28 May 1955 (1955-05-28) 1958 → 18 October 1937 1955 37 seats 12 seats Start date May 28, 1955 | 3 June 1953 18 October 1937 11 seats 37 seats 33 seats 20 seats | |
 | ||
Winner Henry Bolte | ||
The 1955 Victorian state election was held in the Australian state of Victoria on Saturday 28 May 1955 to elect 65 (of the 66) members of the state's Legislative Assembly.
Contents
Background
John Cain had led the Labor Party in Victoria since 1937, and had been Premier since defeating John McDonald's Country Party government at the 1952 election, forming the first majority Labor government in Victoria's history. Leader of the Liberal and Country Party, Trevor Oldham, had died on 2 May 1952 in a plane crash on his way to attend the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Henry Bolte was elected leader of the party a month later.
The election was triggered by events related to the Australian Labor Party split of 1955, in which followers of B. A. Santamaria's "Movement"—Catholic, anti-Communist, right-aligned members of the Australian Labor Party—were accused by federal leader H. V. Evatt of contributing to his loss of the 1954 federal election to Robert Menzies. The federal executive set about expelling "disloyal" members who supported the Movement.
In the Victorian parliament, the anti-Communists were known as the Barry–Coleman group after the leaders of the faction: Bill Barry in the Legislative Assembly and Les Coleman in the Legislative Council. In April 1955, Barry and Coleman wrote to Cain requesting a unity conference, but the request was rejected, with Cain telling the group that they could only achieve unity within the ALP by accepting the authority of the federal Labor conference and executive, and the Victorian central executive.
On the night of 19 April, Bolte raised a motion of no-confidence against Cain's government in the Legislative Assembly. After twelve hours of debate on the motion, in the early hours of 20 April, eleven anti-Communist Labor members crossed the floor to support Bolte's motion. With his government defeated, Cain sought and received a dissolution of parliament later that day.
Legislative Assembly
Notes: