1913 Australian Labor Party leadership spill
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The Australian Labor Party held a leadership spill on 8 July 1913, following the party's defeat at the May 1913 federal election. Andrew Fisher was re-elected to the leadership, defeating William Higgs. It was the first occasion on which a sitting leader had faced a challenge.
Fisher had been elected to the party leadership
As expected, Fisher won an absolute majority on the first ballot. In his official history of the Labor Party, Ross McMullin states that caucus minutes recorded the result as 42 votes for Fisher, 18 for Higgs, and one for Billy Hughes (who did not actually nominate for the position).[1] David Day, one of Fisher's biographers, also gives those figures.[2] However, contemporary newspapers reported that only 57 members of the caucus were in attendance, and that Higgs had won 21 votes; Hughes was not mentioned as a candidate.[3][4] The party's official announcement of the caucus proceedings made no mention of any challenge to Fisher, and the exact results did not become known to the general public until the following week, when they were leaked to the press by Labor MPs.[5]
References
- ^ a b Ross McMullin (1991). The Light on the Hill: The Australian Labor Party 1891–1991. Oxford University Press. p. 89.
- ISBN 978-0-7322-7610-2.
- ^ "LABOUR RIFT". The Sydney Morning Herald. 17 July 1913.
- ^ "LABOR LEADERSHIP". The Sun. 22 July 1913.
- Melbourne Argus. 17 July 1913.