A federal election was held in Australia on 10 December 1955. All 122 seats in the House of Representatives and 30 of the 60 seats in the Senate were up for election. An early election was called to bring the House and Senate elections back in line; the previous election in 1954 had been House-only. The incumbent Liberal–Country coalition led by Prime Minister Robert Menzies increased its majority over the opposition Labor Party, led by H. V. Evatt.

Future Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser and future opposition leader Billy Snedden both entered parliament at this election.

Results House of Representatives

+ House of Reps (IRV) — 1955–58—Turnout 95.00% (CV) — Informal 2.88% Party First preference votes % Swing Seats Change   Liberal–Country coalition 2,093,430 47.67 +0.10 75 +11  Liberal 1,745,985 39.75 +0.75 57 +10  Country 347,445 7.91 –0.66 18 +1   Labor 1,961,359 44.65 –5.42 49 –10   Anti-Communist Labor 227,083 5.17 +5.17 0 0   Communist 51,001 1.16 –0.09 0 0   Independents 60,042 1.37 +0.26 0 0  Total 4,392,915     122 +1 Two-party-preferred   Liberal–Country coalition Win 54.20 +4.90 75 +11   Labor 45.80 −4.90 49 −10 Ten members were elected unopposed – five Liberal and five Country. This would be the last federal election where any seat attracted only one candidate.

Senate + Senate (STV) — 1955–58—Turnout 95.01% (CV) — Informal 9.63% Party First preference votes % Swing Seats won Seats held Change   Liberal–Country coalition 2,161,460 48.68 +4.25 17 30 –1   Liberal–Country joint ticket 1,748,878 39.38 +12.93 8 N/A N/A   Liberal 384,732 8.66 –9.32 8 24 –2   Country 27,850 0.63 +0.63 1 6 +1   Labor 1,803,335 40.61 –10.00 12 28 –1   Anti-Communist Labor 271,067 6.10 +6.10 1 2 +2   Communist 161,869 3.64 +0.59 0 0 0   Henry George Justice 3,366 0.08 –0.22 0 0 0   Independents 39,928 0.90 +0.36 0 0 0   Total 4,441,025     30 60

Seats changing hands

Seat Pre-1955 Swing Post-1955 Party Member Margin Margin Member Party Ballaarat, Vic  Labor Bob Joshua* 2.6 10.7 7.9 Dudley Erwin Liberal  Hume, NSW  Labor Arthur Fuller 2,2 3.5 2.2 Charles Anderson Country  Maribyrnong, Vic  Labor Arthur Drakeford 16.1 7.5 0.1 Philip Stokes Liberal  Perth, WA  Labor Tom Burke 2.3 3.8 1.5 Fred Chaney Liberal  Philip, NSW  Labor Joe Fitzgerald 8.9 5.7 1.1 William Aston Liberal  St George, NSW  Labor Nelson Lemmon 2.7 5.8 3.4 Bill Graham Liberal  Bob Joshua contested his seat as a candidate for the Australian Labor Party (Anti-Communist).

See also Candidates of the 1955 Australian federal election Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1955–1958 Members of the Australian Senate, 1956–1959

Notes

References

University of WA election results in Australia since 1890 AEC 2PP vote Adam Carr's Election Archive - Senate 1955 Prior to 1984 the AEC did not undertake a full distribution of preferences for statistical purposes. The stored ballot papers for the 1983 election were put through this process prior to their destruction. Therefore, the figures from 1983 onwards show the actual result based on full distribution of preferences.