1988 Adelaide by-election

A by-election was held for the Australian House of Representatives seat of Adelaide on 6 February 1988. This was triggered by the resignation of Labor Party MP Chris Hurford to become Australia's Consul-General in New York.

The election was won by Liberal Party candidate Mike Pratt with an 8.4 percent two-party swing on a 1.9 percent margin.

Candidates

Independent – Bronwyn Mewett.
Independent – Peter Consandine, republican campaigner who later founded the Republican Party of Australia.
Independent – Michael Brander.
Independent – John Litten.
Australian Democrats – Ian McLeish.
Unite Australia Party – Dorothy McGregor-Dey, who contested Mayo for the party in 1987.
National Party of Australia – Bryan Stokes, the party's 1987 candidate.
Australian Labor Party – Don Farrell, assistant secretary of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA). Farrell was later influential in the South Australian Labor Party, and served in the Senate from 2008 to 2014. He was named one of the "faceless men" that removed Kevin Rudd and replaced him as Prime Minister with Julia Gillard in 2010 sparking a leadership war between Rudd and Gillard which ended with Rudd taking his revenge on Gillard in his successful comeback in 2013. The Rudd-Gillard leadership war would perhaps have been avoided if Farrell had won the Adelaide by-election in 1988.
Liberal Party of Australia – Mike Pratt, a local farmer.

Adelaide by-election, 1988^[1]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Mike Pratt	26,777	44.4	+8.9
	Labor	Don Farrell	22,897	38.0	−10.9
	Democrats	Ian McLeish	7,097	11.8	+2.7
	Independent	Bronwyn Mewett	1,408	2.3	+2.3
	National	Bryan Stokes	1,000	1.7	−3.4
	Independent	Michael Brander	409	0.9	+0.9
	Independent	John Litten	367	0.6	+0.6
	Unite Australia	Dorothy McGregor-Dey	218	0.4	+0.4
	Independent	Peter Consandine	104	0.2	+0.2
Total formal votes			60,277	96.1
Informal votes			2,432	3.9
Turnout			62,709	88.0
Two-party-preferred result
	Liberal	Mike Pratt	31,195	51.9	+8.4
	Labor	Don Farrell	28,967	48.2	−8.4
	Liberal gain from Labor		Swing	+8.4

v t e By-elections of the 35th Parliament of Australia (1987–1990)
1988	Adelaide Port Adelaide Groom Oxley
1989	Gwydir
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