 After seeing the impact of a split conservative vote at the Western Australian Swan by-election held in October 1918, the federal Nationalist government quickly introduced preferential voting in time for the Corangamite by-election held in December 1918, enabling the VFU's candidate, William Gibson, to defeat the Labor candidate (future Prime Minister James Scullin) on preferences despite being over 4,000 behind on primary votes, thereby gaining the VFU its first member of the federal House of Representatives.It gained a second member in the 1919 federal election, when Robert Cook ousted the Nationalist incumbent in Indi.In 1920, Gibson and Cook joined other rural MPs from New South Wales and Western Australia in forming the Australian Country Party led by William McWilliams from Tasmania, who held pro-rural views though not previously nominated by a state related rural party.