1958_Australian_federal_election
1958 Australian federal election
Election in Australia
The 1958 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 22 November 1958. All 122 seats in the House of Representatives and 32 of the 60 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Liberal–Country coalition led by Prime Minister Robert Menzies defeated the opposition Labor Party, led by H. V. Evatt.
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All 124[lower-alpha 1] seats of the House of Representatives 62 seats were needed for a majority in the House 32 (of the 60) seats of the Senate | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Registered | 5,384,624  4.10% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 5,141,109 (95.48%) ( 0.48 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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In spite of a major global downturn in early 1958, the Coalition was returned to power and there was an even swing against the Labor Party. This was due largely to support for the breakaway Democratic Labor Party. This was the first Australian election campaign to be fought using television as a medium for communicating with voters. Menzies was interviewed on television, while opposition figures H. V. Evatt and Arthur Calwell took part in debates with ministers Harold Holt and William McMahon. Somewhat surprisingly Menzies emerged as a confident and effective television performer.[citation needed] This may have contributed to the better than expected result for the government.[citation needed]
House of Representatives
| Party | Votes | % | Swing | Seats | Change | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal–Country coalition | 2,298,512 | 46.55 | –1.12 | 77 | +2 | ||
| Liberal | 1,859,180 | 37.23 | −2.53 | 58 | +1 | ||
| Country | 465,320 | 9.32 | +1.41 | 19 | +1 | ||
| Labor | 2,137,890 | 42.81 | −1.84 | 47[lower-alpha 2] | −2 | ||
| Democratic Labor | 389,688 | 7.80 | +2.63 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Queensland Labor | 80,035 | 1.60 | +1.60 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Communist | 26,337 | 0.53 | –0.63 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Nationalist | 3,577 | 0.07 | +0.07 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Independent | 31,466 | 0.63 | –0.74 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Total | 4,993,493 | 122 | |||||
| Two-party-preferred (estimated) | |||||||
| Liberal–Country coalition | Win | 54.10 | −0.10 | 77 | +2 | ||
| Labor | 45.90 | +0.10 | 45 | −2 | |||
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Senate
| Party | Votes | % | Swing | Seats won | Seats held | Change | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal–Country coalition | 2,084,193 | 45.19 | –3.49 | 16 | 32 | +2 | ||
| Liberal–Country joint ticket | 1,077,586 | 23.36 | –16.02 | 9 | N/A | N/A | ||
| Liberal | 953,856 | 20.68 | +12.02 | 6 | 25 | +1 | ||
| Country | 52,751 | 1.14 | +0.51 | 1 | 7 | +1 | ||
| Labor | 1,973,027 | 42.78 | +2.17 | 15 | 26 | –2 | ||
| Democratic Labor | 314,755 | 6.82 | +0.72 | 1 | 2 | 0 | ||
| Communist | 134,263 | 2.91 | −0.73 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Queensland Labor | 73,037 | 1.66 | +1.66 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Loyalist | 4,459 | 0.10 | +0.10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| True Democrat | 4,337 | 0.09 | +0.09 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Republican | 3,715 | 0.08 | +0.08 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Independents | 20,273 | 0.44 | –0.46 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Total | 4,612,059 | 32 | 60 | |||||
- Notes
- The Democratic Labor Party was the renamed "Australian Labor Party (Anti-Communist)" from the 1955 election.
| Seat | Pre-1958 | Swing | Post-1958 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Member | Margin | Margin | Member | Party | ||||
| Braddon, Tas | Liberal | Aubrey Luck | 8.9 | 9.3 | 0.4 | Ron Davies | Labor | ||
| Griffith, Qld | Labor | Wilfred Coutts | 1.3 | 1.4 | 0.1 | Arthur Chresby | Liberal | ||
| Herbert, Qld | Labor | Bill Edmonds | 6.6 | 8.1 | 1.5 | John Murray | Liberal | ||
| Indi, Vic | Liberal | William Bostock | N/A | 28.6 | 6.5 | Mac Holten | Country | ||
| Kalgoorlie, WA | Labor | Herbert Johnson | N/A | 11.4 | 0.3 | Peter Browne | Liberal | ||
| Moore, WA | Country | Hugh Leslie | 100.0 | 52.9 | 2.9 | Hugh Halbert | Liberal | ||
| St George, NSW | Liberal | Bill Graham | 2.4 | 2.5 | 0.1 | Lionel Clay | Labor | ||
| Stirling, WA | Labor | Harry Webb | 2.8 | 3.0 | 0.2 | Doug Cash | Liberal | ||
| Wimmera, Vic | Liberal | William Lawrence | N/A | 22.7 | 5.9 | Robert King | Country | ||
- Members listed in italics did not contest their seat at this election.
- The Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory each had one seat, but members for the territories did not have full voting rights until 1966 and did not count toward government formation.
- Including Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory
- University of WA Archived 18 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine election results in Australia since 1890
- AEC 2PP vote
- Prior to 1984 the AEC did not undertake a full distribution of preferences for statistical purposes. The stored ballot papers for the 1983 election were put through this process prior to their destruction. Therefore, the figures from 1983 onwards show the actual result based on full distribution of preferences.