Who’s Left – The Surviving Members Of Every House Of Representatives Since 1949

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Detailed information on the surviving members of the House of Representatives since 1949 is now available on this site. They include the members’ seats, parties, terms, dates of birth, ages and deaths.

All members of parliament who served in the first 18 parliaments from 1901 until the end of 1949 are now deceased.

There are two surviving members of the 19th Parliament that was elected on December 10, 1949. Both “forty-niners” are in their late 90s. One, Henry Pearce, will turn 100 in September this year.

Just four members of the House during the 1950s are still living.

For the entire Menzies era (1949-1972), there are 29 surviving members. All but four of them served together in the 27th Parliament between 1969 and 1972.

The table below provides a summary of how many members have served in the 19th to 45th parliaments. It shows how many are still living and what parties they belong to. There are links to more detailed information on each parliament since 1972.

Note: The data is structured around the parliaments since 1949. The numbers cannot be aggregated. Most surviving members served in more than one parliament.

Disclaimer: I am confident that the data shown here is correct. However, I rely on media reports and announcements in parliament for information on deaths of former members. I sincerely hope I haven’t killed or resurrected anyone. I am happy to receive corrections from readers.

House of Representatives – Members Still Living Since 1949
(Listed by Parliament No. and Years)
No. Years Size Members
Still
Living
% Oldest Surviving
Member
ALP Lib CP/
Nat
Oth
19th
1949-1951
121
2
1.65
Henry Pearce (99)
2
20th
1951-1954
131
2
1.52
Henry Pearce (99)
2
21st
1954-1955
122
1
0.81
Henry Pearce (99)
1
22nd
1955-1958
127
3
2.36
Henry Pearce (99)
2
1
23rd
1958-1961
128
3
2.34
Henry Pearce (99)
2
1
24th
1961-1963
125
5
4.00
Jim Forbes (93)
2
1
2
25th
1963-1966
129
9
6.97
Wylie Gibbs (94)
2
4
3
26th
1966-1969
130
17
13.07
Mervyn Lee (96)
5
9
3
27th
1969-1972
128
24
18.75
Doug Everingham (93)
11
9
4
28th
1972-1974
126
33
26.19
Doug Everingham (93)
17
10
6
29th
1974-1975
128
44
34.37
Doug Everingham (93)
18
17
9
30th
1975-1977
128
57
44.53
Clarrie Millar (91)
10
36
11
31st
1977-1980
126
66
52.38
Doug Everingham (93)
18
38
11
32nd
1980-1983
131
81
61.83
Doug Everingham (93)
33
35
13
33rd
1983-1984
131
90
68.70
Doug Everingham (93)
57
21
12
34th
1984-1987
149
111
74.49
Clarrie Millar (91)
64
31
16
35th
1987-1990
153
122
79.73
Clarrie Millar (91)
74
33
15
36th
1990-1993
150
131
87.33
Steele Hall (88)
72
44
13
37th
1993-1996
155
137
88.38
Steele Hall (88)
75
44
16
38th
1996-1998
150
139
92.66
Ian Sinclair (87)
49
69
18
39th
1998-2001
152
145
95.39
Garry Nehl (83)
68
61
16
40th
2001-2004
151
146
96.68
Frank Mossfield (81)
65
65
13
3
41st
2004-2007
151
147
97.35
Wilson Tuckey (81)
61
72
12
2
42nd
2007-2010
155
153
98.70
Wilson Tuckey (81)
83
56
11
3
43rd
2010-2013
150
148
98.66
Bronywyn Bishop (74)
72
59
12
5
44th
2013-2016
153
152
99.34
Bronwyn Bishop (74)
56
76
15
5
45th
2016-
150
150
100
Warren Snowdon (67)
69
60
16
5

 


Malcolm Turnbull Becomes Australia’s 22nd Longest-Serving Prime Minister

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull today becomes the nation’s 22nd longest-serving prime minister.

Turnbull has now served in the position for 1 year, 2 months and 25 days, overtaking Joseph Cook, who took the original Liberal Party to its first-ever election victory in 1913. Like Turnbull in 2016, Cook only secured a one-seat majority. Cook was gone within 15 months.

Turnbull has now broken free of the pack of prime ministers who governed briefly, in three cases as stop-gaps following the death of the incumbent. On June 10, 2017, he will move into 21st position when he overtakes William McMahon, the Liberal PM who lost to Gough Whitlam in 1972 and took the coalition out of government for the first time in 23 years.

December 10 Elections

Today is also the anniversary of three federal elections, in 1949, 1955 and 1977. The first of these saw Robert Menzies begin his record-breaking 16-year term as prime minister. In 1955, he won the fourth of seven consecutive victories, in the aftermath of the disastrous split in the ALP. In 1977, Malcolm Fraser secured his second massive victory against the ALP, in an election that ended Gough Whitlam’s political career.

With three outings, December 10 is the single most popular day for federal elections in Australian political history. Two elections have been held on each of August 21, December 13 and December 16. With a total of 12 elections (26.7%), December is the single most popular month for elections.

The last December election was in 1984, when Bob Hawke won the second of his four victories for the ALP. Hawke turned 87 yesterday.


Federal Election Results 1901-2014

This is a research paper from the Parliamentary Library with statistics on Australian Federal Elections since 1901.

The paper is part of the Research Paper Series 2014-15 and was written by Stephen Barber and Sue Johnson of the Statistics and Mapping Section of the Parliamentary Library.

The paper is shown under the terms of its Creative Commons licence.

It does not contains result of individual seats, but includes aggregate and state-by-state statistics for both Houses on primary votes, two-party-preferred votes, voter turnout, informal votes. It provides state-of-the-party tables for each House and Senate election since 1901. [Read more…]


December 10: Most Popular Federal Election Date

Today, December 10, is the single most popular day for federal elections in the history of the Australian federation.

Federal elections were held on this day in 1949, 1955 and 1977.

All three elections held on December 10 resulted in substantial victories to the Coalition.

In 1949, Robert Menzies swept the Chifley government out after 8 years of Labor rule.

In 1955, in the aftermath of the ALP Split, Menzies called an early election and won his fourth consecutive victory.

In 1977, Malcolm Fraser won a second term in office, defeating Gough Whitlam in a near-repeat of his 1975 landslide.

December is also the single most popular month for federal elections. Twelve of the 44 federal elections since 1901 (27%) have been held in December. The last was on December 1, 1984.

Two elections have been held on December 13, in 1919 and 1975. Two elections have also been held on December 16, in 1903 and 1922. Two elections have been held on August 21, in 1943 and 2010.