1962 New South Wales state election
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All 94 seats in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly 48 Assembly seats were needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Two-candidate-preferred margin by electorate | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1962 New South Wales state election was held on 3 March 1962. It was conducted in single member constituencies with compulsory preferential voting and was held on boundaries created at a 1961 redistribution. The election was for all of the 94 seats in the Legislative Assembly.
Redistribution
A redistribution of electoral boundaries was undertaken in 1961 based on that year's
Key dates
Date | Event |
---|---|
5 February 1962 | The Legislative Assembly was dissolved, and writs were issued by the Governor to proceed with an election. |
9 February 1962 | Nominations for candidates for the election closed at noon. |
3 March 1962 | Polling day. |
14 March 1962 | Second Heffron ministry sworn in. |
6 April 1962 | Last day for the writs to be returned and the results formally declared. |
10 April 1962 | Opening of 40th Parliament. |
Issues
In March 1962, Labor had been in power for 21 years and
In contrast to Labor the leader of the conservative coalition,
Results
The Labor government's position improved substantially at this election. It had a buffer of 7 seats in the new parliament:
Prior to the election Labor had gained the seat of
Labor regained the seat of Waratah from the independent incumbent Frank Purdue and, as expected, won the new seats of Wyong, Wentworthville, Bass Hill and Bligh. Labor also gained Blacktown, Nepean, Drummoyne and Coogee from the Liberals.
The Liberal Party won the new seats of Kirribilli, Wakehurst and The Hills. In Manly, the sitting Liberal member Douglas Darby, who had lost his party's pre-selection, successfully contested the seat as an Independent Liberal.
The DLP and the Communist party both performed poorly, each party gained less than 2% of the primary vote.
Non-elected Premier Bob Heffron was elected his own right as Premier and would be the last non-elected Premier to achieve this until Morris Iemma in 2007.
New South Wales state election, 3 March 1962 [5] | ||||||
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Enrolled voters | 2,173,768[a] | |||||
Votes cast | 1,957,406 | Turnout | 94.00 | +0.00 | ||
Informal votes | 30,048 | Informal | 1.54 | −0.29 | ||
Summary of votes by party | ||||||
Party | Primary votes | % | Swing | Seats | Change | |
Labor | 936,047 | 48.57 | −0.55 | 54 | +5 | |
Liberal | 671,716 | 34.85 | −0.50 | 25 | −3 | |
Country | 180,640 | 9.37 | +0.66 | 14 | −2 | |
Independent | 60,420 | 3.13 | −0.50 | 0 | −1 | |
Independent Liberal | 37,555 | 1.95 | +1.95 | 1 | +1 | |
Democratic Labor | 28,830 | 1.50 | +0.18 | 0 | − | |
Communist | 12,150 | 0.63 | −0.82 | 0 | − | |
Total | 1,927,358 | 94 |
Retiring members
Labor
- Keith Anderson (Paddington-Waverley) — lost preselection for Bligh.
- William Gollan (Randwick)
- Bill Lamb (Granville) — lost preselection.
- Spence Powell (Bankstown)
- Arthur Tonge (Canterbury) — lost preselection.
Liberal
Country
Seats changing party representation
Seat | 1959 | 1962 | ||||
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Party | Member | Member | Party | |||
Bass Hill | New seat [b] | Clarrie Earl | Labor | |||
Blacktown | Liberal | Alfred Dennis [c] | Jim Southee | |||
Bligh | New seat [d] | Tom Morey | ||||
Coogee | Liberal | Kevin Ellis | Lou Walsh | |||
Drummoyne | Walter Lawrence | Reg Coady | ||||
Kirribilli | New seat [d] | John Waddy | Liberal | |||
Leichhardt | Labor | Reg Coady | Seat abolished | |||
Lismore [e] | Country | Keith Compton | Labor | |||
Liverpool Plains [f] | Labor | Seat abolished | ||||
Manly | Liberal | Douglas Darby | Independent Liberal | |||
Merrylands | Labor | Jack Ferguson | Seat abolished | |||
Nepean | Liberal | Bill Chapman | Alfred Bennett | Labor | ||
Neutral Bay | Ivan Black | Seat abolished | ||||
North Sydney | Labor | Ray Maher | Seat abolished | |||
Oxley
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Country | Les Jordan | Liberal | |||
Paddington-Waverley | Labor | Keith Anderson
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Seat abolished | |||
The Hills | New seat [d] | Max Ruddock | Liberal | |||
Wakehurst | New seat [d] | Dick Healey | ||||
Waratah | Independent | Frank Purdue | Edward Greaves | Labor | ||
Wentworthville | New seat [b] | Jack Ferguson | ||||
Woollahra | Liberal | Vernon Treatt | Seat abolished | |||
Wyong | New seat [b] | Ray Maher | Labor |
Aftermath
Robert Heffron resigned in April 1964, aged 74 and was replaced by Jack Renshaw. Robert Askin and Charles Cutler remained as leaders of their respective parties throughout the term of the parliament. During the parliament there were 4 by-elections. These produced no change in party representation with the exception of Labor losing Waratah to the independent former member, Frank Purdue.
See also
- Candidates of the 1962 New South Wales state election
- Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, 1962–1965
Notes
- ^ There were 2,082,320 enrolled voters in 90 contested electorates and 91,448 were enrolled in 4 uncontested electorates (2 Labor, 2 Liberal).[5]
- ^ a b c Bass Hill, Wentworthville and Wyong were notionally Labor seats.[1]
- ^ Alfred Dennis unsuccessfully contested The Hills as an Independent Liberal.
- ^ a b c d Wakehurst. Bligh, Kirribilli and The Hills were notionally Liberal seats.[1]
- ^ The Country Party had won the 1959 election for Lismore by 2 votes, however it was declared void by the Court of Disputed Returns. The resulting by-election was won by Keith Compton (Labor).
- ^ Roger Nott (Labor) resigned and Frank O'Keefe (Country) won the resulting by-election.
References
- ^ a b c "1961 Redistribution". Atlas of New South Wales. NSW Land & Property Information. Archived from the original on 23 June 2015.
- ^ "Labor Election Policy". The Sydney Morning Herald. 13 February 1962. p. 1.
- ^ "Pledge to Suspend Toll Road Proposals". The Sydney Morning Herald. 15 February 1962. p. 1.
- ISBN 0-19-554966-X.
- ^ a b Green, Antony. "1962 Totals". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 12 August 2019.