Election Name: | 1939 Western Australian state election |
Country: | Western Australia |
Type: | parliamentary |
Ongoing: | no |
Previous Election: | 1936 Western Australian state election |
Previous Year: | 1936 |
Next Election: | 1943 Western Australian state election |
Next Year: | 1943 |
Seats For Election: | All 50 seats in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly |
Election Date: | 18 March 1939 |
Leader1: | John Willcock |
Leader Since1: | 20 August 1936 |
Party1: | Australian Labor Party (Western Australian Branch) |
Leaders Seat1: | Geraldton |
Percentage1: | 45.02% |
Swing1: | 2.63 |
Last Election1: | 26 seats |
Seats1: | 27 seats |
Seat Change1: | 1 |
Leader2: | Charles Latham |
Leader Since2: | 24 April 1933 |
Party2: | Country Party (Western Australia) |
Leaders Seat2: | York |
Percentage2: | 12.00% |
Swing2: | 2.60 |
Last Election2: | 13 seats |
Seats2: | 12 seats |
Seat Change2: | 1 |
Leader3: | Ross McDonald |
Leader Since3: | 13 April 1938 |
Party3: | Nationalist Party of Australia |
Leaders Seat3: | West Perth |
Percentage3: | 23.97% |
Swing3: | 8.39 |
Last Election3: | 8 seats |
Seats3: | 7 seats |
Seat Change3: | 1 |
Premier | |
Before Election: | John Willcock |
Before Party: | Australian Labor Party (Western Australian Branch) |
After Election: | John Willcock |
After Party: | Australian Labor Party (Western Australian Branch) |
Elections were held in the state of Western Australia on 18 March 1939 to elect all 50 members to the Legislative Assembly. The Labor Party, led by Premier John Willcock, won a third term in office against the Country and Nationalist parties, led by Opposition Leader Charles Latham and Robert Ross McDonald respectively.
This was the first election in Western Australia since the enactment of compulsory voting, which occurred in 1936. Western Australia was one of the last states to mandate voting.
See also: Results of the Western Australian state election, 1939 (Legislative Assembly).
The election was notable for the lack of change to the status quo. Only one member—former Speaker Michael Troy, who had been in the Assembly continuously since 1904—opted to retire, being replaced in his seat of Mount Magnet by fellow Labor member Lucien Triat. Labor's Bill Hegney gained the seat of Pilbara from two-term Nationalist MLA Frank Welsh, whilst the Nationalist member since 1914 for North Perth, James MacCallum Smith, was defeated by independent Nationalist Arthur Abbott (who joined the party some years later).
Elsewhere, the only change was the exit of one Independent member—Clarence Doust in Nelson, who was defeated by his Nationalist predecessor John Henry Smith after one term—and the entry of another from Irwin-Moore, Claude Barker, replacing Country member Percy Ferguson.
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