1939 Western Australian state election

18 March 1939
All 50 seats in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly
First party Second party Third party   Leader John Willcock Charles Latham Ross McDonald Party Labor Country Nationalist Leader since 20 August 1936 24 April 1933 13 April 1938 Leader's seat Geraldton York West Perth Last election 26 seats 13 seats 8 seats Seats won 27 seats 12 seats 7 seats Seat change 1 1 1 Percentage 45.02% 12.00% 23.97% Swing 2.63 2.60 8.39
Premier before election John Willcock Labor Elected Premier John Willcock Labor

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.^[1]

Results

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.

¹ 265,987 electors were enrolled to vote at the election, but 10 of the 50 seats were uncontested—4 Labor seats representing 9,414 enrolled voters, 2 Nationalist seats representing 11,396 voters and 4 Country seats representing 16,614 voters.

See also

• Members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, 1936–1939
• Members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, 1939–1943

References

Works cited

• Parliament Buildings of the Commonwealth. London: Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. 2021. ISBN 9781399909686.