Suvarna Garge (Editor)

Members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, 1914–1917

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit

This is a list of members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly between the 1914 election and the 1917 election, together known as the Ninth Parliament. The re-election of Premier John Scaddan's Labor Government with a 26-24 majority in 1914 was tempered when, a year later, Labor member Joseph Gardiner's seat was declared vacant on account of his non-attendance and a Liberal was elected in his stead, and Labor became a minority government when on 18 December 1915, Edward Johnston resigned from the Labor Party and became an independent. On 27 July 1916, the Scaddan Ministry was defeated and the Liberals' Frank Wilson became the new Premier.

In March 1917, the Labor Party split ahead of the 1917 federal election. The federal party had split a year earlier over military conscription, and in Western Australia, where conscription was widely supported, all of the Labor Senators up for election had joined Billy Hughes's Nationalist Party. A number of state Labor members, including former Premier John Scaddan, either resigned from the Party or were expelled for supporting them. By May 1917, they had formed a new National Labor Party with a base in the Goldfields region, historically the heart of the Labor vote in Western Australia. In June 1917, they formed a coalition with the new Nationalist Party (which replaced the former Liberal Party) and the Country Party to form a governing coalition. With these arrangements, another Ministry was formed under new Premier Henry Lefroy.

References

Members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, 1914–1917 Wikipedia