1978 New South Wales state election

New South Wales state election, 1978

7 October 1978 (1978-10-07)
All 99 seats in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly and 15 (of the 44) seats in the New South Wales Legislative Council
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
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.
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

See also: Results of the New South Wales state election, 1978 (Legislative Assembly A-K)

See also: Results of the New South Wales state election, 1978 (Legislative Assembly L-Z)

New South Wales state election, 7 October 1978 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

See also: Results of the New South Wales state election, 1978 (Legislative Council)

New South Wales state election, 7 October 1978 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

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