# 1981 New South Wales state election

Elections were held in the state of New South Wales, Australia, on Saturday 19 September 1981. The result was a second "Wranslide": a landslide victory for the Labor Party under Neville Wran. Labor increased its already sizeable majority, winning what is still its biggest-ever share of seats in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly–69 out of 99 seats, 69.7 percent of the chamber until 2011 when it was surpassed by Barry O'Farrell’s landslide 2011 election win when the Liberal—National Coalition won 74% of seats.
The Liberals suffered the double indignity of losing the seat contested by their leader Bruce McDonald to an independent, and of being reduced to the same number of seats in parliament as their ostensible junior coalition partner, the National Country Party. In fact it was the second election in a row in which the sitting Liberal leader had failed to win a seat; Peter Coleman had been rolled in his own seat in 1978. Both the Liberals and National Country Party finished with 14 seats.
The election marked another milestone for electoral reform in New South Wales. The allocation of preferences became optional, and partisan gerrymandering was eliminated. Additionally, the practice of creating smaller rural seats to boost country representation was ended. Two further reforms were proposed—and passed—in referendums put to voters on the same day.
Ted Mack, mayor of North Sydney Council, won the seat of North Shore from Opposition Leader McDonald. John Hatton was re-elected unopposed in the seat of South Coast.

## Key dates

| Date | Event |
| 28 August 1981 | The Legislative Assembly was dissolved, and writs were issued by the Governor to proceed with an election. |
| 3 September 1981 | Nominations for candidates for the election closed at noon. |
| 19 September 1981 | Polling day, between the hours of 8am and 6pm. |
| 2 October 1981 | The fourth Wran ministry was constituted. |
| 23 October 1981 | The writ was returned and the results formally declared. |
| 28 October 1981 | Parliament resumed for business. |

## Results
### Legislative Assembly

New South Wales state election, 19 September 1981  Legislative Assembly
<< 1978–1984 >> :
| Enrolled voters | Enrolled voters | 3,178,225 | | | | |
| Votes cast | Votes cast | 2,897,033 | | Turnout | 91.15 | –1.62 |
| Informal votes | Informal votes | 89,306 | | Informal | 3.08 | +0.80 |
| Summary of votes by party |||||||
| Party | Party | Primary votes | % | Swing | Seats | Change |
| | Labor | 1,564,622 | 55.73 | –2.04 | 69 | + 6 |
| | Liberal | 775,463 | 27.62 | +0.64 | 14 | – 4 |
| | National Country | 314,841 | 11.21 | +1.31 | 14 | – 3 |
| | Democrats | 68,252 | 2.43 | –0.22 | 0 | ± 0 |
| | Communist | 6,150 | 0.22 | –0.08 | 0 | ± 0 |
| | Independent | 78,399 | 2.79 | +0.55 | 2 | + 1 |
| Total | Total | 2,807,727 | | | 99 | |
| Two-party-preferred |||||||
| | Labor | | 58.7% | -2.0% | | |
| | Liberal/National | | 41.3% | +2.0% | | |
Popular vote
Labor
55.73%
Liberal
27.62%
National Country
11.21%
Independents
2.79%
Democrats
2.43%
Communist
0.22%
Two-party-preferred vote
Labor
58.7%
Coalition
41.3%
Parliamentary seats
Labor
69
Liberal
14
National Country
14
Independents
2 :

### Legislative Council

New South Wales state election, 19 September 1981 Legislative Council :
| Enrolled voters | Enrolled voters | 3,212,657 | | | | |
| Votes cast | Votes cast | 2,927,971 | | Turnout | 91.14 | –1.63 |
| Informal votes | Informal votes | 200,367 | | Informal | 6.84 | +2.79 |
| Summary of votes by party |||||||
| Party | Party | Primary votes | % | Swing | Seats won | Seats held |
| | Labor | 1,412,426 | 51.78 | –3.13 | 8 | 24 |
| | Liberal/National Coalition | 921,081 | 33.77 | –2.49 | 5 | 18 |
| | Call to Australia | 248,425 | 9.11 | +7.80 | 1 | 1 |
| | Democrats | 109,939 | 4.03 | +1.25 | 1 | 1 |
| | Environmental Action | 18,056 | 0.66 | +0.66 | 0 | 0 |
| | Republican | 10,184 | 0.37 | +0.37 | 0 | 0 |
| | Progress | 3,121 | 0.11 | +0.11 | 0 | 0 |
| | Social Democrats | 2,512 | 0.09 | +0.09 | 0 | 0 |
| | Independent | 24,786 | 0.07 | –0.83 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | Total | 2,727,604 | | | 15 | |

## Seats changing hands

| Seat | Pre-1981 | Pre-1981 | Pre-1981 | Pre-1981 | Swing | Post-1981 | Post-1981 | Post-1981 | Post-1981 |
| Seat | Party | Party | Member | Margin | Swing | Margin | Member | Party | Party |
| Dubbo | | Liberal | John Mason | 3.4 | N/A | 9.2 | Ian Glachan | National Country | |
| Northern Tablelands | | National Country | new seat | 1.9 | -4.8 | 2.9 | Bill McCarthy | Labor | |
| North Shore | | Liberal | new seat | 3.8 | -8.4 | 4.6 | Ted Mack | Independent | |
* Members listed in italics did not recontest their seats.
* In addition, the National Country held the seat of Murray, which it won from the Liberals in the 1980 by-election.

### Redistribution affected seats

| Seat | 1978 election | 1978 election | 1978 election | 1978 election | 1980 redistribution | 1980 redistribution | 1980 redistribution | 1980 redistribution | Swing | 1981 election | 1981 election | 1981 election | 1981 election |
| Seat | Party | Party | Member | Margin | Party | Party | Member | Margin | Swing | Margin | Member | Party | Party |
| Bathurst | | National Country | Clive Osborne | 2.7 | | Labor | Notional | 7.7 | -7.6 | 0.1 | Mick Clough | Labor | |
| Bligh | | Liberal | John Barraclough | 8.4 | | Labor | Notional | 6.6 | -3.9 | 2.7 | Fred Miller | Labor | |
| Castlereagh | | Labor | Jim Curran | 6.9 | | National Country | Notional | 4.3 | -0.9 | 3.4 | Roger Wotton | National Country | |
| Clarence | | National Country | Matt Singleton | 10.9 | | Labor | Notional | 2.8 | +3.8 | 6.6 | Don Day | Labor | |
| Hornsby | | Liberal | Neil Pickard | 0.8 | | Labor | Notional | 1.7 | -5.5 | 3.8 | Neil Pickard | Liberal | |
| Maitland | | Liberal | Peter Toms | 4.3 | | Labor | Notional | 0.3 | +7.2 | 7.5 | Allan Walsh | Labor | |
| Willoughby | | Labor | Eddie Britt | 0.8 | | Liberal | Notional | 2.2 | +1.5 | 3.7 | Peter Collins | Liberal | |
* Sitting MP for Clarence Matt Singleton instead contested the new seat of Coffs Harbour and won.