New South Wales state election, 1978

New South Wales state election, 1978

7 October 1978

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   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

Legislative Assembly after the election

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 a landslide victory for the Australian Labor Party under Neville Wran, popularly known as the "Wranslide."

It is notable for being so successful for the Labor Party that it tallied 57 percent of the primary vote, the largest primary vote for any party in over a century. Having gone into the election with a razor-thin majority of one seat, Labor scored a 13-seat swing, giving it a strong majority of 63 seats. Labor even managed to defeat the Leader of the Opposition, Peter Coleman, in his own electorate. The seats of many other prominent Shadow Ministers fell to Labor as well. Labor also won took many seats in areas long reckoned as Coalition heartland. Among them were four seats that Labor had never won before this election--Willoughby (contested for the Liberal Party by Nick Greiner who later became Premier), Manly, Wakehurst and Cronulla.

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. However, Labor's record primary vote of 57.7 percent still stands today.

Post-election pendulum

LABOR SEATS (63)
Marginal
Wollondilly	Bill Knott	ALP	0.4%
Armidale	Bill McCarthy	ALP	0.6%
Albury	Harold Mair	ALP	0.7%
Willoughby	Eddie Britt	ALP	0.8%
Burwood	Phil O'Neill	ALP	1.6%
Manly	Alan Stewart	ALP	3.8%
Fuller	Rodney Cavalier	ALP	5.3%
Fairly safe
Wakehurst	Tom Webster	ALP	6.2%
Miranda	Bill Robb	ALP	6.5%
Castlereagh	Jack Renshaw	ALP	6.9%
Yaralla	Garry McIlwaine	ALP	8.2%
Nepean	Peter Anderson	ALP	8.5%
Cronulla	Michael Egan	ALP	8.6%
Cessnock	Bob Brown	ALP	9.1%
Monaro	John Akister	ALP	9.3%
Gosford	Brian McGowan	ALP	9.6%
Murrumbidgee	Lin Gordon	ALP	9.6%
Casino	Don Day	ALP	9.7%
Safe
Earlwood	Ken Gabb	ALP	11.6%
Hurstville	Kevin Ryan	ALP	13.7%
Blue Mountains	Mick Clough	ALP	14.5% v IND
Coogee	Michael Cleary	ALP	16.4%
Burrinjuck	Terry Sheahan	ALP	16.9%
Georges River	Frank Walker	ALP	17.0%
Charlestown	Richard Face	ALP	17.4%
Kogarah	Bill Crabtree	ALP	17.9%
Ashfield	Paul Whelan	ALP	18.1%
Waverley	Syd Einfeld	ALP	18.8%
Drummoyne	Michael Maher	ALP	18.9%
Parramatta	Barry Wilde	ALP	19.0%
Peats	Keith O'Connell	ALP	20.8%
Woronora	Maurie Keane	ALP	20.8%
Campbelltown	Cliff Mallam	ALP	21.5%
Newcastle	Arthur Wade	ALP	22.3%
Corrimal	Laurie Kelly	ALP	22.5%
Maroubra	Bill Haigh	ALP	22.5%
Lake Macquarie	Merv Hunter	ALP	23.5%
Wollongong	Eric Ramsay	ALP	23.8%
Wentworthville	Ernie Quinn	ALP	24.2%
Heathcote	Rex Jackson	ALP	25.2%
East Hills	Pat Rogan	ALP	25.6%
Waratah	Sam Jones	ALP	25.6%
Bankstown	Nick Kearns	ALP	25.8%
Canterbury	Kevin Stewart	ALP	26.0%
Penrith	Ron Mulock	ALP	26.2%
Lakemba	Vince Durick	ALP	27.0%
Broken Hill	Lew Johnstone	ALP	27.1%
Blacktown	Gordon Barnier	ALP	27.2%
Munmorah	Harry Jensen	ALP	27.3%
Illawarra	George Petersen	ALP	28.2%
Auburn	Peter Cox	ALP	28.4%
Fairfield	Eric Bedford	ALP	28.4%
Granville	Pat Flaherty	ALP	28.6%
Merrylands	Jack Ferguson	ALP	28.6%
Wallsend	Ken Booth	ALP	29.3%
Bass Hill	Neville Wran	ALP	29.7%
Phillip	Pat Hills	ALP	29.7%
Rockdale	Brian Bannon	ALP	29.7%
Marrickville	Tom Cahill	ALP	29.8%
Heffron	Laurie Brereton	ALP	30.0%
Liverpool	George Paciullo	ALP	30.8%
Mount Druitt	Tony Johnson	ALP	31.1%
Balmain	Roger Degen	ALP	34.2%

LIBERAL/COUNTRY SEATS (35)
Marginal
Hornsby	Neil Pickard	LIB	0.8%
Goulburn	Ron Brewer	CP	0.9%
Pittwater	Max Smith	LIB	1.4%
Orange	Garry West	CP	1.7%
Bathurst	Clive Osborne	CP	2.7%
Young	George Freudenstein	CP	3.0%
Tamworth	Noel Park	CP	3.3%
Dubbo	John Mason	LIB	3.4%
Byron	Jack Boyd	CP	3.6%
Kirribilli	Bruce McDonald	LIB	3.8%
Wagga Wagga	Joe Schipp	LIB	3.8%
Maitland	Milton Morris	LIB	4.3%
Upper Hunter	Col Fisher	CP	4.4%
Eastwood	Jim Clough	LIB	4.5%
Vaucluse	Rosemary Foot	LIB	4.5%
The Hills	Fred Caterson	LIB	4.6%
Hawkesbury	Kevin Rozzoli	LIB	5.2%
Raleigh	Jim Brown	CP	5.3%
Fairly safe
Davidson	Dick Healey	LIB	7.4%
Northcott	Jim Cameron	LIB	7.4%
Lane Cove	John Dowd	LIB	7.5%
Barwon	Wal Murray	CP	8.3%
Burrendong	Roger Wotton	CP	8.3%
Bligh	John Barraclough	LIB	8.4%
Gloucester	Leon Punch	CP	9.2%
Tenterfield	Tim Bruxner	CP	9.4%
Safe
Murray	Mary Meillon	LIB	10.1%
Clarence	Matt Singleton	CP	10.9%
Mosman	David Arblaster	LIB	11.8%
Oxley	Bruce Cowan	CP	12.5%
Lismore	Bruce Duncan	CP	13.8%
Ku-ring-gai	John Maddison	LIB	15.5%
Sturt	Tim Fischer	CP	16.0%
Temora	Jim Taylor	CP	17.6%
Gordon	Tim Moore	LIB	24.0%
CROSSBENCH SEATS (1)
South Coast	John Hatton	IND	20.5 v LIB

See also

• Candidates of the New South Wales state election, 1978

Notes

1. Parliament of New South Wales. "1978 Election". Retrieved 6 February 2010.
2. Australian Government and Politics Database. "Parliament of New South Wales, Assembly election, 7 October 1978". Retrieved 6 February 2010.
3. Hughes, Colin A. (1986). A handbook of Australian government and politics, 1975-1984. ANU Press. p. 191. ISBN 0-08-033038-X.
4. Hughes (1986), p.192.