 | 3 |
| | Liberal Union | 37,904 | 2.41 | +2.41 | 3 | 3 |
| | Liberal | 32,167 | 2.04 | +2.04 | 2 | 2 |
| | Constitutionalist | 11,812 | 0.75 | +0.75 | 0 | |
| | Majority Labor | 10,303 | 0.66 | +0.66 | 0 | |
| | Industrial Labor | 4,331 | 0.28 | +0.09 | 0 | |
| | Protestant Labor | 3,631 | 0.23 | +0.23 | 0 | |
| | NT Representation League | 362 | 0.02 | +0.02 | 0 | |
| | Independents | 51,538 | 3.28 | +1.86 | 1 | |
| | Total | 1,572,514 | | | 76 | 1 |
| Two-party-preferred (estimated) |||||||
| | Nationalist | Win | 51.20 | −2.90 | 40 | +3 |
| | Labor | | 48.80 | +2.90 | 29 | 0 |

#### Notes

* Independents: William Watson (Fremantle, WA)
* Five members were elected unopposed – one Labor, two Nationalist, one Country, and one Liberal.
Popular vote
Labor
42.30%
Nationalist
35.23%
Country
12.56%
Liberal
4.70%
Independent/Others
5.22% :
Two-party-preferred vote
Coalition
51.20%
Labor
48.80% :
Parliament seats
Coalition
53.33%
Labor
38.67%
Liberal
6.67%
Independent
1.33% :

### Senate

Senate (P BV) – 1922–1925—Turnout 57.99% (Non-CV) – Informal 9.44% :
| Party | Votes | % | Swing | Seats won | Seats held | Change |
| Labor | 715,219 | 45.70 | +2.86 | 11 | 12 | +11 |
| Nationalist | 567,084 | 36.23 | −10.16 | 8 | 24 | −11 |
| Country | 203,267 | 12.99 | +4.20 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Liberal Union | 43,706 | 2.79 | +2.79 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Socialist Labor | 8,551 | 0.55 | +0.55 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Majority Labor | 3,813 | 0.24 | +0.24 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Independents | 23,447 | 1.50 | +0.08 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 1,565,087 | | | 19 | 36 | |

## Seats changing hands

| Seat | Pre-1922 | Pre-1922 | Pre-1922 | Pre-1922 | Swing | Post-1922 | Post-1922 | Post-1922 | Post-1922 |
| Seat | Party | Party | Member | Margin | Swing | Margin | Member | Party | Party |
| Adelaide, SA | | Nationalist | Reginald Blundell | 0.8 | 8.0 | 3.6 | George Edwin Yates | Labor | |
| Balaclava, Vic | | Nationalist | William Watt | N/A | 100.0 | 100.0 | William Watt | Liberal | |
| Barker, SA | | Nationalist | John Livingston | N/A | N/A | 2.3 | Malcolm Cameron | Liberal Union | |
| Barton, NSW | | Nationalist | notional – new seat | N/A | 13.8 | 7.6 | Frederick McDonald | Labor | |
| Boothby, SA | | Nationalist | William Story | N/A | N/A | 4.7 | Jack Duncan-Hughes | Liberal Union | |
| Calare, NSW | | Labor | Thomas Lavelle | 2.3 | 8.5 | 5.3 | Neville Howse | Nationalist | |
| Darwin, Tas | | Nationalist | George Bell | 4.0 | N/A | 0.4 | Joshua Whitsitt | Country | |
| Denison, Tas | | Nationalist | William Laird Smith | 3.9 | 4.3 | 0.4 | David O'Keefe | Labor | |
| Fremantle, WA | | Nationalist | Reginald Burchell | N/A | 56.9 | 6.9 | William Watson | Independent | |
| Gippsland, Vic | | Nationalist | George Wise | 5.2 | 18.1 | 12.9 | Thomas Paterson | Country | |
| Grey, SA | | Nationalist | Alexander Poynton | 1.8 | 5.5 | 3.7 | Andrew Lacey | Labor | |
| Henty, Vic | | Independent | Frederick Francis | 2.9 | 8.7 | 5.8 | Frederick Francis | Nationalist | |
| Kalgoorlie, WA | | Nationalist | George Foley | 1.4 | 7.1 | 7.4 | Albert Green | Labor | |
| Kooyong, Vic | | Nationalist | Robert Best | 14.3 | 14.9 | 0.6 | John Latham | Liberal | |
| Macquarie, NSW | | Labor | Samuel Nicholls | 3.2 | 0.6 | 0.2 | Arthur Manning | Nationalist | |
| New England, NSW | | Nationalist | Alexander Hay* | 7.3 | N/A | 8.5 | Victor Thompson | Country | |
| Northern Territory, NT | | new division | | | | 0.4 | H. G. Nelson | Labor | |
| Richmond, NSW | | Nationalist | Walter Massy-Greene | 22.5 | 24.0 | 3.3 | Roland Green | Country | |
| Riverina, NSW | | Nationalist | John Chanter | N/A | 54.3 | 4.3 | William Killen | Country | |
| Wakefield, SA | | Nationalist | Richard Foster | N/A | N/A | 5.3 | Richard Foster | Liberal Union | |
| Wannon, Vic | | Nationalist | Arthur Rodgers | 4.1 | 4.9 | 0.8 | John McNeill | Labor | |
| Wilmot, Tas | | Nationalist | Llewellyn Atkinson | 10.2 | N/A | 11.2 | Llewellyn Atkinson | Country | |
* Members listed in italics did not contest their seat at this election.
* *Alexander Hay contested his seat as an independent