Queensland state election, 1944

← 1941

15 April 1944 (1944-04-15)

1947 →

All 62 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland

	First party	Second party

Leader	Frank Cooper	Frank Nicklin
Party	Labor	Country/QPP coalition
Leader since	16 September 1942 (1942-09-16)	21 May 1941
Leader's seat	Bremer	Murrumba
Last election	41 seats	18 seats
Seats won	37 seats	19 seats
Seat change	4	1
Percentage	44.67%	42.32%
Swing	6.74	5.82

Premier before election

Frank Cooper
Labor

Elected Premier

Frank Cooper
Labor

Elections were held in the Australian state of Queensland on 15 April 1944 to elect the 62 members of the state's Legislative Assembly.

The election was the first that Labor had contested under Premier Frank Cooper, who had been in office for 19 months by the time of the poll.

From this election, the voting method was changed from contingency voting to First past the post voting. Queensland retained this method for state elections until Preferential Voting was restored by the Country/Liberal Coalition at the 1963 state election.

The election resulted in Labor receiving a fifth term in office, albeit with a reduced majority.

Some ructions had developed between some sections of the Labor Party and the party's AWU-dominated executive, resulting in tiny splinter movements which were, however, locally effective. The Hermit Park branch in Townsville, which had dominated the Townsville City Council since 1939, was expelled from the ALP for alleged disloyalty in 1942, possibly due to association with Communists. Tom Aikens won the seat of Mundingburra at the election. Similar forces saw sitting left-wing members George Taylor (Enoggera) and George Marriott (Bulimba) expelled from the party; the former lost his seat to a QPP candidate, while the latter retained his at the 1944 and 1947 elections. Frank Barnes, a colourful identity who supported social credit theories popular since the Great Depression and declared himself opposed to the Labor government, retained his seat of Bundaberg.

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