New South Wales state election, 1938

New South Wales state election, 1938

26 March 1938 (1938-03-26)

All 90 seats in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly 46 Assembly seats were needed for a majority   First party Second party   Leader Bertram Stevens Jack Lang Party UAP/Country coalition Labor Leader since 5 April 1932 31 July 1923 Leader's seat Croydon Auburn Last election 61 seats 29 seats Seats won 59 seats 28 seats Seat change 2 1 Percentage 49.6% 34.8% Swing 3.6 7.6

Legislative Assembly after the election

Premier before election Bertram Stevens UAP/Country coalition Elected Premier Bertram Stevens UAP/Country coalition

The 1938 New South Wales state election was held on 26 March 1938. This election was for all of the 90 seats in the 32nd New South Wales Legislative Assembly and was conducted in single member constituencies with compulsory preferential voting.

The result of the election was:

• United Australia Party 37 seats
• Country Party 22 seats
• Australian Labor Party 28 seats
• Industrial Labor Party 2 seats
• Independent 1 seat.

The UAP/Country Party coalition of Bertram Stevens/Michael Bruxner had a majority of 28 (down 2). Stevens continued as Premier until 5 August 1939 when he was deposed by his party and replaced by Alexander Mair.

Labor's continued poor showing in this election was seen as evidence of Jack Lang's inability to appeal to the middle ground of the electorate. As a result, moves to dispose Lang intensified. The Industrial Labor Party led by Lang rival Bob Heffron was re-absorbed into the ALP on 26 August 1939 and Lang was replaced as party leader by William McKell on 5 September 1939.

During this parliament the ALP and Industrial Labor each won 2 by-elections from the UAP. This reduced the Government's majority to 20 when the parliament was dissolved.

Key dates

Results

¹ A total of 19 electorates (six UAP, three Country, and ten Labor) were uncontested, representing 338,853 voters.^[1]

References

Sources

• "Former members of the New South Wales Parliament, 1856-2006". New South Wales Parliament. Retrieved 2009-01-11. 
• Antony Green. "NSW Elections Analysis". New South Wales Parliament. Retrieved 12 January 2009. 
• Nairn, Bede (1995)Jack Lang the 'Big Fella':Jack Lang and the Australian Labor Party 1891-1949

Melbourne University Press Melbourne ISBN 0-522-84700-5 OCLC 34416531

See also

• Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, 1938–1941
• Candidates of the New South Wales state election, 1938

Elections and referendums in New South Wales
General elections	Colonial 1856 1858 1859 1860 1864–65 1869–70 1872 1874–75 1877 1880 1882 1885 1887 1889 1891 1894 1895 1898 State 1901 1904 1907 1910 1913 1917 1920 1922 1925 1927 1930 1932 1935 1938 1941 1944 1947 1950 1953 1956 1959 1962 1965 1968 1971 1973 1976 1978 1981 1984 1988 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015 2019
Referendums	1898 1899 1903 1916 1928 1933 1947 1954 1961 1967 1969 1976 1978 1981 1991 1995
Other	By-elections