AUSTRALIAN GENERAL ELECTION, 1958

Federal election major party leaders
1955 1958 1961
'Liberal' 'Robert Menzies' 'Prime Minister' 'Parliament': 24 years 'Leader since': 1945 'Division': Kooyong 'WIN'
'Labor' 'Herbert Evatt' 'Opposition leader' 'Parliament': 18 years 'Leader since': 1951 'Division': Barton

'Federal elections' were held in Australia on November 22, 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 Party of Australia led by Prime Minister of Australia Robert Menzies with coalition partner the Country Party led by Arthur Fadden defeated the Australian Labor Party led by Herbert Evatt.

'House of Reps (IRV) — 1958-61 — Turnout 95.48% (CV) — Informal 2.87%'

	'Party'	'Votes'	'%'	'Swing'	'Seats'	'Change'
	Australian Labor Party	2,137,890	42.81	-1.82	45	-2
	Liberal Party of Australia	1,859,180	37.23	-2.50	58	+1
	Democratic Labor Party	469,723	9.41	+4.24	0	0
	Country Party	465,320	9.32	+1.41	19	+1
	Other	61,380	1.23		0	0
	Total	4,993,493			'122'
	'Liberal/Country coalition'	'WIN'	'54.10'	+0.60	'77'	+2
	Australian Labor Party		45.90	-0.60	45	-2

'Senate (STV) — 1958-61 — Turnout 95.48% (CV) — Informal 10.29%'

	'Party'	'Votes'	'%'	'Swing'	'Seats Won'	'Seats Held'
	Australian Labor Party	1,973,027	42.78	+2.17	15	26
	Liberal/Country (Joint Ticket)	1,077,586	23.36	-16.02	9	★
	Liberal Party of Australia	953,856	20.68	+12.02	6	25
	Democratic Labor Party	388,417	8.42	+2.32	1	2
	Communist Party of Australia	134,263	2.91	-0.73	0	0
	Country Party	52,751	1.14	+0.52	1	7
	Independents	19,648	0.43		0	0
	Other	12,511	0.27		0	0
	Total	4,612,059			32	60

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Contents

History

References

History

In 1949, Sir Robert Menzies founded the Liberal Party of Australia (descended from the United Australia Party) and was led by Menzies for 16 years through successive re-elections with the traditional coalition in place with the National Party of Australia (since 1922 as the Country Party). Labor stayed out of government for 23 years after the defeat of the Chifley Government in 1949, largely due to the split of the Democratic Labor Party from Labor - also three times the party won the two-party preferred vote (the 1954, 1961 and 1969 elections) but not enough seats to form government.

References

★ University of WA 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.