A general election for the House of Assembly

Tasmanian House of Assembly

The House of Assembly, or Lower House, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of Tasmania in Australia. The other is the Legislative Council or Upper House...

 was held in the Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n state

States and territories of Australia

The Commonwealth of Australia is a union of six states and various territories. The Australian mainland is made up of five states and three territories, with the sixth state of Tasmania being made up of islands. In addition there are six island territories, known as external territories, and a...

 of Tasmania

Tasmania

Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...

 on 31 May 1919.

Background

By the time of the 1919 election, the Liberal Party had regrouped and been renamed as the Nationalist Party

Nationalist Party of Australia

The Nationalist Party of Australia was an Australian political party. It was formed on 17 February 1917 from a merger between the conservative Commonwealth Liberal Party and the National Labor Party, the name given to the pro-conscription defectors from the Australian Labor Party led by Prime...

. The Premier of Tasmania, Walter Lee

Walter Lee (Australian politician)

Sir Walter Henry Lee KCMG was an Australian politician and member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly. He was Premier of Tasmania on three occasions: from 15 April 1916 to 12 August 1922; from 14 August 1923 to 25 October 1923; and from 15 March 1934 to 22 June 1934.Lee was born in Longford in...

, had led the party for a relatively untroubled three years, despite the Liberals' one-seat majority over Labor and the uncertainty of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

.

The leader of the Labor Party in Tasmania going into the 1919 election was Joseph Lyons

Joseph Lyons

Joseph Aloysius Lyons, CH was an Australian politician. He was Labor Premier of Tasmania from 1923 to 1928 and a Minister in the James Scullin government from 1929 until his resignation from the Labor Party in March 1931...

.

Results

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Distribution of Seats

EWLINE Electorate Seats won Bass Division of Bass (state) The Electoral Division of Bass is one of the 5 electorates in the Tasmanian House of Assembly, or lower house; it takes its name from the British Naval Surgeon and Explorer of Australia: George Bass. The division shares its name and boundaries with the federal division of Bass...             Darwin             Denison Division of Denison (state) The Electoral Division of Denison is one of the 5 electorates in the Tasmanian House of Assembly. The division is named after Sir William Denison, who was Lieutenant Governor of Van_Diemen's Land 1847-55, and Governor of New South Wales 1855-61. The division shares its name and boundaries with the...             Franklin Division of Franklin (state) The Electoral Division of Franklin is one of the five electorates in the Tasmanian House of Assembly. The division is named after Sir John Franklin, the arctic explorer who was Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land 1837-43...             Wilmot

Labor   Nationalist   Independent

Aftermath

Lee led the Nationalist Party to victory, with a 14% margin over Labor, although they only won 16 of the 30 seats in the House of Assembly. Independent Joshua Whitsitt

Joshua Whitsitt

Joshua Thomas Hoskins Whitsitt was an Australian politician. Born in Ireland, where he was educated, he migrated to Tasmania as a youth, becoming a bank officer and farmer at Cooee. In 1909 he was elected to the Tasmanian House of Assembly as one of the members for Darwin, representing the...

 retained his seat in the Division of Darwin

Division of Darwin

The Division of Darwin was an Australian Electoral Division in Tasmania. The division was created in 1903 and abolished in 1955, when it was replaced by the Division of Braddon. It was named after Charles Darwin, who visited Australia in 1836. It was located in north-western Tasmania, including the...

.

External links

• Assembly Election Results, 1919, Parliament of Tasmania
  Parliament of Tasmania
  The Parliament of Tasmania consists of the Tasmanian Legislative Council, Tasmanian House of Assembly and the Monarch represented by the Governor of Tasmania....
  
  .
• Report on General Election, 1916, Tasmanian Electoral Commission, 29 October 1919.