Deputy Prime Minister of Australia accepted the view put to him by McEwen that to commission a Liberal temporarily as Prime Minister would give that person an unfair advantage in the forthcoming party room ballot for the permanent leader. McEwen's appointment was in keeping with the previous occasion when the main non-Labor party was without a leader; Earle Page of the Country Party was interim Prime Minister between 7 and 26 April 1939—the period between Joseph Lyons' sudden death and the United Australia Party naming Robert Menzies his successor. Since 1968 only two Deputy Prime Ministers have gone on to become Prime Minister: Paul Keating
Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1949–1951 led by Arthur Fadden won a net of 48 additional seats, allowing it to form government. The incumbent Australian Labor Party led by Prime Minister of Australia Ben Chifley won a net of four additional seats and the four representatives of minor parties and an independent were all defeated. Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1949–1951 This is a list of the members of the Australian House of Representatives in the 19th Australian Parliament, which was elected at the 1949 election on 10 December 1949. In the first of two significant expansions, the house was expanded by 48 seats,