The incumbent UAP–Country coalition government, led by Prime Minister Joseph Lyons, defeated the opposition Labor Party under John Curtin.

The election is notable in that the Country Party achieved its highest-ever primary vote in the lower house, thereby winning nearly a quarter of all lower-house seats.

Following the reunion of the two Labor parties in February 1936, these were held by their members as ALP seats at the 1937 election.

With the party's wins in Ballaarat and Gwydir (initially at a by-election on 8 March 1937), the ALP had a net gain of 11 seats compared with the previous election.

This was the first federal election under George VI who became head of state after his brother Edward VIII who abdicated in December the previous year.