1980 Denison state by-election

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1980 Denison state by-election
Flag of Tasmania.svg
  1979 16 February 1980 1982  

All 7 seats for the Division of Denison in the House of Assembly
4 seats needed for a majority
 First partySecond partyThird party
 
Doug Lowe premier.jpg
Liberal Placeholder.png
DEM
Leader Doug Lowe Geoff Pearsall Norm Sanders
Party Labor Liberal Democrats
Seats before4 seats3 seats0 seats
Seats won331
Seat changeDecrease2.svg1Steady2.svgIncrease2.svg1
First preference vote21,61520,3094,292
Percentage46.4%43.6%9.2%
SwingDecrease2.svg4.3ppIncrease2.svg1.6ppIncrease2.svg1.8pp

A by-election for the Tasmanian House of Assembly was held in the Division of Denison in the Australian state of Tasmania on Saturday 16 February 1980.

Contents

Background

The election was the first to use the Robson Rotation, a method of rotating names on ballot papers. [1] In previous elections, candidates were listed in alphabetical order by surname.

By-elections are not usually held in the Tasmanian House of Assembly because casual vacancies are filled by a countback of votes, a system that has been in place since 1917. [2]

On 18 December 1979 the Supreme Court of Tasmania ordered that the election of three candidates in the 1979 election be declared void. [3] The court found that Julian Amos, John Devine and John Green had exceeded their spending limits. [3] [4] As a result, all elected members for the electorate of Denison were required to face another election.

Elected Members

The election resulted in two previously elected members losing their seats: John Green from the Labor Party and Bob Baker from the Liberal Party. Elected in their place were Norm Sanders from the Democrats and Liberal Gabriel Haros.

The following candidates were elected, listed in order of election:

OrderNameParty
1 Neil Batt Labor
2 Max Bingham Liberal
3 Gabriel Haros Liberal
4 Julian Amos Labor
5 John Devine Labor
6 Robert Mather Liberal
7 Norm Sanders Democrats

Result

1980 Denison state by-election [5]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Quota 5,819
Labor Neil Batt (elected 1)8,27217.8+5.2
Labor John Devine (elected 5)4,3469.3−2.4
Labor Julian Amos (elected 4)3,9288.4−3.6
Labor John Green 2,3255.0−2.8
Labor Bob Graham 2,1084.5−0.6
Labor Stan Joiner3320.7+0.7
Labor Norm Hanscombe3040.7+0.3
Liberal Max Bingham (elected 2)5,96012.8−12.9
Liberal Gabriel Haros (elected 3)5,65812.2+7.4
Liberal Robert Mather (elected 6)2,1604.6+0.8
Liberal Geoff Davis 1,6163.5+0.5
Liberal Bob Baker 1,5403.3+1.6
Liberal Max Robinson 1,3642.9+1.5
Liberal Doug Clark 1,1942.6+2.6
Liberal Terry Bower4621.0+0.5
Liberal Alan Hughes3550.8+0.8
Democrats Norm Sanders (elected 7)2,7986.0+1.8
Democrats Peter Brown4661.0+1.0
Democrats Rod Broadby4220.9−1.9
Democrats Elizabeth Holloway2060.4+0.4
Democrats Andrew Langlinger1490.3+0.3
Democrats John Harrison1300.3+0.3
Democrats Bruce Kent1210.3+0.3
Christian Democrats Hellen Kelly1680.4+0.4
Christian Democrats Stephen Shelley1670.4+0.4
Total formal votes46,55194.8−1.5
Informal votes2,5385.2+1.5
Turnout 49,08990.0−2.4
Party total votes
Labor 21,61546.4-4.3
Liberal 20,30943.6+1.6
Democrats 4,2929.2+1.8
Christian Democrats 3350.7+0.7

References

  1. Newsletter of the Proportional Representation Society of Australia Archived 2011-07-06 at the Wayback Machine , Number 69, March 1993
  2. House of Assembly Elections, Tasmanian Parliamentary Library
  3. 1 2 Report on Parliamentary Elections 1978 to 1980 Archived 2007-08-30 at the Wayback Machine , Parliament of Tasmania, 1980.
  4. A Tasmanian Political Almanac, Parliament of Tasmania
  5. "1980 Results in Denison for the By-Election held on 16 February 1980". Tasmanian Parliamentary Library.

Further reading