Con Wallace, MP for West Sydney, agreed to give up the ALP nomination to allow Ryan to win a safe seat. Opposition Leader Frank Tudor remained the party's formal leader, but Ryan had a higher public profile and led the ALP's campaign. According to King O'Malley, who met with him in Hobart a few weeks before the election, Ryan believed that he would become prime minister if Labor won the election. The 1919 federal election was the first to use preferential voting. The "Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918" replaced the previous first-past-the-post system used in the House of Representatives, and also re-introduced postal voting. It was amended the following year to also allow preferential voting for the Senate. The new act repealed the existing "Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902", but did not alter the terms of the "Commonwealth Electoral (War-time) Act 1917", under which naturalised British subjects born in enemy countries were disqualified from voting. This provision mainly affected German-Australians. There was a long history of support for preferential voting in Australia, but the immediate trigger for the new legislation was the decision of farmers' organisations to run candidates of their own in opposition to the Nationalist Party. The Swan by-election in October 1918 saw an ALP candidate elected with just over one-third of the vote, after the Nationalist candidate split the vote with a candidate from the Country Party of Western Australia. The Corangamite by-election in December was the first held under the new system, and resulted in the Victorian Farmers' Union candidate winning from Nationalist preferences. Constitutionally, a new election was not due until early 1920, but the Nationalists wished to hold an early election to capitalise on Hughes' popularity. On 30 September, the party caucus approved an election for 13 December. The writs were formally issued on 3 November, with the close of nominations on 14 November. However, the campaign had begun in earnest after the last sitting day of federal parliament on 24 October. Hughes and the Nationalists sought re-election largely on the basis of their record in government. The prime minister's 90-minute policy speech, delivered in Bendigo on 30 November, was "stronger on generalities than on concrete proposals". Hughes promised to appoint royal commissions on profiteering, the living wage, and taxation, and to call a constitutional convention for 1920. He planned to overhaul industrial relations by setting up a system of industrial councils with a Commonwealth Industrial Court at their apex. The Nationalists also promised government support of industry, primary producers, and immigration.