New South Wales state election, 2015

New South Wales state election, 2015

2011 ← 28 March 2015

All 93 seats in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly and 21 (of the 42) seats in the New South Wales Legislative Council 47 Assembly seats needed for a majority   Leader Barry O'Farrell John Robertson Party Liberal/National coalition Labor Leader since 4 April 2007 31 March 2011 Leader's seat Ku-ring-gai Blacktown Last election 69 seats 20 seats Seats needed 0 27 2PP @ 2011 64.2% 35.8% 2PP polling 66% 34% PP polling 57% 13%

Incumbent Premier Barry O'Farrell Liberal/National coalition

The next New South Wales state election is scheduled for Saturday March 28, 2015 and will elect members of the 56th Parliament of New South Wales. The incumbent centre-right Liberal/National Coalition government, currently led by Premier Barry O'Farrell, will be challenged by the centre-left Australian Labor Party opposition, currently led by John Robertson.

New South Wales has compulsory voting, with an optional preferential ballot in single-member seats for the lower house and single transferable vote with optional preferential above-the-line voting in the proportionally represented upper house. The election was conducted by the New South Wales Electoral Commission (NSWEC).

Date

The parliament has constitutionally fixed four year terms for the fourth Saturday of March every four years. Hence, the election will be conducted on 28 March 2015.^[1]

Background

See also: Post-election pendulum for the New South Wales state election, 2011

The Liberal/National Coalition won the 2011 New South Wales state election with 69 of 93 seats in the lower house, defeating the 16-year Labor government who were left with 20 seats.

The Liberal/National government suffered a 6 percent primary and 16 percent two-party swing at the November 2011 Clarence state by-election, but retained the seat.

In the 42-member upper house, the Coalition holds 19 seats, three short of a majority. Labor holds 14 seats, the Greens hold five seats, and the Shooters and Fishers Party and the Christian Democratic Party hold two seats each.

Polling

Newspoll polling is conducted via random telephone number selection in city and country areas. Sampling sizes consist of around 1200–1300 electors. The declared margin of error is ±3 percentage points.

Better Premier ratings

Date	Liberal O'Farrell	Labor Robertson	Uncommitted
Sep–Oct 2011	57%	13%	30%
2011 election	–	–	–
21–24 Mar 2011	48%	32%1	20%
Polling conducted by Newspoll and published in The Australian. 1 Kristina Keneally

Legislative Assembly opinion polling

	Primary vote					2PP vote
Date	LIB	NAT	ALP	GRN	OTH	L/NP	ALP
Sep–Oct 2011	45%	6%	22%	14%	13%	66%	34%
2011 election	38.6%	12.6%	25.6%	10.3%	13.0%	64.2%	35.8%
21–24 Mar 2011	41%	9%	23%	12%	15%	64.1%	35.9%
Polling conducted by Newspoll and published in The Australian.

See also

• Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, 2011–2015
• Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council, 2011–2015

References

1. ^ How Government works: NSW government