House of Representatives Members – 13th Parliament 1931-1934

This is the full list of members who served in the thirteenth House of Representatives from 1931 until 1934.

Following the three-way split in the ALP during the term of the Scullin government (1929-32), the United Australia Party had a landslide victory at the December 19, 1931 election. Prime Minister Joseph Lyons, a former Labor Premier and senior minister in the Scullin government, was sworn in on January 6, 1932. James Scullin returned to the position of Opposition Leader.

The UAP won 39 seats and the Country Party 16. The official ALP won 14 seats (-32), whilst the Lang Labor group won 4 seats. There were two independents. Lyons governed without the Country Party and with an overall majority of three seats.

Some sources give the UAP 34 seats, with one independent and six representatives of the Emergency Committee (SA). This group endorsed anti-Labor candidates. It folded into the UAP after the election.

The UAP polled 36.10% of the primary vote, down 2.20% on the vote achieved by the Nationalist Party in 1929. The ALP polled 27.10% (-21.74%). The Country Party polled 12.25% (+1.98%), although three Country Party members were elected unopposed, so the figure is understated.

On a two-party-preferred basis, the UAP polled 58.50% to the ALP’s 41.50%.

The election saw a major change of membership in the House. The election represents a decisive break with the Federation-era parliaments. Many of the people who came to dominate politics through to the 1960s came into the parliament in the 1931 and subsequent elections.

The election delivered the first two members of the House to have been born in the 20th century: Frank Baker (ALP-Oxley), born 1903, and William Hutchinson (UAP-Indi), born January 7, 1904.

There were two by-elections in the Thirteenth Parliament:

• 1932: East Sydney (NSW) – John Clasby (ALP) died before he was sworn in; replaced by Eddie Ward (ALP). Ward won a by-election for East Sydney a year earlier but lost the seat at the general election.
• 1933: Flinders (Vic) – Stanley Melbourne Bruce (UAP) resigned; replaced by James Fairbairn (UAP). As prime minister, Bruce lost his seat in 1929 but regained it in 1931. He was appointed High Commissioner to London, a position he held until 1945.

The first table shows the state-by-state breakdown of the House following the 1931 election.

The second table lists the 78 members who served in the 12th House of Representatives, 76 elected in 1931 and two who entered via a by-election. *The Northern Territory member had voting rights only for matters affecting the territory and is therefore excluded from the calculations of party strength in the House.