House Of Representatives Members – 3rd Parliament 1906-1910

This is the full list of members who served in the third House of Representatives from 1906 until 1910.

In a 75-member chamber, no party secured an absolute majority of seats at the December 12, 1906 election. The Labor, Protectionist and Anti-Socialist (formerly Free Trade) parties were fairly evenly divided, although the Protectionists lost ten seats in the election. Official figures have the ALP with 26 seats, Anti-Socialists 27, Protectionists 16, with 6 others.

The following table lists 77 members who served in the third House of Representatives, 75 elected at the general election in 1906, plus two who entered via by-elections in 1908 and 1909. A redistribution meant that a number of new seats were introduced at the 1906 election.

The ALP is shown with 27 members. Following the death of the Protectionist Party’s Charles Cameron Kingston in 1908, the ALP’s Ernest Roberts won the by-election for Adelaide. By the end of the parliament’s term, James Fowler, the Labor member for Perth, had joined the newly-formed Liberal Party.

The Protectionists are shown with 16 members. The combined pressure of the growing ALP and the Anti-Socialists saw their numbers fall by 10 from the 1903 election. Two other Protectionists sat as independents, as did two members of the Western Australian Party.

George Reid rebadged the Free Traders as the Anti-Socialist Party for the 1906 election. They are shown here with 27 members. Albert Palmer won Echuca by 32 votes in 1906. The election was declared void in 1907 but Palmer won the seat again at the by-election.

Frederick Holder, the member for Wakefield is shown as an independent. Elected as a free trader, he subsequently ran as an independent because he was the Speaker of the House. Following his death in 1909, the Anti-Socialist candidate Richard Foster won the Wakefield by-election.

The 1901 and 1903 experience was repeated following the 1906 election. The Protectionist government of Prime Minister Alfred Deakin survived with the support of the ALP. The shifting alliances in the House resulted in Deakin being replaced by the ALP’s Andrew Fisher in November 1908. The Anti-Socialists combined with the Protectionists and a number of smaller groups to form the Fusion group, which became the Commonwealth Liberal Party. Deakin returned to the prime ministership for his third term in June 1909, before leading the Liberal Party to defeat in the 1910 election.

George Reid retired as leader of the Anti-Socialists during this parliament and was replaced by Joseph Cook. Chris Watson stood down as Labour leader and was replaced by Andrew Fisher.