State election for New South Wales, Australia in March 1981
1981 New South Wales state election
← 1978
19 September 1981 (1981-09-19)
1984 →
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
Bruce McDonald
Party
Labor
Liberal/National coalition
Leader since
17 November 1973
1 June 1981
Leader's seat
Bass Hill
Contested North Shore
Last election
63 seats
35 seats
Seats won
69
28
Seat change
6
7
Popular vote
1,564,622
1,090,304
Percentage
55.73%
38.83%
Swing
2.04
1.95
TPP
58.70%
41.30%
TPP swing
2.00
2.00
Two-candidate-preferred margin by electorate
Premier before election
Neville Wran
Labor
Elected Premier
Neville Wran
Labor
Elections were held in the state of New South Wales, Australia, on Saturday 19 September 1981. The result was a second "Wranslide": a landslide victory for the Labor Party under Neville Wran. Labor increased its already sizeable majority, winning what is still its biggest-ever share of seats in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly–69 out of 99 seats, 69.7 percent of the chamber until 2011 when it was surpassed by Barry O'Farrell’s landslide 2011 election win when the Liberal—National Coalition won 74% of seats.
The Liberals suffered the double indignity of losing the seat contested by their leader Bruce McDonald to an independent, and of being reduced to the same number of seats in parliament as their ostensible junior coalition partner, the National Country Party. In fact it was the second election in a row in which the sitting Liberal leader had failed to win a seat; Peter Coleman had been rolled in his own seat in 1978. 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, and partisan gerrymandering was eliminated. Additionally, the practice of creating smaller rural seats to boost country representation was ended. Two further reforms were proposed—and passed—in referendums put to voters on the same day.
Ted Mack, mayor of North Sydney Council, won the seat of North Shore from Opposition Leader McDonald. John Hatton was re-elected unopposed in the seat of South Coast.
and 24 Related for: 1981 New South Wales state election information
Elections were held in the state of NewSouthWales, Australia, on Saturday 19 September 1981. The result was a second "Wranslide": a landslide victory...
The 2023 NewSouthWalesstateelection was held on 25 March 2023 to elect the 58th Parliament of NewSouthWales, including all 93 seats in the Legislative...
Elections to the 49th Parliament of NewSouthWales were held on Saturday 19 March 1988. All seats in the Legislative Assembly and a third of the seats...
elections to the NewSouthWales Legislative Assembly, the lower house in NewSouthWales's bicameral state legislative body, the Parliament of New South...
The premier of NewSouthWales is the head of government in the state of NewSouthWales, Australia. The Government of NewSouthWales follows the Westminster...
NewSouthWales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a state on the east coast of Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria to the south, and...
A general election was held in the state of NewSouthWales, Australia, on Saturday 7 October 1978. The result was a landslide victory for the Labor Party...
The governor of NewSouthWales is the representative of the monarch, King Charles III, in the state of NewSouthWales. In an analogous way to the governor-general...
Parliament of NewSouthWales, formally the Legislature of NewSouthWales, is the bicameral legislative body of the Australian state of NewSouthWales (NSW)...
The NewSouthWales Legislative Council, often referred to as the upper house, is one of the two chambers of the parliament of the Australian state of...
The 1920 NewSouthWalesstateelection was for 90 seats representing 24 electoral districts, with each district returning between 3 and 5 members. This...
This is a list of electoral district results for the 1956 NewSouthWalesstateelection. The sitting member for Hartley, Jim Chalmers (Independent Labor)...
subject to the state-level legislation of NewSouthWales. Local elections are held in NewSouthWales every four years. The most recent elections were held...
This is a list of candidates of the 1978 NewSouthWalesstateelection. The election was held on 7 October 1978. Note: Tom Lewis MLA (Liberal, Wollondilly)...
be retained after new trains enter service. Improving public transport was a major issue in the 1976 NewSouthWalesstateelection. One of the commitments...
list of electoral district results for the 1962 NewSouthWalesstateelection. Bass Hill was a new seat that was notionally a safe Labor seat. Blacktown...
Labor, is the NewSouthWales branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). The branch is the current ruling party in the state of NewSouthWales and is led...
Global Information
