Queensland Labor Party

The Queensland Labor Party (QLP) was a political party of Queensland, Australia formed in 1957 by a breakaway group of the then ruling Australian Labor Party Government after the expulsion of Premier Vince Gair. The party was absorbed into the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) in 1962.

In Queensland, Vince Gair became Labor leader and premier in 1952.

The Central Executive of the ALP expelled Gair on 24 April 1957 because of his support of the Groupers. A total of 25 Labor MLAs left the party with him, including all the Cabinet except Deputy Premier Jack Duggan, to form the Queensland Labor Party. The two ex-Labor Independents joined the QLP. The ALP was left with 23 members with Duggan as leader. The Country and Liberal Parties had a combined 24 seats.

Gair tried to gain Country Party support for his minority government, but talks with Frank Nicklin broke down when federal Country Party leader Arthur Fadden told Nicklin that he had a chance to become Premier himself. On 12 June, the ALP, now led by Duggan, voted to deny "supply" (that is, the money needed to govern) to what was left of the Gair government. The Country-Liberal Coalition moved to block supply as well and brought the government down.

A state election was called for 3 August 1957. At that time, Queensland had a unicameral parliament which was elected by first-past-the-post rather than the present preferential voting system. Since all sitting ALP and QLP members were opposed by a candidate from the other faction, the Labor vote was split in many seats. While the Coalition actually suffered a small swing against it, the large number of three-cornered contests resulted in the ALP and QLP losing seats to the Coalition. The two Labor factions won only 31 seats between them to the Coalition's 42 (up from 24 previously). The QLP won 23.4% of the vote, second behind Labor, and 11 of the 75 seats. Nicklin became Premier and for the first time in 25 years and only the second time since 1915, a Labor Government was out of office in Queensland. Gair himself was reelected in South Brisbane.

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