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All 90 seats in theNew South Wales Legislative Assembly 46 Assembly seats were needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Two-candidate-preferred margin by electorate | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The1944 New South Wales state election was held on 27 May 1944. It was conducted in single member constituencies with compulsorypreferential voting and was held on boundaries created at a 1940 redistribution. The election was for all of the 90 seats in theLegislative Assembly.
The Labor government ofWilliam McKell faced its first challenge at a general election in May 1944. The campaign was overshadowed by the course ofWorld War II and the Sydney Morning Herald noted that in such an uncertain environment it was difficult for any party to make extensive plans for the future. This was particularly the case as many of the responsibilities of the states had been usurped by the Commonwealth Government under emergency war powers.[1]
McKell's three years in government had enhanced his reputation as a moderate and cautious leader. Under his leadership the extreme left wing of the party had been expelled and had contested the1941 as theState Labor Party. Its poor showing had resulted in its dissolution shortly after the election and most members then joined theCommunist Party of Australia. However, Labor unity was again threatened byJack Lang who had been expelled from the Labor Party in 1943 and had formed another version of theLang Labor Party. On this occasion he received no support from the rest of the caucus and spent the rest of the term as the sole member.
In comparison to the Labor Party, the urban conservative political forces were in complete disarray. The very poor results of theUnited Australia Party (UAP) underBilly Hughes at the1943 federal election had increased the divisions within the party. TheDemocratic Party, which was a merger of theCommonwealth Party and UAP in November 1943, had emerged as the main conservative party in New South Wales state politics.[2] It was led byReginald Weaver and had the support of most of the former UAP members of parliament. However theLiberal Democratic Party, which had been founded by the Sydney timber merchant and businessmanErnest White (later Sir Ernest), attracted significant media attention and had a large and expensive advertising campaign. White claimed that the UAP and Democratic Party had been overly concerned with infighting and were no longer able to give coherence to conservative political aspirations. His party while supporting an extension of the welfare safety-net called for an increased effort to win the war including the mandatory deregistration of unions involved in unreasonable strike action.[3] TheSydney Morning Herald commented that the Liberal Democratic Party was "a mouse" attempting to "swallow the Democratic Party lion".[4]
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 24 April 1944 | The Legislative Assembly was dissolved, and writs were issued by theGovernor to proceed with an election. |
| 28 April 1944 | Nominations for candidates for the election closed at noon. |
| 27 May 1944 | Polling day. |
| 8 June 1944 | Second McKell ministry sworn in |
| 22 June 1944 | Last day for the writs to be returned and the results formally declared. |
| 22 June 1944 | Opening of 34th Parliament. |
There was little change in the composition of parliament, with Labor retaining its large majority.
At the election Lang's party won 2 of the 23 seats in which it stood candidates. Its total primary vote of 9.33%, which significantly reduced Labor's primary vote but made little difference to the distribution of seats. The Liberal Democratic Party did not fulfill pre-election predictions and gained less than 4% of the vote with no seats.
New South Wales state election, 27 May 1944 [5] | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enrolled voters | 1,732,706 [a] | |||||
| Votes cast | 1,310,270 | Turnout | 91.42 | −1.10 | ||
| Informal votes | 43,329 | Informal | 3.31 | +0.78 | ||
| Summary of votes by party | ||||||
| Party | Primary votes | % | Swing | Seats | Change | |
| Labor | 572,600 | 45.20 | −5.60 | 56 | +2 | |
| Democratic | 239,610 | 18.91 | +1.38 [b] | 12 | −2 [b] | |
| Country | 131,950 | 10.41 | −0.64 | 10 | −2 | |
| Lang Labor | 118,174 | 9.33 | +9.33 | 2 | +2 | |
| Independent | 72,431 | 5.72 | −0.41 | 5 | +1 | |
| Liberal Democratic | 49,325 | 3.89 | +3.89 | 0 | 0 | |
| Independent Democrat | 30,532 | 2.41 | −0.84 [c] | 4 | −1 [c] | |
| Independent Labor | 22,697 | 1.79 | −0.35 | 0 | –1 | |
| Communist | 21,982 | 1.74 | +1.74 | 0 | – | |
| Independent Country | 6,670 | 0.53 | +0.53 | 1 | +1 | |
| State Labor | 0 | 0 | −5.64 | 0 | – | |
| All others | 970 | 0.08 | −0.62 | 0 | – | |
| Total | 1,266,941 | 90 | ||||
This table lists changes in party representation since the 1941 election but does not include United Australia Party members who retained their seats as Democratic Party members
McKell remained premier until he was appointedGovernor General in early 1947. Weaver became the leader of the United Democratic Party, formed from the urban conservative parties in late 1944. The Democratic Party became theNew South Wales division of theLiberal Party of Australia in early 1945, with Weaver becoming its inaugural leader. However, he died in November that year and was succeeded by former PremierAlexander Mair, who was then succeeded byVernon Treatt in March 1946.Michael Bruxner retained his leadership of the Country Party, which he had held since 1932, throughout the parliament.
There were 9by-elections during the parliament but the overall composition of the parties stayed intact.
