Western Australian state election, 1947

Western Australian state election, 1947

15 March 1947 (1947-03-15)

All 50 seats in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly   First party Second party   Leader Ross McLarty Frank Wise Party Liberal/Country coalition Labor Leader since 14 December 1946 31 July 1945 Leader's seat Murray-Wellington Gascoyne Last election 17 seats 30 seats Seats won 25 seats 23 seats Seat change 8 7 Percentage 51.40% 39.38% Swing 14.70 3.90

Premier before election Frank Wise Labor Resulting Premier Ross McLarty Liberal/Country coalition

Elections were held in the state of Western Australia on 15 March 1947 to elect all 50 members to the Legislative Assembly. The result was a hung parliament—the four-term Labor government, led by Premier Frank Wise, was defeated with a swing of approximately 7%, but the Liberal-Country Party coalition, led by the Liberal Party leader Ross McLarty, won exactly half of the seats, and needed the support of the Independent members Harry Shearn and William Read to obtain a majority in the Assembly.

The election was the Liberal Party's first major showing since its formation in 1944-1945 out of the former Nationalist Party. Coincidental with this, in 1944, was the significant change in the fortunes of the Country Party when the Primary Producers' Association, of which the Party had been the political wing, passed a motion during negotiations with the Wheatgrowers' Union deleting the rule which authorised the Party's existence and its use of PPA branches and funds for party purposes. A new organisation was hastily set up by the Opposition Leader Arthur Watts and the member for Pingelly, Harrie Seward, who were very active in setting up branches to endorse local candidates and obtaining donations on which to run the 1947 campaign. This was the start of a significant decline in the Country Party's fortunes over the ensuing decades.

Results

¹ 297,089 electors were enrolled to vote at the election, but 20 seats (40% of the total) were uncontested—15 Labor seats (four more than 1943) representing 71,732 enrolled voters, 2 Liberal seats (one more than the Nationalists in 1943) representing 12,765 voters, 2 Country seats representing 8,678 voters, and one Independent Nationalist seat representing 9,644 voters.

² The figure for the Independent Nationalist label is likely to be artificially low as the successful candidate for Maylands, Harry Shearn, won unopposed. He won the seat under the same label with 4,966 votes in 1939, 4,342 votes in 1943 and 5,060 votes in 1950.

See also

• Members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, 1943–1947
• Members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, 1947–1950

References

Elections and referendums in Western Australia
General elections	1890 1894 1897 1901 1904 1905 1908 1911 1914 1917 1921 1924 1927 1930 1933 1936 1939 1943 1947 1950 1953 1956 1959 1962 1965 1968 1971 1974 1977 1980 1983 1986 1989 1993 1996 2001 2005 2008 2013 2017 by-elections
Upper House Elections	1894 1896 1897 1898 1900 (Apr) 1900 (Sep) 1902 1904 1906 1908 1910 1912 1914 1916 1918 1920 1922 1924 1926 1928 1930 1932 1934 1936 1938 1940 1944 1946 1948 1950 1952 1954 1956 1958 1960 1962
Referendums	1900 1911 1921 1925 1933 1950 1975 1984 1992 2005 2009