1915 Queensland state election

1915 Queensland state election

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All 72 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland 37 Assembly seats were needed for a majority
Registered	302,061
Turnout	88.14 (12.62 pp)
First party Second party Third party   FU Leader T. J. Ryan Digby Denham No leader Party Labor Liberal Farmers' Union Leader since 6 September 1912 (1912-09-06) 7 February 1911 N/A Leader's seat Barcoo Oxley (lost seat) N/A Last election 25 seats, 46.70% 46 seats, 51.37% Did not contest Seats won 45 21 5 Seat change 20 25 5 Popular vote 136,419 109,985 13,233 Percentage 52.06% 41.97% 5.05% Swing 5.36 4.73 5.05
Legislative Assembly after the election
Premier before election Digby Denham Liberal Elected Premier T. J. Ryan Labor

Elections were held in the Australian state of Queensland on 22 May 1915 to elect the 72 members of the state's Legislative Assembly.

The election was the second for the Liberal government of Digby Denham, who had been premier since 7 February 1911. The opposition Labor Party, led by T. J. Ryan, had two previous Premiers — Anderson Dawson in 1899 and William Kidston in 1906 — but the former did not command a majority of parliamentary support, while the latter maintained it by splitting the Labor Party. Labor had never before held majority government.

The election was the first in Australia to be conducted using compulsory voting due to Denham's concern that Trade Unions were effectively mobilising the ALP vote; he felt that compulsory voting would ensure a more level playing field. However, it turned out that the change to compulsory voting was not enough to save Denham's premiership.^[1]

The election resulted in the defeat of the government, and Queensland's first majority Labor government. All except two members of the Ministry up for election, including Denham himself, lost their seats.