Australian Federal Election 1901

[Patine]

Would anyone be interested in this? It's the first parliamentary election in the Commonwealth of Australia (though not the first on the continent; legislative elections for the to-be states go back to 1856), which was a noteworthy one just on that account. The parties and leaders, according to Wikipedia, were:

Protectionist Party: Edmund Barton

Australian Free Trade and Liberal Association: George Reid

State Labour Parties: Chose Chris Watson as leader two months after the election, so he's the logical choice for the scenario leader

*Note that the five mainland states each had their own Labour Party that ran seperately, and Tasmania elected an "independent labour" candidate, but, as they all campaigned in relative harmony and had very similar platforms, they can easily be considered one party for scenario purposes.

Their were also a few Independents, two (Alexander Paterson and James Wilkinson) of which won seats, so one of them could be the default Independent leader.

Main issues included:

Tariffs (BIG issue)

Transcontinental Railway

Standardized Rail Gauges

Uniform Suffrage

Old-Age Pensions

Defense of the Constitution from "Radicals"

Electoral Reform

National Army

Industrial Dispute Arbitration

Referendums on Issues That Would Force Double Dissolution

White Australia Policy (though it was kind of a non-issue, as all three leaders staunchly supported it, but it still seemed to come up)

The Northern Territory had no seats and the Capital Territory hadn't been yet created. Each state had different suffrage laws (hence the uniform suffrage issue) with Western and Southern Australia allowing women to vote, but none of the other four, and Southern Australia and Tasmania theoretically allowing Aboriginal voters (though it's believed only a very few showed up in South Australia and next to none, or maybe even none, in Tasmania). Tasmania also had a small property requirement to vote, which none of the other states had.

If anyone has any interest in this, please post here.

[Guest]

On 4/21/2014 at 8:20 AM, Patine said:

Would anyone be interested in this? It's the first parliamentary election in the Commonwealth of Australia (though not the first on the continent; legislative elections for the to-be states go back to 1856), which was a noteworthy one just on that account. The parties and leaders, according to Wikipedia, were:

Protectionist Party: Edmund Barton

Australian Free Trade and Liberal Association: George Reid

State Labour Parties: Chose Chris Watson as leader two months after the election, so he's the logical choice for the scenario leader

*Note that the five mainland states each had their own Labour Party that ran seperately, and Tasmania elected an "independent labour" candidate, but, as they all campaigned in relative harmony and had very similar platforms, they can easily be considered one party for scenario purposes.

Their were also a few Independents, two (Alexander Paterson and James Wilkinson) of which won seats, so one of them could be the default Independent leader.

Main issues included:

Tariffs (BIG issue)

Transcontinental Railway

Standardized Rail Gauges

Uniform Suffrage

Old-Age Pensions

Defense of the Constitution from "Radicals"

Electoral Reform

National Army

Industrial Dispute Arbitration

Referendums on Issues That Would Force Double Dissolution

White Australia Policy (though it was kind of a non-issue, as all three leaders staunchly supported it, but it still seemed to come up)

The Northern Territory had no seats and the Capital Territory hadn't been yet created. Each state had different suffrage laws (hence the uniform suffrage issue) with Western and Southern Australia allowing women to vote, but none of the other four, and Southern Australia and Tasmania theoretically allowing Aboriginal voters (though it's believed only a very few showed up in South Australia and next to none, or maybe even none, in Tasmania). Tasmania also had a small property requirement to vote, which none of the other states had.

If anyone has any interest in this, please post here.

it'd be interesting.

[Patine]

20 minutes ago, NYrepublican said:

it'd be interesting.

I'd forgotten to add this one (and a few other earlier Australian elections) to my list.

[lok1999]

The Northern Territory was still a part of SA in 1901, and collectively sent 7 at large members.

Tasmania also sent their 5 members at large as well.

[Patine]

4 hours ago, lok1999 said:

The Northern Territory was still a part of SA in 1901, and collectively sent 7 at large members.

Tasmania also sent their 5 members at large as well.

Yes, I know. I wasn't using the standard map that came with the TheorySpark Australia scenarios. I didn't even have the big urban areas as separate regions (because they weren't that big as urban areas go back then) and didn't include the ACT (which didn't exist yet, except as a plan on paper) as a region, either.