Australian federal election, 1919

1917 ←

13 December 1919 (1919-12-13)

→ 1922

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

Leader	Billy Hughes	Frank Tudor
Party	Nationalist	Labor
Leader since	14 November 1916	14 November 1916
Leader's seat	Bendigo	Yarra
Last election	53 seats	22 seats
Seats won	37 seats	26 seats
Seat change	16	4
Percentage	54.10%	45.90%

Prime Minister before election

Billy Hughes
Nationalist

Resulting Prime Minister

Billy Hughes
Nationalist

Federal elections were held in Australia on 13 December 1919. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Nationalist Party of Australia led by Prime Minister of Australia Billy Hughes defeated the opposition Australian Labor Party led by Frank Tudor.

The government changed the lower house voting system from first-past-the-post to full-preference preferential voting after the 1918 Swan by-election saw a split in the vote between Nationalist and Country Party candidates, causing Labor with the largest primary vote to unexpectedly win the by-election. Full-preference preferential voting has remained in place since, allowing the Coalition parties to safely contest the same seats. The system would continuously benefit the Coalition until the 1990 election.

The election was held in conjunction with two referendum questions, neither of which was carried.

Independents: Michael Considine (Barrier, NSW)

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