1979 South Australian state election

1979 South Australian state election
	15 September 1979
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
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.

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.

Summary of 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, 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 the sitting member.^[1] Labor regained Norwood at the 1980 Norwood state by-election, reducing 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

House of Assembly dissolved: 22 August 1979, 2:00pm^[2]
Issue of writ: 27 August 1979^[3]
Close of nominations: 5 September 1979
Polling day: 15 September 1979
Return of writ: On or before 5 October 1979

Results

House of Assembly

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

South Australian state election, 15 September 1979^[4] House of Assembly << 1977–1982 >>
Enrolled voters		826,586
Votes cast		769,080		Turnout	93.04	-0.33
Informal votes		34,104		Informal	4.43	+1.72
Summary of votes by party
Party		Primary votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Liberal	352,343	47.94	+6.73	24	+ 6
	Labor	300,277	40.86	–10.78	20	– 7
	Democrats	60,979	8.30	+4.82	1	± 0
	National Country	14,013	1.91	+0.31	1	± 0
	Independent	7,364	1.00	+0.61	1	+ 1
Total		734,976			47
Two-party-preferred
	Liberal	404,232	55.00	+8.40
	Labor	330,734	45.00	–8.40

Seats changing hands

Seat	Pre-1979				Swing	Post-1979
Seat	Party		Member	Margin	Swing	Margin	Member	Party
Brighton		Labor	Hugh Hudson	7.8	12.5	4.7	Dick Glazbrook	Liberal
Goyder		Independent	Keith Russack*	7.9	N/A	27.1	Keith Russack	Liberal
Henley Beach		Labor	Glen Broomhill	9.3	10.3	1.0	Bob Randall	Liberal
Mawson		Labor	Leslie Drury	6.5	9.5	3.0	Ivar Schmidt	Liberal
Morphett		Labor	Terry Groom	0.4	5.7	5.3	John Oswald	Liberal
Newland		Labor	John Klunder	9.5	15.7	5.9	Brian Billard	Liberal
Semaphore		Labor	Jack Olson	22.2	N/A	12.2	Norm Peterson	Independent
Todd		Labor	Molly Byrne	6.5	11.1	4.6	Scott Ashenden	Liberal

Members in italics did not recontest their seats.
Keith Russack was elected in 1977 as an Independent, but joined the Liberal party soon after.

Legislative Council

South Australian state election, 15 September 1979^[5] Legislative Council << 1975–1982 >>
Enrolled voters		826,586
Votes cast		765,032		Turnout	92.6	–0.7
Informal votes		33,637		Informal	4.4	–0.8
Summary of votes by party
Party		Primary votes	%	Swing	Seats won	Seats held
	Liberal	370,398	50.6	+22.8	6	11
	Labor	290,552	39.7	–7.6	4	10
	Democrats	47,527	6.5	+6.5	1	1
	National Country	7,716	1.1	–1.0	0	0
	Marijuana	6,132	0.8	+0.8	0	0
	Other	9,070	1.3	*	0	0
Total		731,395			11	22

Post-election pendulum