1981 New South Wales state election

1981 New South Wales state election

19 September 1981 (1981-09-19)
All 99 seats in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly and 15 (of the 44) seats in the New South Wales Legislative Council 50 Assembly seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party   120px Leader Neville Wran Bruce McDonald Party Australian Labor Party (New South Wales Branch) Liberal/National coalition Leader since 17 November 1973 1 June 1981 Leader's seat Bass Hill contested North Shore and lost Last election 63 seats 35 seats Seats won 69 28 Seat change 6 7 Percentage 55.73% 38.83% Swing 2.04 1.95
300px Legislative Assembly after the election
Premier before election Neville Wran Australian Labor Party (New South Wales Branch) Elected Premier Neville Wran Australian Labor Party (New South Wales Branch)

Elections were held in the state of New South Wales, Australia, on Saturday 19 September 1981. The result was a second "Wranslide": a landslide victory for the Labor Party under Neville Wran. Labor increased its already sizeable majority, winning what is still its biggest-ever share of seats in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly–69 out of 99 seats, 69.7 percent of the chamber.

The Liberals suffered the double indignity of losing the seat contested by their leader Bruce McDonald to an independent, and of being reduced to the same number of seats in parliament as their ostensible junior coalition partner, the National Country Party. In fact it was the second election in a row in which the sitting Liberal leader had failed to win a seat; Peter Coleman had been rolled in his own seat in 1978. Both the Liberals and National Country Party finished with 14 seats.

The election marked another milestone for electoral reform in New South Wales. The allocation of preferences became optional, and partisan gerrymandering was eliminated. Additionally, the practice of creating smaller rural seats to boost country representation was ended. Two further reforms were proposed—and passed—in referendums put to voters on the same day.

Ted Mack, mayor of North Sydney Council, won the seat of North Shore from Opposition Leader McDonald. John Hatton was re-elected unopposed in the seat of South Coast.

Key dates

Date	Event
28 August 1981	The Legislative Assembly was dissolved, and writs were issued by the Governor to proceed with an election.
3 September 1981	Nominations for candidates for the election closed at noon.
19 September 1981	Polling day, between the hours of 8am and 6pm.
2 October 1981	The fourth Wran ministry was constituted.
23 October 1981	The writ was returned and the results formally declared.
28 October 1981	Parliament resumed for business.

Results

Legislative Assembly

See also: Results of the 1981 New South Wales state election (Legislative Assembly)

New South Wales state election, 19 September 1981  Legislative Assembly << 1978 — 1984 >>
Enrolled voters		3,178,225
Votes cast		2,897,033		Turnout	91.15	–1.62
Informal votes		89,306		Informal	3.08	+0.80
Summary of votes by party
Party		Primary votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Template:Australian politics/name/Labor NSW	1,564,622	55.73	–2.04	69	+ 6
	Template:Australian politics/name/Liberal NSW	775,463	27.62	+0.64	14	– 4
	Template:Australian politics/name/National Country NSW	314,841	11.21	+1.31	14	– 3
	Democrats	68,252	2.43	–0.22	0	± 0
	Communist	6,150	0.22	–0.08	0	± 0
	Independent	78,399	2.79	+0.55	2	+ 1
Total		2,807,727			99
Two-party-preferred
Template:Australian politics/party colours/Labor NSW |	Template:Australian politics/name/Labor NSW		58.7%	-2.0%
Template:Australian politics/party colours/Liberal NSW |	Liberal/National		41.3%	+2.0%

Popular vote
Labor			55.73%
Liberal			27.62%
National Country			11.21%
Independents			2.79%
Democrats			2.43%
Communist			0.22%
Two-party-preferred vote
Labor			58.7%
Coalition			41.3%
Parliamentary seats
Labor			69
Liberal			14
National Country			14
Independents			2

Legislative Council

See also: Results of the 1981 New South Wales state election (Legislative Council)

New South Wales state election, 19 September 1981 Legislative Council
Enrolled voters		3,212,657
Votes cast		2,927,971		Turnout	91.14	–1.63
Informal votes		200,367		Informal	6.84	+2.79
Summary of votes by party
Party		Primary votes	%	Swing	Seats won	Seats held
	Template:Australian politics/name/Labor NSW	1,412,426	51.78	–3.13	8	24
	Template:Australian politics/name/LibNat Coalition NSW	921,081	33.77	–2.49	5	18
	Call to Australia	248,425	9.11	+7.80	1	1
	Democrats	109,939	4.03	+1.25	1	1
	Environmental Action	18,056	0.66	+0.66	0	0
	Republican	10,184	0.37	+0.37	0	0
	Progress	3,121	0.11	+0.11	0	0
	Social Democrats	2,512	0.09	+0.09	0	0
	Independent	24,786	0.07	–0.83	0	0
Total		2,727,604			15

Seats changing hands

Seat	Pre-1981				Swing	Post-1981
	Party		Member	Margin		Margin	Member	Party
Dubbo		Liberal	John Mason	3.4	N/A	9.2	Ian Glachan	National Country
Northern Tablelands		National Country	new seat	1.9	-4.8	2.9	Bill McCarthy	Labor
North Shore		Liberal	new seat	3.8	-8.4	4.6	Ted Mack	Independent

• Members listed in italics did not recontest their seats.
• In addition, the National Country held the seat of Murray, which it won from the Liberals in the 1980 by-election.

Redistribution affected seats

Seat

1978 election

1980 redistribution

Swing

1981 election

Party

Member

Margin

Party

Member

Margin

Margin

Member

Party

Bathurst

National Country

Clive Osborne

2.7

Labor

Notional

7.7

-7.6

0.1

Mick Clough

Labor

Bligh

Liberal

John Barraclough

8.4

Labor

Notional

6.6

-3.9

2.7

Fred Miller

Labor

Castlereagh

Labor

Jim Curran

6.9

National Country

Notional

4.3

-0.9

3.4

Roger Wotton

National Country

Clarence

National Country

Matt Singleton

10.9

Labor

Notional

2.8

+3.8

6.6

Don Day

Labor

Hornsby

Liberal

Neil Pickard

0.8

Labor

Notional

1.7

-5.5

3.8

Neil Pickard

Liberal

Maitland

Liberal

Peter Toms

4.3

Labor

Notional

0.3

+7.2

7.5

Allan Walsh

Labor

Willoughby

Labor

Eddie Britt

0.8

Liberal

Notional

2.2

+1.5

3.7

Peter Collins

Liberal

• Sitting MP for Clarence Matt Singleton instead contested the new seat of Coffs Harbour and won.

Post-election pendulum

Liberal/NCP seats (28)
Marginal
Goulburn	Ron Brewer	NCP	1.8%
Castlereagh	Roger Wotton	NCP	3.4%
Orange	Garry West	NCP	3.5%
Willoughby	Peter Collins	LIB	3.7%
Hornsby	Neil Pickard	LIB	3.8%
Byron	Jack Boyd	NCP	4.3%
Fairly safe
Upper Hunter	Col Fisher	NCP	6.4%
Davidson	Terry Metherell	LIB	7.8%
Wagga Wagga	Joe Schipp	LIB	8.1%
Lachlan	Ian Armstrong	NCP	8.7%
Dubbo	Gerry Peacocke	NCP	9.2%
Coffs Harbour	Matt Singleton	NCP	9.3%
Eastwood	Jim Clough	LIB	9.7%
Safe
Gloucester	Pat McNamara	NCP	10.2%
Pittwater	Max Smith	LIB	10.9%
Oxley	Jim Brown	NCP	11.5%
The Hills	Fred Caterson	LIB	11.7%
Tamworth	Noel Park	NCP	12.1%
Hawkesbury	Kevin Rozzoli	LIB	12.8%
Barwon	Wal Murray	NCP	13.2%
Lane Cove	John Dowd	LIB	14.1%
Northcott	Jim Cameron	LIB	14.1%
Mosman	David Arblaster	LIB	14.2%
Lismore	Bruce Duncan	NCP	18.9%
Murray	Tim Fischer	NCP	19.1%
Vaucluse	Rosemary Foot	LIB	20.1%
Ku-ring-gai	Nick Greiner	LIB	20.8%
Gordon	Tim Moore	LIB	27.2%
Crossbench seats (2)
North Shore	Ted Mack	IND	4.6% v LIB
South Coast	John Hatton	IND	unopp.

See also

• Candidates of the 1981 New South Wales state election