Commonwealth Liberal Party Prime Minister Joseph Cook. Labour advocated old age pensions, electoral reform, a national army, compulsory arbitration of industrial disputes and a national referendum to decide issues that would otherwise lead to a double dissolution of parliament. Senior Labour candidates included future Prime Ministers Chris Watson, Andrew Fisher and Billy Hughes. Labour candidates were elected as individual state-based candidates, who met before the first sitting of Parliament on 8 May 1901 and agreed to form a federal Labour Party. Chris Watson, a Sydney printer and former member of the New South Wales Parliament, was elected the inaugural leader of the Party. All parties were in support of a White Australia as was the norm at the time, with only a single parliamentarian, Free Trader Bruce Smith, fully opposing the legislation. Voting and enrolment Voting franchise was according to each state's specific electoral laws. South Australian and Western Australian women were enfranchised, but in the other states, they could not vote. Tasmania retained a small property qualification for voting, but in the other states, all males over 21 were eligible to vote. In several states Indigenous Australians were technically allowed to vote, however, they faced voter suppression. In New South Wales for instance, Aboriginal men who voted were arrested by police for "double voting" with very little evidence to back up the case. Voting was voluntary throughout Australia and in most states candidates were elected by a "first past the post" voting system. In South Australia, voters were required to mark the box opposite their preferred candidates, while in other states voters were required to cross out the names of non-preferred candidates. The following table describes the varying electoral systems. Electorates All seats were to be filled − 75 in the House of Representatives and 36 in the Senate. Six House seats were uncontested. There were 75 House of Representative seats to be filled. The initial number of seats for each state were set out in the Australian Constitution. New South Wales was allocated 26, Victoria 23, Queensland 9, South Australia 7, Western Australia 5 and Tasmania 5. The South Australian and Tasmanian colonial parliaments had not legislated for single-member electorates, so their House of Representative members were elected from a single statewide electorate. In South Australia, each elector cast seven votes, while in Tasmania, each elector cast one vote. Each state elected six Senators, in accordance with the