Australian federal election, 1903

1901 ←

16 December 1903 (1903-12-16)

→ 1906

All 75 seats in the Australian House of Representatives 38 seats were needed for a majority in the House 19 (of the 36) seats in the Australian Senate

	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	Alfred Deakin	George Reid	Chris Watson
Party	Protectionist	Free Trade	Labour
Leader since	24 September 1903 (1903-09-24)	1901	1901
Leader's seat	Ballaarat	East Sydney	Bland
Last election	31 seats	28 seats	15 seats
Seats won	26 seats	24 seats	22 seats
Seat change	5	4	7
Popular vote	214,091	247,774	223,163
Percentage	29.70%	34.37%	30.95%
Swing	7.05	4.33	15.20

Prime Minister before election

Alfred Deakin
Protectionist

Resulting Prime Minister

Alfred Deakin
Protectionist

Federal elections were held in Australia on 16 December 1903. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Protectionist Party minority government led by Prime Minister of Australia Alfred Deakin retained the most House of Representatives seats of the three parties and retained government with the parliamentary support of the Labour Party led by Chris Watson, while the Free Trade Party led by George Reid remained in opposition.

The election outcome saw a finely balanced House of Representatives, with the three parties each holding around a third of seats − the Protectionists on 26 (−5), the Free Traders on 24 (−4) and Labour on 22 (+7). This term of parliament saw no changes in any party leadership but did see very significant and prolonged debates on contentious issues − the Protectionist minority government fell in April 1904 to Labour, while the Labour minority government fell in August 1904 to the Free Traders, while the Free Trader minority government fell in July 1905 back to the Protectionists, which continued until the 1906 election and beyond. The Free Traders remained in opposition throughout this eventful period with the exception of Labour forming the opposition for the first time during the period of the Free Trader minority government. Additionally, the Watson government was the world's first Labour Party government at a national level.

...
Wikipedia