New South Wales state election, 1973

New South Wales state election, 1973

1971 ← 17 November 1973 (1973-11-17) → 1976

All 99 seats in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly.   First party Second party   Leader Robert Askin Pat Hills Party Liberal/Country coalition Labor Leader since 17 July 1959 2 December 1968 Leader's seat Pittwater Phillip Last election 49 seats 45 seats Seats won 52 seats 44 seats Seat change 3 1 Percentage 44.33% 42.93% Swing 0.06 2.09

Premier before election Robert Askin Liberal/Country coalition Elected Premier Robert Askin Liberal/Country coalition

Elections for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly were held in the state of New South Wales, Australia, on Saturday 17 November 1973. The result was a win for the Liberal-Country Party coalition under Sir Robert Askin, which had been in office since 1965.

Issues

The Legislative Assembly had been enlarged by three members to 99 adding the seats of Woronora, Penrith and Ku-ring-gai.

The election was held just eleven months after the Liberal/Country coalition lost the federal election after 23 years in power. Askin called an early election to take advantage of the increasing economic issues which had been attributed to the Whitlam Labor government.

Leader of the Legislative Council Neville Wran, who would become Premier at the next election moved from the unelected Legislative Council to the Legislative Assembly after the late retirement of Clarrie Earl in the seat of Bass Hill.

Key dates

Date	Event
19 October 1973	The Legislative Assembly was dissolved, and writs were issued by the Governor to proceed with an election.[1]
25 October 1973	Nominations for candidates for the election closed at noon.
17 November 1973	Polling day, between the hours of 8am and 6pm.
3 December 1973	The Sixth Askin-Cutler Ministry was constituted.
4 December 1973	Parliament resumed for business.
7 December 1973	The writ was returned and the results formally declared.

Results

The Democratic Labor Party won its only lower house seat at the 1973 election following the Liberal Party's incumbent for the northern Sydney seat of Gordon — Harry Jago failed to nominate in time. Conservative voters were urged to vote for the DLP candidate, Kevin Harrold.

New South Wales state election, 17 November 1973[2][3] Legislative Assembly << 1971 — 1976 >>
Enrolled Voters		2,767,876[1]
Votes Cast		2,560,653		Turnout	92.51	-0.75
Informal Votes		69,225		Informal	2.70	+0.36
Summary of votes by party
Party		Primary Votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Labor	1,069,614	42.93	–2.09	44	– 1
	Liberal	843,325	33.85	–1.89	34	+ 2
	Country	261,504	10.48	+1.83	18	+ 1
	Democratic Labor	148,378	5.96	+2.79	1	+ 1
	Australia Party	104,821	4.21	+3.15	0	± 0
	Communist	838	0.03	–0.06	0	± 0
	Independent	63,358	2.54	–3.24	2	± 0
Total		2,491,428			99

¹ There were 2,788,733 enrolled voters but 20,857 were enrolled in Broken Hill (Labor) which was uncontested at the election.

Notes

1. ^ Parliament of New South Wales. "1973 Election". http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/resources/nswelectionsanalysis/1973/Home.htm. Retrieved 6 February 2010. 
2. ^ Australian Government and Politics Database. "Parliament of New South Wales, Assembly election, 17 November 1973". http://elections.uwa.edu.au/elecdetail.lasso?keyvalue=757. Retrieved 6 February 2010. 
3. ^ Hughes, Colin A. (1977). A handbook of Australian government and politics, 1965-1974. ANU Press. p. 108. ISBN 978-0-7081-1340-0.