# 1988 Victorian state election

The 1988 Victorian state election, held on Saturday, 1 October 1988, was for the 51st Parliament of Victoria. It was held in the Australian state of Victoria to elect all 88 members of the state's Legislative Assembly and 22 members of the 44-member Legislative Council.
The incumbent Labor Party government led by Premier John Cain Jr. won a third term in office, despite a swing against it, and only lost the seat of Warrandyte in Melbourne's north-east. This was credited by commentators to a strong campaign targeting Liberal leader and future Premier Jeff Kennett whose aggressive leadership style was still seen as a liability, as well as continuing instability in the federal Coalition. Labor's narrow wins in middle class marginal seats saw it retain its majority despite the Liberals winning a bare majority of the two party preferred vote.

## Results
### Legislative Assembly

Victorian state election, 1 October 1988 Legislative Assembly
<< 1985–1992 >> :
| Enrolled voters | Enrolled voters | 2,739,614 | | | | |
| Votes cast | Votes cast | 2,530,027 | | Turnout | 92.35 | -0.86 |
| Informal votes | Informal votes | 98,525 | | Informal | 3.89 | +1.21 |
| Summary of votes by party |||||||
| Party | Party | Primary votes | % | Swing | Seats | Change |
| | Labor | 1,131,750 | 46.55 | –3.46 | 46 | – 1 |
| | Liberal | 986,311 | 40.56 | –1.30 | 33 | + 2 |
| | National | 188,776 | 7.76 | +0.47 | 9 | – 1 |
| | Democrats | 25,611 | 1.05 | +1.05 | 0 | ± 0 |
| | Call to Australia | 25,543 | 1.05 | +1.05 | 0 | ± 0 |
| | Democratic Labour | 6,018 | 0.25 | +0.25 | 0 | ± 0 |
| | Independent | 67,493 | 2.78 | +1.94 | 0 | ± 0 |
| Total | Total | 2,431,502 | | | 88 | |
| Two-party-preferred |||||||
| | Labor | 1,202,294 | 49.49 | –1.21 | | |
| | Liberal | 1,227,295 | 50.51 | +1.21 | | |

### Legislative Council

Victorian state election, 1 October 1988 Legislative Council :
| Enrolled voters | Enrolled voters | 2,739,614 | | | | |
| Votes cast | Votes cast | 2,529,569 | | Turnout | 92.33 | –0.86 |
| Informal votes | Informal votes | 109,578 | | Informal | 4.33 | +1.32 |
| Summary of votes by party |||||||
| Party | Party | Primary votes | % | Swing | Seats won | Seats held |
| | Labor | 1,164,796 | 48.13 | +0.85 | 9 | 19 |
| | Liberal | 1,052,591 | 43.50 | +2.35 | 10 | 19 |
| | National | 181,074 | 7.48 | +0.81 | 3 | 6 |
| | Call to Australia | 5,363 | 0.22 | –0.49 | 0 | 0 |
| | Independent | 16,167 | 0.67 | +0.45 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | Total | 2,419,991 | | | 22 | 44 |

## Seats changing hands

| Seat | Pre-1988 | Pre-1988 | Pre-1988 | Pre-1988 | Swing | Post-1988 | Post-1988 | Post-1988 | Post-1988 |
| Seat | Party | Party | Member | Margin | Swing | Margin | Member | Party | Party |
| Mildura | | National | Milton Whiting | 23.0 | -24.0 | 1.0 | Craig Bildstien | Liberal | |
| Warrandyte | | Labor | Lou Hill | 0.2 | -1.7 | 1.5 | Phil Honeywood | Liberal | |
* Members listed in italics did not recontest their seats.

## Key dates

| Date | Event |
| 29 August 1988 | The Legislative Council was prorogued and the Legislative Assembly was dissolved. |
| 29 August 1988 | Writs were issued by the Governor to proceed with an election. |
| 2 September 1988 | The Constitution Act Amendment (Electoral Procedures) Act 1988 (No.31) comes into operation. |
| 5 September 1988 | The electoral rolls were closed. |
| 9 September 1988 | Nominations for candidates for the election closed at noon. |
| 1 October 1988 | Polling day, between the hours of 8am and 6pm. |
| 13 October 1988 | The Cain Ministry was reconstituted, with two new ministers sworn in. |
| 21 October 1988 | The writ was returned and the results formally declared. |
| 25 October 1988 | Parliament resumed for business. |

## Aftermath

On 23 May 1989, Jeff Kennett was voted out of the Liberal leadership in favour of Alan Brown; Brown led the party until 23 April 1991 when he was also forced out after a successful comeback by Kennett. During Brown's period as Opposition Leader, the Liberals negotiated the first coalition agreement with the Nationals in over forty years, in part due to a belief by some (in spite of what political scientist Brian Costar called a "lack of psephological evidence to support this assertion") that had the parties been in coalition at the election, they would have won.