Australian federal election, 1946

← 1943

28 September 1946

1949 →

All 76 seats of the Australian House of Representatives
39 seats were needed for a majority in the House
19 (of the 36) seats of the Australian Senate

	First party	Second party

Leader	Ben Chifley	Robert Menzies
Party	Labor	Liberal/Country coalition
Leader since	13 July 1945	23 September 1943
Leader's seat	Macquarie	Kooyong
Last election	49 seats	19 seats
Seats won	43 seats	26 seats
Seat change	6	7
Percentage	54.10%	45.90%
Swing	4.10	4.10

	Third party	Fourth party

Leader	Thomas Playford IV	Jack Lang
Party	Liberal and Country League	Lang Labor
Leader since	5 November 1938
Leader's seat	state politician	won Reid
Last election	did not contest	0 seats
Seats won	2 seats	1 seat
Seat change	2	1

	Fifth party

Party	Liberal Country Party
Last election	1 seats
Seats won	1 seat
Seat change

Prime Minister before election

Ben Chifley
Labor

Subsequent Prime Minister

Ben Chifley
Labor

Federal elections were held in Australia on 28 September 1946. All 74 seats in the House of Representatives, and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Australian Labor Party led by Prime Minister of Australia Ben Chifley defeated the newly formed opposition Liberal Party of Australia (descended from the United Australia Party) led by its founder Robert Menzies with coalition partner the Country Party led by Arthur Fadden, with Labor also retaining control of the Senate.

The election was held in conjunction with three referendum questions, one of which was carried.

The radical reforming nature of Chifley's government was such that between 1946 and 1949, the Australian Parliament passed 299 Acts, a record until then, well beyond Labor's Andrew Fisher's 113 Acts from 1910 to 1913.

Independent: Doris Blackburn

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