Victorian state election, 1988

Victorian state election, 1988

1 October 1988 (1988-10-01)

All 88 seats in the Victorian Legislative Assembly and 22 (of the 44) seats in the Victorian Legislative Council   First party Second party Third party   Leader John Cain Jeff Kennett Pat McNamara Party Labor Liberal National Leader since 9 September 1981 26 October 1982 1988 Leader's seat Bundoora Burwood Benalla Last election 47 seats 31 seats 10 seats Seats won 46 seats 33 seats 9 seats Seat change 1 2 1 Percentage 49.49% 40.51% 7.76% Swing 1.21 1.21 0.47

Premier before election John Cain Labor Elected Premier John Cain Labor

The 1988 Victorian state election, held on Saturday, 1 October 1988, was for the 51st Parliament of Victoria. It was held in the Australian state of Victoria to elect all 88 members of the state's Legislative Assembly and 22 members of the 44-member Legislative Council.

The incumbent Labor Party government led by Premier John Cain won a third term in office, despite a swing against it, and only lost the seat of Warrandyte in Melbourne's north-east. This was credited by commentators to a strong campaign targeting Liberal leader Jeff Kennett whose aggressive leadership style was still seen as a liability, as well as continuing instability in the federal Coalition.^[1] Its narrow wins in middle class marginal seats saw it win a majority despite achieving less than half of the two party preferred vote.^[2]

Results

Legislative Assembly

Legislative Council

Seats changing hands

• Members in italics did not recontest their seats.

Key dates

Post-election Pendulum

Aftermath

On 23 May 1989, Jeff Kennett was voted out of the Liberal leadership in favour of Alan Brown; Brown led the party until 23 April 1991 when he was also forced out after a successful comeback by Kennett. During Brown's period as Opposition Leader, the Liberals negotiated the first coalition agreement with the Nationals in over forty years, in part due to a belief by some (in spite of what political scientist Brian Costar called a "lack of psephological evidence to support this assertion") that had the parties been in coalition at the election, they would have won.^[8]

References

See also

• Candidates of the Victorian state election, 1988

Elections and referendums in Victoria General elections 1856 1859 1861 1864 1866 1868 1871 1874 1877 1880 (Feb) 1880 (Jul) 1883 1886 1889 1892 1894 1897 1900 1902 1904 1907 1908 1911 1914 1917 1920 1921 1924 1927 1929 1932 1935 1937 1940 1943 1945 1947 1950 1952 1955 1958 1961 1964 1967 1970 1973 1976 1979 1982 1985 1988 1992 1996 1999 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 by-elections Upper house elections 1851 1856 1858 1860 1864 1866 1868 1870 1872 1874 1876 1878 1880 1882 1884 1886 1888 1889 1890 1892 1894 1895 1896 1898 1900 1901 1902 1904 1907 1910 1913 1916 1919 1922 1925 1928 1931 1934 1937 1940 1943 1946 1949 1952 1955 1958 Referendums 1898 1899

Government of Victoria Executive Monarchy Governor Lieutenant-Governor Premier Deputy Premier Cabinet Entities Police Legislative Parliament Legislative Council Legislative Assembly Electoral regions Electoral districts President of the Legislative Council Speaker of the Legislative Assembly MLCs MLAs Opposition Leader Judicial Supreme Court County Court Magistrates' Court Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) Other courts and tribunals