New South Wales state election, 1978

New South Wales state election, 1978

1976 ← 7 October 1978 (1978-10-07) → 1981

All 99 seats in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly and 15 (of the 44) seats in the New South Wales Legislative Council   First party Second party   Leader Neville Wran Peter Coleman Party Labor Liberal/National coalition Leader since 17 November 1973 16 December 1977 Leader's seat Bass Hill Fuller (lost seat) Last election 50 seats 48 seats Seats won 63 seats 35 seats Seat change 13 13 Percentage 60.7% 39.3% Swing 9.1 9.1

Premier before election Neville Wran Labor Elected Premier Neville Wran Labor

A general election was held in the state of New South Wales, Australia, on Saturday 7 October 1978. The result was the "Wranslide": a landslide victory for the Australian Labor Party under Neville Wran.

It is notable for being so successful for the Labor Party that it managed to win seats from the Leader of the Opposition, Peter Coleman and many other prominent Shadow Ministers. Labor also won seats on the North Shore and Northern Beaches of Sydney which were considered Coalition heartland such as Willoughby (contested for the Liberal Party by Nick Greiner who later became Premier), Manly, Wakehurst and Cronulla. These seats had never been won by Labor before this election.

The state's first elections to the New South Wales Legislative Council, the state parliament's upper house, were held simultaneously. Voters had approved a referendum to introduce a directly elected council in June of that year.

The election was also the first in the state to be contested by the Australian Democrats.

Labor continued to campaign heavily on the strengths of Wran himself, with the slogan "Wran's our man".

Key dates

Date	Event
12 September 1978	The Legislative Assembly was dissolved, and writs were issued by the Governor to proceed with an election.[1]
18 September 1978	Nominations for candidates for the election closed at noon.
7 October 1978	Polling day, between the hours of 8am and 6pm.
19 October 1978	The second Wran Ministry was constituted.
3 November 1978	The writ was returned and the results formally declared.
7 November 1978	Parliament resumed for business.

Results

Legislative Assembly

New South Wales state election, 7 October 1978[2][3] Legislative Assembly << 1976 — 1981 >>
Enrolled Voters		3,085,661
Votes Cast		2,862,616		Turnout	92.77	–0.52
Informal Votes		65,274		Informal	2.28	+0.52
Summary of votes by party
Party		Primary Votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Labor	1,615,949	57.77	+8.02	63	+13
	Liberal	754,796	26.98	–9.31	18	–12
	National Country	276,984	9.90	–0.13	17	– 1
	Democrats	74,019	2.65	+2.65	0	± 0
	Communist	8,472	0.30	+0.22	0	± 0
	Socialist Workers	4,467	0.16	+0.07	0	± 0
	Independent	62,655	2.24	–0.58	1	± 0
Total		2,797,342			99

Legislative Council

New South Wales state election, 7 October 1978[4] Legislative Council
Enrolled Voters		3,085,661
Votes Cast		2,862,616		Turnout	92.77
Informal Votes		115,995		Informal	4.05
Summary of votes by party
Party		Primary Votes	%	Swing	Seats won	Seats held
	Labor	1,508,078	54.91		9	23
	Liberal/National Coalition	996,463	36.28		6	20
	Democrats	76,369	2.78		0
	Communist	79,794	2.91		0
	Family Action Movement	36,076	1.31		0
	Marijuana	25,055	0.91		0
	Independent	24,786	0.90		0
Total		2,746,621			15

The final 2 party preferred result was 60.7% for Labor and 39.3% for the Coalition, making it one of the biggest landslide victories in New South Wales's electoral history. In 2PP terms it was a 9.1% swing to Labor from the Coalition. This was beaten by the Coalition's result of 64.2% and 35.8% for Labor in the 2011 election.

See also

• Candidates of the New South Wales state election, 1978

Notes

1. ^ Parliament of New South Wales. "1978 Election". http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/resources/nswelectionsanalysis/1978/Home.htm. Retrieved 6 February 2010. 
2. ^ Australian Government and Politics Database. "Parliament of New South Wales, Assembly election, 7 October 1978". http://elections.uwa.edu.au/elecdetail.lasso?keyvalue=759. Retrieved 6 February 2010. 
3. ^ Hughes, Colin A. (1986). A handbook of Australian government and politics, 1975-1984. ANU Press. p. 191. ISBN 0-08033-038-X. 
4. ^ Hughes (1986), p.192.