1982 Flinders by-election

A by-election was held for the Australian House of Representatives seat of Flinders on 4 December 1982. This was triggered by the resignation of the sitting member and former Liberal Party Deputy Leader Sir Phillip Lynch.

The by-election was won by Liberal Party candidate Peter Reith. Parliament was in session until 15 December but Reith chose not to attend to be sworn in at that time. On 3 February 1983, before Parliament could meet following the by-election, the Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser called a double dissolution election for 5 March. Reith lost his seat. He was re-elected at the December 1984 election.

Opponents of the Franklin Dam in Tasmania (which was eventually vetoed by the incoming Hawke Government in 1983) used the Flinders by-election as an informal referendum. 41% of voters wrote "No Dams" on their ballot-papers (Helen Hunter and Richard Bailey, "Lessons from the Franklin Dam: How Labor was forced to act," Socialist Worker (14 August 1998), p 7.) This had no legal effect but did not invalidate their votes.

Results

Flinders by-election, 1982

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Peter Reith	34,765	45.7	-4.6
	Labor	Rogan Ward	31,052	40.8	+1.6
	Democrats	Harold Fraser	6,785	8.9	-1.6
	Democratic Labor	Peter Ferwerda	1,271	1.7	+1.7
	Deadly Serious	Paul Crossley	1,211	1.6	+1.6
	Republican	Peter Consandine	607	0.8	+0.8
	Australia	Gail Farrell	389	0.5	+0.5
Total formal votes			76,080	97.4	−0.7
Informal votes			1,991	2.6	+0.7
Turnout			78,071	92.1	−3.0
Two-party-preferred result
	Liberal	Peter Reith	39,804	52.3	-2.3
	Labor	Rogan Ward	36,276	47.7	+2.3
	Liberal hold		Swing	-2.3

See also

• List of Australian federal by-elections