The election was in one member districts, using first past the post (plurality) voting.

Ministerialists were a group of members of parliament who supported a government in office but were not bound by tight party discipline.

Ministerialists represented loose pre-party groupings who held seats in state parliaments up to 1914.

Such members ran for office as independents or under a variety of political labels but saw themselves as linked to other candidates by their support for a particular premier or government.

[citation needed] The National Citizens' Reform League, led by Thomas Bent, had disbanded shortly after the 1904 state election, leading to the majority of Liberals and Conservatives sitting separately again.