New South Wales general election, 1981
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| Legislative Assembly election, 1981 | ||||
| Party[1] | Vote %[2] | Seats[3] | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labor | 55.7 | ↓2.0 | 69 | ↑6 |
| Liberal | 27.6 | ↑0.6 | 14 | ↓4 |
| National Country | 11.2 | ↑1.3 | 14 | ↓3 |
| Independents | 2 | ↑1 | ||
| Labor win | ||||
A general election was held in the state of New South Wales, Australia, on Saturday, September 19, 1981. The result was a second "Wranslide": a landslide victory for the Australian Labor Party under Neville Wran, in which the government increased its already sizeable majority.
The Liberals suffered the double indignity of losing the seat of their leader to an independent, and of being reduced to the same number of seats in parliament as their ostensible junior coalition partner. 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, gerrymandering was eliminated Two further reforms were proposed—and passed—in referendums put to voters on the same day.
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[edit] Issues
Labor continued to campaign heavily on the strengths of Wran himself.
[edit] Independents
Ted Mack, a former mayor of the North Sydney Council, won the Electoral district of North Shore from Opposition Leader Bruce McDonald. John Hatton was re-elected unopposed in the Electoral district of South Coast.
[edit] Electoral System
The New South Wales Legislative Assembly had 99 members elected using Instant run-off voting, a form of preferential voting. Changes to the process for setting electoral district boundaries took effect: eliminating both partisan gerrymandering and the routine creation of smaller rural seats to boost the share of country representatives in parliament.
[edit] References
[edit] Sources
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