1940 Victorian state election

Australian state election April 2022 1940 Victorian state election Victoria 1901 parliamentary no 1937 Victorian state election 1937 1943 Victorian state election 1943 44 (of the 65) seats in the Victorian Legislative Assembly33 seats needed for a majority yes 1940 3 16 Albert Dunstan (cropped).jpg 130 130 170 0 0 center Albert Dunstan 14 March 1935 United Country Party (Australia) Korong and Eaglehawk 14.16% 2.81 20 seats 22 seats 22 seats 0 John_Cain_1954.jpg 180 130 170 32 24 center John Cain 18 October 1937 Australian Labor Party (Victorian Branch) Northcote 33.17% 7.86 20 seats 21 seats 22 seats 1 Agyle, Stanley (cropped).png 130 130 170 0 0 center Sir Stanley Argyle 3 September 1930 United Australia uap vic Toorak 35.41% 4.15 21 seats 18 seats 16 seats 2 Premier Albert Dunstan United Country Party (Australia) Albert Dunstan United Country Party (Australia) The 1940 Victorian state election was held in the Australian state of Victoria on Saturday 16 March 1940 to elect 44 of the 65 members of the state's Legislative Assembly. Background Several events had taken place since the previous state election on 2 October 1937, which had changed the breakdown of the parties in the Assembly: In November 1937, Ian Macfarlan (the member for Brighton) left the United Australia Party (UAP) and sat as an Independent. Macfarlan gave two reasons for his resignation from the UAP: that the party was sitting in opposition to the Dunstan Country government which he praised; and that it was controlled by a central body outside of the parliament, the members of which were unknown to most party members.https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63022111 DUNSTAN GOVERNMENT PRAISED. Gippsland Times Vic. 25 November 1937 22 May 2012 6 National Library of Australia Frederick Holden (Grant) also left the UAP and sat on the cross benches.https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11080143 SIGNIFICANCE OF SEATS. The Argus Melbourne 20 October 1937 22 May 2012 3 National Library of Australia This reduced the UAP's numbers from 21 to 19. Ernie Bond (Port Fairy and Glenelg) had been expelled from the Labor Party (ALP) over his support for the "Premiers' Plan" in 1932, and had won several elections as an independent. He was re-admitted to the ALP in on 16 April 1938.https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article68419671 READMITTED TO LABOR PARTY. The Advocate Burnie, Tas. 19 April 1938 22 May 2012 11 National Library of Australia This increased the ALP's numbers from 20 to 21. On 5 November 1938, the United Country Party (UCP) won a by-election in the seat of Gippsland North, after the death of the sitting member James Weir McLachlan, an independent.https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article25565760 BY-ELECTION IN VICTORIA. The Mercury Hobart, Tas. 9 November 1938 22 May 2012 11 National Library of Australia This reduced the number of Independents to 3, and increased the numbers for the UCP from 20 to 21. In August 1939, Alfred Kirton (Mornington) resigned from the UAP and sat briefly as an independent, before joining the United Country Party on 29 August 1939. This reduced the UAP from 19 seats to 18, and increased the UCP seats from 21 to 22.https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11259285 U.C.P. RECRUIT. The Argus Melbourne 30 August 1939 22 May 2012 10 National Library of Australia In 1939 Frederick Cook (Benalla) moved from being an Independent to joining the Liberal Country Party, a breakaway group from the Country Party who supported the federal party's participation in a Coalition government.Frederick Albert Cook frederick-albert-cook 22 July 2025 Results Legislative Assembly Results of the 1940 Victorian state election (Legislative Assembly) Victorian state election, 16 March 1940Election held on 16 March 1940, Australian Politics and Elections Database (University of Western Australia).Colin A Hughes, A Handbook of Australian Government and Politics 1890-1964, Canberra: Australian National University Press, 1968 (0708102700). Legislative Assembly Victorian state election 1937 1943 841,864 786,359 93.41 −0.55 12,287 1.56 +0.19 UAP 274,113 35.41 −4.15 16 −2 Labor VIC 256,744 33.17 −7.86 22 +1 yes United Country 109,626 14.06 −2.71 22 ±0 Liberal Country Country VIC 18,104 2.34 +2.34 1 ±0 Communist 2,935 0.38 −0.34 0 ±0 Independent 112,550 14.53 +7.20 4 +1 774,072 65 |} See also Candidates of the 1940 Victorian state election 1940 Victorian Legislative Council election References Category:1940 elections in Australia Category:Elections in Victoria (state) Category:1940s in Victoria (state) Victorian state election Category:History of Australia