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 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. It also came within striking distance of taking several more. For instance, it pared down the margin in Pittwater, the seat of former premier Bob Askin, to only 1.4 percent.
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. Starting with this election, Single transferable voting (STV) was used to fill the Council seats up for election.[1] The election of 15 members in a single contest was the largest District Magnitude seen in a STV election since the 1925 Ireland Senate election.[1] It would be surpassed, again by NSW in 1995 when it began to elect 21 in a single contest.[2]
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.[3]
18 September 1978
Nominations for candidates for the election closed at noon.
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.
^The sitting member for Willoughby, Laurie McGinty, lost preselection as the Liberal candidate and contested the election as an Independent. Margin is Liberal vs. Labor at the 1976 election.
References
^Australian Politics and Elections Archives. https://elections.uwa.edu.au/listelections.lasso?ElectionType=6&State=NSW "Since 1978, the Legislative Council has had from 42 to 45 members with a third or half the membership to be elected at each election. Members have been elected by proportional representation using the single transferable vote method with modifications which have varied over the period since 1978."
^Farrell and McAllister, The Australian Electoral System, p. 50
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