9 May 1931 1934 → 15 seats 14 seats 4 4 Start date May 9, 1931 | July 1925 October 1929 19 seats 10 seats 56.40% 34.92% | |
 | ||
Winner John McPhee | ||
A general election for the House of Assembly was held in the Australian state of Tasmania on 9 May 1931.
Contents
Background
The Nationalist Party had defeated Labor by one seat at the 1928 election, and John McPhee had been Premier of Tasmania since then. Joseph Lyons had retired from state politics after his 1928 defeat and had entered federal politics, and the Labor Party was now led by Albert Ogilvie.
Aftermath
The Nationalist Party won the 1931 election in a landslide, with an over 22 per cent margin over Labor, and taking a nineteen seats in the House of Assembly. This was the largest victory over Labor in Tasmania since Hare-Clark elections began in 1909, and was attributed to public endorsement of McPhee's expenditure cuts over Ogilvie's expansionist policies.
The high turnout of voting in the election was due to the implementation of compulsory voting clauses of the Electoral Act for the first time.