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NSW PARLIAMENTARY LIBRARY RESEARCH SERVICE Background Paper No 1994/2 NSW Elections 1984 to 1991: A Comparative Analysis by Antony Green © New South Wales Parliamentary Library This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission from the Librarian, New South Wales Parliamentary Library. Inquiries should be directed to the Publications Officer, New South Wales Parliamentary Library, Parliament House, Macquarie Street, Sydney, 2000. New South Wales Parliamentary Library cataloguing-in-publication data: Green. Antony NSW Elections, 1984 to 1991 : a comparative analysis / by Antony Green. -- [Sydney, N.S.W.J: New South Wales Parliamentary Library, 1993. -- 1 v. (various pagings): ill.; 30 cm. (Current issues: background paper, ISSN 0817- 3796 I New South Wales Parliamentary Library ; 1994/2) ISSN 0817-3796 ISBN 724095632 1. Elections--New South Wales--History (LCSH) [ 1. STATE-GOVERNMENT-ELECTIONS-NEW-SOUTH-WALES-HISTORICAL- ASPECTS (Parliamentary thesaurus)) I. Title II. Series: Current issues : background paper (New South Wales. Parliamentary Library) ; 1994/2 324.9944 (DDC20) Published by the New South Wales Parliamentary Library. The Author Antony Green originally completed a bachelor of Science from Sydney University, with majors in Pure Mathematics and Computer Science. After several years in the computer industry, he returned to Sydney University to complete a Bachelor of Economics with Honours in Government. In 1989 he joined ABC-TV as a researcher for the 1990 Federal Elction coverage, and has now worked on nine elections in all states of Australia. Following the 1990 election, Antony was employed by the ABC to re-design their election night computer software. Used at five elections since the 1992 Queensland State election, it has set new standards in election night predictions. With the aid of the computer, Antony was the first to predict the return of the Keating Government on election night in 1993. iv Acknowledgments I wish to thank several people for their assistance with this publication. From the NSW Parliamentary Library, David Clune for assistance with sources, and Philip Dixon for his efforts on the layout. John Ashe and Therese lverach from the NSW Electoral Office provided valuable documents on the 1986/7 redistribution. Lynette Thrift, Secretary to the 1990/1 Redistribution Commission, assisted greatly with access to submissions. Funding assistance for work on the 1 984 election results and 1986/7 Redistribution came through Dr James Forrest of the Macquarie University School of Earth Sciences. Thanks also to Matthew Moore from the Sydney Morning Herald, and Quentin Dempster and Ian Carroll from ABC-TV. V Contents NEW SOUTH WALES ELECTORAL PENDULUM (FEB 941 viii - ix 1 Introduction 1 2 Election 1984 5 3 Election 1988 11 4 Election 1991 18 5 The 1991 Election and Electoral Bias 29 6 Informal Voting 36 APPENDIX A: ACTUAL RESULTS OF 1984 ELECTION APPENDIX B: ACTUAL RESULTS OF 1988 ELECTION APPENDIX C: RESULTS OF 1984, 1988 AND 1991 ELECTIONS BASED ON 1991 BOUNDARIES APPENDIX D: ESTIMATED 2-PARTY PREFERRED RESULTS FOR 1984, 1988 AND 1991 ELECTIONS BASED ON 1991 BOUNDARIES APPENDIX E: INFORMAL VOTING AT THE 1984, 1988 AND 1991 ELECTIONS BASED ON 1991 BOUNDARIES vii NEW SOUTH WALES ELECTORAL PENDULUM (FEB 94) Electoral Pendulums have been designed to show elections as a contest between the Labor Party, and the Liberal/National Coalition. This is difficult in New South Wales following the 1991 election owing to 4 Independents winning seats and holding the balance of power, as well as Independents finishing second in 9 other electorates. The Pendulum at right has been modified to take account of this situation and to reflect the current position of the Legislative Assembly. In most seats, the margin indicates the swing for the sitting member to lose to their major contestant in 1991. Owing to by-elections and the nature of Independent contests, a number of points need to be emphasised: The Entrance is shown on the Labor side of the pendulum with its new margin following the Labor win in the January 1992 by-election. North Shore has been moved up the pendulum to reflect the result of the February 1994 by-election. However, Gordon, Ku-ring-gai, Davidson and The Hills have been left in the same position on the pendulum as at the 1991 election, though I have used a new swing figure. All by-elections are indicated with Footnote (D). In line with the agreement between the non-aligned Independents and the Premier, I have placed Tamworth on the Liberal/National side of the pendulum, and Bligh, Manly and South Coast on the opposite side. In each seat, the swing indicates the margin of the sitting Independent member against a Liberal or National opponent and is shown with Footnote (C). Where an electorates is labelled with Footnote (A), the swing figure is for the sitting Liberal or National member against an Independent. Where an electorates is labelled with Footnote (BJ, the swing figure is for the sitting Labor member against an Independent. viii • , I:1 JiU1 ..lilllilOl 9 UlBOR·IND SEATS 27.9 Gordon (A) (D) 31.4 Murray (Nat) 26.4 Northcott 23.7 Lane Cove 23.5 Pittwater 22.9 Hawkesbury 5.1 Ku~rin·gai (A) (D) 9.7 Davidson (A) (D) 20% Waratah 19.0 The Hills (A) (D) 19.8 Baulkham Hills 18.7 Eastwood Marrickville 18.7 Myall Lakes (Nat) lllawarra 17.7 Port Macquarie (Nat) (B) (Ind) South Coast 16.9 Dubbo (Nat) Aubum 16.2 Lachlan (Nat) Liverpool 15.9 WaggaWagga St Marys 15.3 Albury Cabrarnatte 15.1 Barwon (Nat) 15% Heffron Londonderry 14.7 Upper Hunter (Nat) ( C) Port Jackson 13.3 Ballina (Nat) Wallsend 13.1 Vaucluse (A) Bulli 12.8 Bega . Charleetown 12.7 Monaro (Nat) Mount Druitt 12.7 Wakehurst Lake Macquarie 12.3 Lismore (Nat) 12% t 12% (C) Newcasfle Granville 12.0 Willoughby (A) Fairfield 11.8 Murrumbidgee (Nat} Kiarna 11.6 Oxlef, (Nat) i Peale 11.5 Nth ablelands (Nat) Maroubra 11.4 Georges River K~ra 11.3 Cronulla Port Stephens 10.6 Clarence (Nat) I 10% Broken Hin 10.4 Miranda e Bankstown Ashlletd Cambelltown 9.8 Tamworth (Ind) (B) Lakernba 9.7 Ermington Wyong 9.3 Strathfield I East Hilla 8.9 Burrinjuck (Nat) 8% (C) Wollongong 8.4 Ncrth Shore (A) (D) Black.town Rtverstone Smithfield Canterbury 7.0 Coifs Harbour ( Nat) Rockdale 6.8 Gosford (C) Swansea 6.5 Southern Highlands 6% (B)· (Ind) Bligh 5.4 Orange (Nat) (A) Bathurst In most seats swing indicates the margin as a contest between Labor and the Coalition parfies. Percentage figures show the size of twcx:andidale preferred swing required For a seat to change hands (Ind) indicates an independanl held seat (Nat) indicates a National Party held seat. However, in a number of seats, the contest is really between a major party and an independant. ~actions have also been held in four seats. The following footnotes indicate how swing should be interpreted in these cases. (A} - swing is for a Liberal/National candidate against an lndependant (BJ - swing is for an lndependant against a Liberal/National candidate (CJ - swing is far an Labor candidate against an lndependant (DJ - swing based on by-election ix 1 Introduction There have been nine elections for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly since 1968. Remarkably, these elections have been fought on six different sets of electoral boundaries. Even more remarkably, four of the six redistributions involved changes to the size of the parliament. Much of this was due to Sir Robert Askin, who between 1965 and 1973 contested four elections on four sets of boundaries. But since 1984, the last occasion boundaries were re-used, there have also been two massive redistributions. In 1986/87 the size of the Legislative Assembly was increased to 109, only to be reduced to 99 again by the 1990/91 redistribution. These redistributions have made analysis of the 1988 and 1991 elections extremely difficult. This is unfortunate, as both elections had significant historic outcomes. In 1988, the Labor government of Barrie Unsworth was swept from office by an enormous electoral swing, Labor being reduced to its lowest first preference vote since the 1930s. 1991 saw the Coalition government of Nick Greiner returned, but without an overall majority, relying on the votes of Independents on the floor of the Legislative Assembly, a situation that had not occurred since 1950. The boundary changes produced some quite misleading analysis of the 1 988 and 1991 elections. For me the best example has been regular reference to a 25% swing in Cessnock between 1984 and 1988. This was not the case, as one cannot compare the 1984 coalfields seat of Cessnock with the 1988 semi-rural seat of the same name. In an attempt to correct the problem, I approached the NSW Parliamentary Library with an idea for a publication comparing the 1984, 1988 and 1991 elections after converting the results to the same set of electoral boundaries. It has two basic aims. First, by providing a simple comparison between the three elections, it will both serve as a reference for other scholars of NSW politics, and be of vital interest to players in the political game. Second, it will look at the question of the effect of the boundary changes on election results, as well as the increasing number of significant Independents contesting seats. I have not set out to produce a complete authoritative study on NSW politics or on electoral geography. For this reason I have dispensed with full academic referencing, though I do at various points refer the reader to other books and articles.