ATTENTION
From this entry on, Senate results will be displayed, thank you Barnes for enquiring about it, adds a nice touch to the series.
The 1958 election, for the incumbent Harrison government, was almost a literal re-run of the June 1955 election - the Liberal and Country Parties' seat numbers remained the same, and the government only suffered a minor swing on the national two-party preferred vote. A closer look at the results though tells more of a story - Labor performed even worse on the primary vote than they did on June 1955, losing five seats to a resurgent Communist Party in New South Wales, who won back seats in the Illawarra and Hunter regions, along with more in inner Sydney. Labor, however, did pick up an additional seat from the DLP in Victoria, whose vote dropped significantly in 1958. Elsewhere, changes were minor, with some Liberal seats shifting to the Country Party and vice-versa.
Summary of 1958 election:
House of RepresentativesLiberal – 73 (nc)
Country – 20 (nc)
Labor – 18 (-4)
Communist – 9 (+5)
Democratic Labor – 4 (-1)
Senate1955: 14
Labor, 13
Liberal, 2
Country, 1
Communist1958: 17
Liberal, 2
Country, 8
Labor, 2
Democratic Labor, 1
CommunistTotal: 30
Liberal, 4
Country, 22
Labor, 2
Democratic Labor, 2
CommunistTwo-party preferred vote:
61.25-
38.75For Labor, the losses to the Communist Party meant that they now held fewer seats than the Country Party in the new Parliament, worse than the 1925 election, when the two parties each held 15 seats, and Labor won a mere eight out of a possible 30 Senate seats. Arthur Calwell remained Labor leader post-election, determined to continue to fight for the Labor cause. Lance Sharkey and the Communist Party were jubilant post-election, Sharkey stating that "the Revolution is coming to Australia". Bob Joshua and the DLP were dismayed at their backward result, although were committed to providing a non-communist left-wing alternative, and won a Senate seat in both Victoria and Tasmania.
Early in the second term of the Harrison Government saw the completion of Eucumbene Dam, on the Eucumbene River on the Snowy Mountains, as a part of the Snowy Mountains Scheme. The 30th of September saw the government's ANZAC Day Bill obtain Royal Assent, and the 25th of April, or ANZAC Day, became a national public holiday. Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory, was officially awarded city status on Australia Day, 1959, and two and a half weeks later, on the 12th of February, PM Harrison opened the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne, an outdoor music venue with 30,000 people present at the opening, which would host many notable Australian and international bands over the coming years. Three days later, American evangelist Billy Graham performed at the new venue to an audience of 70,000.
March saw the commencement of the Sydney Opera House, under the direction of the NSW state government. This would take 14 years in total to build, and was built in three stages, the first of which, the podium, wasn't completed until 1963. The 4th of June, 1959 saw the re-opening of the Soviet embassy in Canberra, five years after the Petrov affair saw it shut down. The Communist MPs and Senators were jubilant upon hearing this news, backing their post-elections statement of "The revolution is coming to Australia". QANTAS services were expanded even further on the 29th of July, when a service to San Francisco from Sydney was launched.
August and September of 1959 saw Princess Alexandra, the youngest granddaughter of King George V and Queen Mary, tour Australia, and the latter of those two months saw the ANU building a self-described "atom-smasher", which followed the first nuclear reactor to open in Australia the preceding year, namely High Flux Australian Reactor. The atom smasher would enable physicists to disintegrate the nucleus of any chemical element on Earth. Over to infrastructure, Australia's first passenger roll-on/roll-off ferry, the M/S Princess of Tasmania, made its maiden voyage across the Bass Strait between Melbourne and Devonport, Tasmania. This enabled the transportation of passenger vehicles between the Australian mainland and Tasmania, and was welcomed by Tasmanians in particular, and championed by the government as a major upgrade in transportation.
One month before the 1950s ended, Australia, along with 11 other nations, signed the Antarctic Treaty. This established a legal framework to all the nations with claims to Antarctica for research purposes, and set out rules and guidelines for research in Antarctica, Australia by this stage had two stations in Antarctica, Mawson and Davis Stations. Another immigration relaxation went into force at the end of 1959 as well, with Sir Alexander Downer, Immigration Minister, announcing the allowance of highly skilled Asians into Australia. This came in conjunction with the allowance of Asians to study at Australian universities.
Entering the 1960s, and the Australian economy continued to boom. 1960 saw the government split the Commonwealth Bank into the Commonwealth Banking Corporation and the Reserve Bank of Australia, thus separating Australia's central bank and banknote issuing authority from its commercial and private banking wing. 1960 also saw an expansion of the PBS, originally set up by the Chifley Government, with a larger variety of prescription drugs covered. The Harrison Government also allowed the US Government to install satellite tracking stations in the Australian Capital Territory in 1960, along with allocating money for the centrepiece of Canberra, Lake Burley Griffin, and excavation work began promptly.
1960 also saw the commencement of construction of a coaxial cable link between the eastern seaboard cities, namely Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, with an aim to link up all the major cities by the middle of the decade, using either cable or the developing satellite technologies. 1961 saw the construction of Parkes Telescope over the year, which along with the satellite tracking stations in operation/being built in the ACT, would assist the US greatly with its space program. The 2nd of January also saw the introduction of the oral contraceptive pill to Australia, although only married women could obtain it.
Australia saw its first commercial oil field constructed in Queensland in 1961, bringing another boost to the already strong economy. Divorce law was also amended in 1961, one uniform law around Australia, passed with the support by some Labor Senators, as the DLP and Country Senators voted against the measure, recognised no-fault divorce by allowing a signified period of separation is grounds to end a marriage. An amendment to the security laws saw tougher penalties for espionage, sabotage and treason, along with the new crime of treachery.
In late 1960 and early 1961, wool prices, a vital component of the Australian economy, began to fall, so the Harrison Government initiated a credit squeeze, to the detriment of homebuyers and builders, car buyers and manufacturers, and the general public. The government stated that it was only temporary, and it would control inflation, which began to rise at the end of 1960. Before the dissolution of Parliament, a Parliamentary Committee was established to investigate Aboriginal voting rights, which did not exist in Queensland or Western Australia, but did exist in all other states since 1949.
An election has been called for the 2nd of May, 1961.
Party platforms at this election:
Liberal Party – Prime Minister Eric Harrison and the Liberal Party are campaigning on the advancements Australia has seen over the Harrison Government - economically, the improvement of infrastructure and communication links, the expansion of the PBS, the booming resource sector, the developments in international affairs, Antarctic research, and immigration reform. Harrison, on the credit squeeze, has stated that he does not want prices and inflation to spiral out of control, and pledges to loosen the squeeze as soon as possible. The Liberals are also campaigning on further tax cuts, expanding the right to vote to Aboriginal Australians, and completion of the coaxial cable link, with expansions to Adelaide and Perth.
Country Party – Deputy Prime Minister Charles Adermann and the Country Party are once again campaigning on better infrastructure, particularly roads and communication links, for rural Australia, and are also wanting to end the credit squeeze as soon as possible. Adermann made a speech on the campaign trail on the importance of agriculture to Australia, and that without sufficient agriculture, in terms of both quality and quantity, Australia will regress.
Labor Party – Opposition Leader Arthur Calwell and Labor are campaigning on a democratic socialist platform, centred around full employment, stating the need for a spike in inflation, and a commitment to the Parliamentary Committee on Aboriginal voting rights. Calwell has also stated his reassurance of the traditional Labor value of no public aid to private schools.
Communist Party – Lance Sharkey and the Communists continue to run on their pro-Soviet platform, providing what they claim to be a "true" left-wing alternative to Labor. Sharkey has stated this will be his last election as Communist leader, Sharkey believing that he has served his time as Australia's "man of the people", as he put it.
Democratic Labor Party – Bob Joshua and the DLP's platform is not terribly different from 1955 or 1958, although with the credit squeeze, Joshua stated in an interview that "a part of me is like the Prime Minister, and a part of me is like the Opposition Leader", referring to his stances that align with the Coalition (social conservatism and support for religious schools to name two) and with Labor (economic issues and full employment to name two). Joshua and the DLP are also campaigning for incentives for separated couples to attend marriage counseling sessions.
Voting is open until 9am on Wednesday, the 16th of July, AWST.
Me:
Liberal
Poll
