Australian federal election, 1901

Australian federation election, 1901

29 March 1901

→ 1903

All 75 seats of the Australian House of Representatives 38 seats were needed for a majority in the House All 36 seats of the Australian Senate

	First party	Second party

Leader	Edmund Barton	George Reid
Party	Protectionist	Free Trade
Leader since	1901	1901
Leader's seat	Hunter	East Sydney
Seats won	31 seats	28 seats
Popular vote	185,943	151,960
Percentage	36.75%	30.03%

Resulting Prime Minister

Edmund Barton
Protectionist

Federal elections for the inaugural Parliament of Australia were held in Australia on Friday 29 March and Saturday 30 March 1901 following Federation and the establishment of the Commonwealth of Australia. All 75 seats in the Australian House of Representatives, six of which were uncontested, as well as all 36 seats in the Australian Senate, were up for election.

After the initial confusion of the Hopetoun Blunder, the first Prime Minister of Australia, Edmund Barton, went in to the inaugural 1901 federal election as the appointed head of a Protectionist Party caretaker government. While the Protectionists came first on votes and seats, they fell short of a majority. The incumbent minority government remained in office with the parliamentary support of the Labour Party who held the balance of power, with the Free Trade Party forming the opposition. A few months prior to the 1903 election, Alfred Deakin replaced Barton who resigned to become a founding justice of the High Court of Australia.