1928 Tasmanian state election

1928 Tasmanian state election

← 1925 30 May 1928 1931 →

All 30 seats to the House of Assembly
  First party Second party
 
Leader John McPhee Joseph Lyons
Party Nationalist Labor
Leader since July 1925 November 1916
Leader's seat Denison Wilmot
Last election 11 seats 16 seats
Seats won 15 seats 14 seats
Seat change Increase4 Decrease2
Percentage 42.20% 47.15%
Swing Increase2.83 Decrease1.32

Results of the election

Premier before election

Joseph Lyons
Labor

Resulting Premier

John McPhee
Nationalist

The 1928 Tasmanian state election was held on Wednesday, 30 May 1928 in the Australian state of Tasmania to elect 30 members of the Tasmanian House of Assembly. The election used the Hare-Clark proportional representation system[1] — six members were elected from each of five electorates.

Labor had won the 1925 election in a landslide, with the Nationalist Party losing five seats in the House of Assembly. In 1928, leading up to the election, the Nationalists reverted to "hard politics", criticising Labor Premier Joseph Lyons for an increasing unemployment problem and economic stagnation. This shift was much to the chagrin of Lyons, who had encouraged cordial relations with the Nationalists, and referred to their leader John McPhee as a "colleague and mate".[2]

The Labor Party won a slim majority of the vote in the 1928 election, but only fourteen seats. As the Nationalist Party held half the seats in the House of Assembly and had the support of one Independent, Nationalist leader McPhee became Premier of Tasmania, and praised Lyons for his statesmanship.[2]

Lyons stood for the federal seat of Wilmot in 1929, and he became Prime Minister of Australia in 1932.[2]

  1. ^ House of Assembly Elections, Parliament of Tasmania.
  2. ^ a b c P. R. Hart, C. J. Lloyd, Lyons, Joseph Aloysius (1879 - 1939), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 10, Melbourne University Press, 1986, pp 184-189.