1979 South Australian state election

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1979 South Australian state election
Flag of South Australia.svg
  1977 15 September 1979 (1979-09-15) 1982  

All 47 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly
24 seats were needed for a majority
11 (of the 22) seats in the South Australian Legislative Council
 First partySecond party
  David Tonkin.jpg
Leader David Tonkin Des Corcoran
Party Liberal Labor
Leader since24 July 197515 February 1979
Leader's seat Bragg Hartley
Seats before1827
Seats won2420
Seat changeIncrease2.svg6Decrease2.svg7
Popular vote352,343300,277
Percentage47.94%40.86%
SwingIncrease2.svg6.73ppDecrease2.svg10.78pp
TPP 55.0%45.0%
TPP swingIncrease2.svg8.40ppDecrease2.svg8.40pp

 Third partyFourth party
 
DEM
NAT
Leader Robin Millhouse Peter Blacker
Party Democrats National
Leader's seat Mitcham Flinders
Seats before11
Seats won11
Seat changeSteady2.svgSteady2.svg
Popular vote60,79714,013
Percentage8.30%1.91%
SwingIncrease2.svg4.82ppIncrease2.svg0.31pp

Premier before election

Des Corcoran
Labor

Elected Premier

David Tonkin
Liberal

State elections were held in South Australia on 15 September 1979. All 47 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly were up for election. The incumbent Australian Labor Party led by Premier of South Australia Des Corcoran was defeated by the Liberal Party of Australia led by Leader of the Opposition David Tonkin.

Contents

The Liberals originally won 25 seats, but a court decision overturned their win in Norwood. Labor won the Norwood by-election, which meant the Liberals held 24 seats, with Labor on 20 seats, and 1 each to the Australian Democrats, National Country Party, and an Independent Labor.

Background

Premier Don Dunstan abruptly resigned as premier on 15 February 1979, due to ill health, and was succeeded by Deputy Premier Des Corcoran. Dunstan also resigned from parliament, and his seat was retained for Labor by Greg Crafter at the by-election in March 1979.

Spurred by positive opinion polls, and seeking to escape the shadow of Dunstan by gaining a mandate of his own, Corcoran called a snap election, without informing the party apparatus. The election campaign was plagued by problems, which allowed an opening for the Liberals under Tonkin. It did not help matters that The Advertiser was biased toward the Liberal campaign.[ citation needed ]

Results

Labor suffered a large swing, losing seven seats (six to the Liberals, one to Independent Labor Norm Peterson). The Liberals also won 55 percent of the two-party vote to Labor's 45 percent. In most of Australia, this would have been enough for a landslide Liberal victory. However, much of the Liberal margin was wasted on landslides in their heartland. The Liberals only won 13 seats in Adelaide, netting them a total of 25 seats, a bare majority of two. Narrow as it was, it was the first time the main non-Labor party in South Australia had won the most seats while also winning a majority of the vote since the Liberal and Country League won 50.3 percent of the two-party vote in 1959.

The Liberal majority was pared back even further after the Court of Disputed Returns struck down the result in Norwood. The court found that a Liberal Party advertisement in an Italian language newspaper, which described Liberal candidate Frank Webster as "your representative" ("il vostro deputato"), gave the false impression that Webster was already the sitting member. [1] Labor's Greg Crafter, who had briefly succeeded Dunstan upon his resignation, regained Norwood at the 1980 Norwood state by-election. This dropped the Liberals to 24 seats, just enough to govern.

In the South Australian Legislative Council, the Liberals won 6 seats, Labor won 4, and Australian Democrats won 1; giving numbers of 11 Liberal, 10 Labor and 1 Democrat, leaving the Liberal government one seat short of a majority.

Aftermath

Corcoran was bitter in defeat, believing sections of the ALP had undermined him during the campaign. He resigned as leader soon after the election, and retired from politics in 1982.

In 1982, when legislation to enable the Roxby Downs uranium mine was opposed by both Labor and the Democrats, Norm Foster resigned from the Labor Party to support the legislation, and sat as an independent in the Legislative Council.

Key dates

Results

House of Assembly

Arrangement of the House of Assembly after the 1979 state election. South Australia House of Assembly 1979.svg
Arrangement of the House of Assembly after the 1979 state election.

These numbers include the result of the 1980 Norwood state by-election.

South Australian state election, 15 September 1979 [4]
House of Assembly
<< 19771982 >>

Enrolled voters826,586
Votes cast769,080 Turnout 93.04-0.33
Informal votes34,104Informal4.43+1.72
Summary of votes by party
PartyPrimary votes%SwingSeatsChange
  Liberal 352,34347.94+6.7324+ 6
  Labor 300,27740.86–10.7820– 7
  Democrats 60,9798.30+4.821± 0
  National Country 14,0131.91+0.311± 0
  Independent 7,3641.00+0.611+ 1
Total734,976  47 
Two-party-preferred
  Liberal 404,23255.00+8.40
  Labor 330,73445.00–8.40

Seats changing hands

SeatPre-1979SwingPost-1979
PartyMemberMarginMarginMemberParty
Brighton  Labor Hugh Hudson 7.812.54.7 Dick Glazbrook Liberal 
Goyder  Independent Keith Russack*7.9N/A27.1 Keith Russack Liberal 
Henley Beach  Labor Glen Broomhill 9.310.31.0 Bob Randall Liberal 
Mawson  Labor Leslie Drury 6.59.53.0 Ivar Schmidt Liberal 
Morphett  Labor Terry Groom 0.45.75.3 John Oswald Liberal 
Newland  Labor John Klunder 9.515.75.9 Brian Billard Liberal 
Semaphore  Labor Jack Olson 22.2N/A12.2 Norm Peterson Independent 
Todd  Labor Molly Byrne 6.511.14.6 Scott Ashenden Liberal 

Legislative Council

Arrangement of the Legislative Council after the 1979 state election. South Australia Legislative Council 1979.svg
Arrangement of the Legislative Council after the 1979 state election.

South Australian state election, 15 September 1979 [5]
Legislative Council
<< 19751982 >>

Enrolled voters826,586
Votes cast765,032 Turnout 92.6–0.7
Informal votes33,637Informal4.4–0.8
Summary of votes by party
PartyPrimary votes%SwingSeats
won
Seats
held
  Liberal 370,39850.6+22.8611
  Labor 290,55239.7–7.6410
  Democrats 47,5276.5+6.511
  National Country 7,7161.1–1.000
  Marijuana 6,1320.8+0.800
 Other9,0701.3*00
Total731,395  1122

Post-election pendulum

These numbers include the result of the 1980 Norwood state by-election.

Subsequently, the 1982 Mitcham by-election and 1982 Florey by-election were held. The Democrats retained Mitcham by 45 votes, while Labor increased their margin in Florey.

Liberal seats (24)
Marginal
Henley Beach Bob Randall LIB1.0%
Mawson Ivar Schmidt LIB3.0%
Todd Scott Ashenden LIB4.6%
Brighton Dick Glazbrook LIB4.7%
Morphett John Oswald LIB5.3%
Mount Gambier Harold Allison LIB5.6%
Newland Brian Billard LIB5.9%
Fairly safe
Mallee Peter Lewis LIB7.3% v NAT
Eyre Graham Gunn LIB9.9%
Safe
Torrens Michael Wilson LIB10.1%
Coles Jennifer Adamson LIB12.0%
Rocky River John Olsen LIB13.1%
Chaffey Peter Arnold LIB13.8%
Hanson Heini Becker LIB14.5%
Murray David Wotton LIB15.9%
Glenelg John Mathwin LIB17.2%
Light Bruce Eastick LIB17.2%
Victoria Allan Rodda LIB18.0%
Fisher Stan Evans LIB18.7%
Bragg David Tonkin LIB21.5%
Alexandra Ted Chapman LIB24.0%
Kavel Roger Goldsworthy LIB24.3%
Goyder Keith Russack LIB27.1%
Davenport Dean Brown LIB29.7%
Labor seats (20)
Marginal
Ascot Park John Trainer ALP1.7%
Unley Gil Langley ALP2.3%
Norwood* Greg Crafter ALP3.1%
Florey Harold O'Neill ALP3.7%
Albert Park Kevin Hamilton ALP3.9%
Mitchell Ron Payne ALP4.3%
Hartley Des Corcoran ALP5.1%
Playford Terry McRae ALP5.1%
Gilles Jack Slater ALP5.4%
Baudin Don Hopgood ALP5.7%
Fairly safe
Peake Keith Plunkett ALP7.8%
Napier Terry Hemmings ALP9.5%
Safe
Price George Whitten ALP10.5%
Adelaide Jack Wright ALP10.7%
Salisbury Lynn Arnold ALP10.8%
Elizabeth Peter Duncan ALP10.9%
Whyalla Max Brown ALP16.7%
Stuart Gavin Keneally ALP17.0%
Ross Smith John Bannon ALP18.4%
Spence Roy Abbott ALP20.2%
Crossbench seats (3)
Mitcham Robin Millhouse DEM4.7% v LIB
Semaphore Norm Peterson IND12.2% v ALP
Flinders Peter Blacker NCP20.1% v LIB

See also

References

Specific
  1. Red Silk: The Life of Elliott Johnston, QC, Penelope Debelle, Wakefield Press, 2011
  2. Kelton, Greg (23 August 1979). "Corcoran calls snap poll". The Advertiser . p. 1.
  3. "Appendix A. State of South Australia: The Electoral Act 1929-1976". The Advertiser . 28 August 1979. p. 32.
  4. "Details of SA 1979 Election". Australian Politics and Elections Database.
  5. "History of South Australian elections 1857-2006, volume 2 Legislative Council". ECSA. Archived from the original on 8 March 2016. Retrieved 22 May 2016.