# 1951 Australian federal election

The 1951 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 28 April 1951. All 121 seats in the House of Representatives and all 60 seats in the Senate were up for election, due to a double dissolution called after the Senate rejected the Commonwealth Bank Bill. The incumbent Liberal–Country coalition led by Prime Minister Robert Menzies defeated the opposition Labor Party led by Ben Chifley with a modestly reduced majority, and secured a majority in the Senate. Chifley died just over a month after the election.

## Issues

Although the Coalition had won a comfortable majority in the House in 1949, Labor still had a four-seat majority in the Senate. Chifley thus made it his business to obstruct Menzies's agenda at every opportunity. Realizing this, Menzies sought to call a double dissolution at the first opportunity in hopes of gaining control of both houses. He thought he had his chance in 1950, when he introduced a bill to ban the Australian Communist Party. However, after a redraft, Chifley let the bill pass.
A few months later, the Senate rejected the Commonwealth Bank Bill 1950, in which the Coalition government aimed to establish a "Commonwealth Bank Board", which Labor believed would be filled with private banking interests. This finally gave Menzies an excuse to call a double dissolution. While the Coalition lost five House seats to Labor, it still had a solid mandate. More importantly, it picked up six Senate seats, giving it control over both chambers.
The 1951 election was the first double dissolution election since single transferable vote with proportional representation became the method for electing the Senate in 1949. With close opinion polls and no minor parties having a credible chance of winning a seat, it was feared and forecast that under the new system the Senate would finish deadlocked at 30–30, since the 54.55% majority that either major party required to win a sixth Senate seat from any single state was greater than polling margins, and there were proposals for further amendments to Senate voting rules ahead of the election, none of which were passed. In the end, Queensland and Western Australia elected 6–4 Senator majorities to the Coalition; the other states were tied 5–5.

## Results
### House of Representatives

House of Reps (IRV) — 1951–54—Turnout 96.00% (CV) — Informal 1.90% :
| Party | Party | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Seats | Change |
| | Liberal–Country coalition | Liberal–Country coalition | 2,298,512 | 50.34 | +0.08 | 69 | –5 |
| | | Liberal | 1,854,799 | 40.62 | +1.23 | 52 | –3 |
| | | Country | 443,713 | 9.72 | –1.15 | 17 | –2 |
| | Labor | Labor | 2,174,840 | 47.63 | +1.65 | 54 | +6 |
| | Communist | Communist | 44,782 | 0.98 | +0.09 | 0 | 0 |
| | Independents | Independents | 47,765 | 1.05 | –1.11 | 0 | –1 |
| | Total | Total | 4,565,899 | | | 123 | |
| Two-party-preferred (estimated) ||||||||
| | Liberal–Country coalition | Liberal–Country coalition | Win | 50.70 | −0.30 | 69 | −5 |
| | Labor | Labor | | 49.30 | +0.30 | 52 | +5 |

#### Notes

* Three members were elected unopposed – two Labor and one Liberal.
Popular vote
Labor
47.63%
Liberal
40.62%
Country
9.72%
Independent
1.05%
Communist
0.98% :
Two-party-preferred vote
Coalition
50.70%
Labor
49.30% :
Parliament seats
Coalition
57.02%
Labor
42.98% :

### Senate

Senate (STV) — 1951–53—Turnout 95.99% (CV) — Informal 7.13% :
| Party | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Seats won | Seats held | Change |
| Liberal–Country coalition | Liberal–Country coalition | 2,198,687 | 49.70 | –0.71 | 32 | 32 | +6 |
| | Liberal–Country joint ticket | 1,925,631 | 43.52 | –1.12 | 22 | N/A | N/A |
| | Liberal | 273,056 | 6.17 | +0.41 | 10 | 26 | +5 |
| | Country | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 6 | +1 |
| Labor | Labor | 2,029,751 | 45.88 | +0.99 | 28 | 28 | −6 |
| Communist | Communist | 93,561 | 2.11 | +0.02 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Lang Labor | Lang Labor | 60,549 | 1.37 | +1.37 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Protestant People's | Protestant People's | 13,090 | 0.30 | –0.59 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Henry George Justice | Henry George Justice | 6,015 | 0.14 | +0.14 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Independents | Independents | 22,584 | 0.51 | –1.20 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | Total | 4,424,237 | | | 60 | 60 | |

## Seats changing hands

| Seat | Pre-1951 | Pre-1951 | Pre-1951 | Pre-1951 | Swing | Post-1951 | Post-1951 | Post-1951 | Post-1951 |
| Seat | Party | Party | Member | Margin | Swing | Margin | Member | Party | Party |
| Australian Capital Territory, ACT | | Independent | Lewis Nott | 3.8 | 6.7 | 2.9 | Jim Fraser | Labor | |
| Ballaarat, Vic | | Liberal | Alan Pittard | 0.4 | 1.6 | 1.2 | Bob Joshua | Labor | |
| Hume, NSW | | Country | Charles Anderson | 1.0 | 1.3 | 0.3 | Arthur Fuller | Labor | |
| Kingston, SA | | Liberal | Jim Handby | 1.6 | 3.4 | 1.8 | Pat Galvin | Labor | |
| Leichhardt, Qld | | Country | Tom Gilmore | 1.0 | 1.3 | 0.3 | Harry Bruce | Labor | |
| Wannon, Vic | | Liberal | Dan Mackinnon | 0.8 | 1.9 | 1.1 | Don McLeod | Labor | |

## Opinion polling

| Date published | Pollster | Liberal–Country | Labor | Other | Lead |
| 28 April 1951 | 1951 election | 50.34% | 47.63% | 2.03% | 2.71% |
| April 1951 | Gallup | 49% | 43% | 1% | 6% |
| March 1951 | Gallup | 49% | 44% | 1% | 5% |
| December 1950 | Gallup | 52% | 47% | 1% | 5% |
| November 1950 | Gallup | 50% | 49% | 1% | 1% |
| August 1950 | Gallup | 57% | 42% | 1% | 15% |
| 5 May 1950 | Gallup | 54% | 46% | 1% | 9% |
| April 1950 | Gallup | 54% | 46% | — | 8% |
| 24 March 1950 | Gallup | 54% | 46% | — | 8% |
| February 1950 | Gallup | 56% | 44% | — | 12% |
| 10 December 1949 | 1949 election | 50.26% | 45.98% | 3.76% | 4.28% |