After the initial confusion of the Hopetoun Blunder, the first Prime Minister of Australia, Edmund Barton, went into the inaugural 1901 federal election as the appointed head of a Protectionist Party caretaker government.

A few months prior to the 1903 election, Barton resigned to become a founding member of the High Court of Australia, and was replaced by Alfred Deakin.

There were also a number of independents of various political leanings and a New South Wales Senate ticket called the "Socialist Six", comprising Labour members in conflict with the official party.

In addition to Reid, who believed he should have been appointed Prime Minister[1] instead of Barton as he considered himself the bigger political figure, Free Trade candidates included Reid's unofficial deputy Paddy Glynn, William Irvine, and former state Labour leader and future Commonwealth Liberal Party Prime Minister Joseph Cook.

Senior Labour candidates included future Prime Ministers Chris Watson, Andrew Fisher and Billy Hughes.

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.

The campaign was delayed due to the death of Queen Victoria on 22 January, but soon got into full swing again as candidates travelled widely to address lively public meetings.

It was left to Free Trade candidate for Parkes, Bruce Smith (a leading representative of the employers), to oppose anti-immigration measures.

The Free Traders also had to modify part of their election platform when they realised that to advocate for the removal of all tariffs protecting Australian industries would be political suicide.

The Protectionists enjoyed the support of the powerful Australian Natives' Association (ANA) throughout the campaign as well as the endorsements of The Age and The Sydney Bulletin, while Free Trade received support from business interests and the endorsements of The Sydney Morning Herald, The Daily Telegraph, The Brisbane Courier, Melbourne's The Argus and The Adelaide Register.

Labour could only rely on union-owned newspapers, although some of these enjoyed a great level of influence in some electorates (the Gympie Truth for example is considered to have played an important role in the election of its part-owner, Andrew Fisher, in Wide Bay).

Complaints were received by polling officials about the earlier-than-advertised closing of polling booths in some electorates, the poor-quality pencils supplied to fill in ballot papers (they apparently blunted easily, leaving many votes incomprehensible to officials) and the Senate ballot paper in New South Wales which listed 50 candidates, confusing many voters and leading to a significant number of informal votes.

[5] These complaints aside, the administering of the first federal election was seen as a great success and a credit to the polling officials who, in some cases, were responsible for electorates larger than some European countries.

Seven Prime Ministers of Australia (Barton, Deakin, Watson, Reid, Fisher, Joseph Cook and Hughes) were elected at this election, as were a number of influential former state Premiers (Sir John Forrest, Lyne, George Turner, Anderson Dawson, Philip Fysh and Charles Kingston among them).

He kept the Protectionist governments of Edmund Barton and Alfred Deakin in office, in exchange for legislative concessions including the immensely popular White Australia policy.

Such was the overwhelming support for a White Australia by the electorate and the three political parties that the Immigration Restriction Act 1901 was the seventeenth piece of legislation passed by the nascent parliament.