Parliament of New South Wales Legislative Council election
Election of 24 March 2007
Government support in Legislative Council at and after election
Composition of the Legislative Council and seats to be filled at this election
Enrolment and voting
New South Wales, Legislative Council votes and seats won, and seats held
Elections held in 24 March 2007
Criteria for the inclusion of parties in this table are set out in the Glossary under 'listed party'
| Party Name | Candidates n | First preference vote n | First preference vote share % | Change from previous election % | Seats won by party n | Seats won by party % | Seats held by party n | Seats held by party % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australian Labor Party | 18 | 1,491,719 | 39.14 | -4.40 | 9 | 42.86 | 19 | 45.24 |
| Liberal Party - National Party (joint ticket) | 15 | 1,304,166 | 34.22 | +0.92 | 8 | 38.10 | ||
| Greens | 21 | 347,548 | 9.12 | +0.52 | 2 | 9.52 | 4 | 9.52 |
| Christian Democratic Party | 21 | 168,545 | 4.42 | +1.39 | 1 | 4.76 | 2 | 4.76 |
| Shooters Party | 19 | 106,513 | 2.79 | +0.75 | 1 | 4.76 | 2 | 4.76 |
| Australian Democrats | 16 | 67,994 | 1.78 | +0.21 | 0 | |||
| Australians Against Further Immigration | 15 | 62,386 | 1.64 | +0.74 | 0 | |||
| The Fishing Party | 20 | 58,340 | 1.53 | * | 0 | |||
| Independents | 89 | 57,329 | 1.50 | +1.44 | 0 | |||
| Unity Party | 18 | 46,053 | 1.21 | -0.22 | 0 | |||
| Restore Workers' Rights | 18 | 35,218 | 0.92 | * | 0 | |||
| Horse Riders Party & Outdoor Recreation Party | 15 | 21,569 | 0.57 | * | 0 | |||
| Human Rights Party | 15 | 16,772 | 0.44 | * | 0 | |||
| Socialist Alliance | 16 | 15,142 | 0.40 | +0.25 | 0 | |||
| Save Our Suburbs | 17 | 11,951 | 0.31 | -0.17 | 0 | |||
| Liberal Party | 10 | 23.81 | ||||||
| National Party | 5 | 11.90 | ||||||
| Totals | 333 | 3,811,245 | 100.00 | 21 | 100.00 | 42 | 100.00 |
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* Party did not contest previous election or did not meet criteria for listing, or contested previous election under a different party name.
Notes
History of the Legislative Council: For information and references on the evolution of the Legislative Council, see the note for the 1978 Legislative Council election.
Electoral system: The members of the Legislative Council were elected for two Legislative Assembly terms (8 years), half the membership (21 members) retiring every Legislative Council election which was held at the same time as general elections for the Assembly. The state was one electoral district (see at large election) and members were elected using proportional representation by the single transferable vote method (STV) with optional preferences above a minimum of 15 ranked candidates, and preferential above the line voting.
Changes to the electoral system for the Legislative Council were made after the 1999 Legislative Council election to limit the proliferation of small party groupings by changes to the rules for the registration of parties, candidate listings on the ballot paper (a minimum of 15 candidates for each group listing), and the allocation of preferences; see generally Clune and Griffith, pp. 503-515; 670-675, and Twomey, pp. 346-350, (see 'References', below).
Liberal and National parties: As with Senate contests in New South Wales, the Liberal Party and the National Party ran a joint ticket for the Legislative Council election, combining candidates from both parties; see seats won by ticket, seats won by party, and seats held by party.
Independents: The 89 candidates and votes shown for Independents for this Legislative Council election in the table above are the sum of five groups of Independents and 7 other candidates who ran without party or group affiliation in the ungrouped category on the ballot paper (5,325 votes).
The five groups of candidates who met the requirements for listing as a group on the Legislative Council ballot paper but belonged to groups which were not registered as parties did not have a group name shown on the ballot; each group was designated by a letter without a party label:
Group A: 16 candidates headed by Nell Brown who was aiming to improve the lot of carers (25,942 votes).
Group D: 15 candidates headed by Nick Beams who was associated with the Socialist Equality Party (456 votes).
Group F: 21 candidates headed by Patrice Newell who was endorsed by the Climate Change Coalition (18,999 votes).
Group H: 15 candidates headed by Kelly McNally (3,143 votes).
Group M: 15 candidates headed by Jack Tait, President of the NSW Coastal Rights Association (3,464 votes).
For full details of party groupings, see Green in 'Sources', below and for a study of minor parties and groups contesting previous New South Wales elections, see Rodney Smith, Against the Machines: Minor Parties and Independents in New South Wales 1910-2006, (Sydney: Federation Press, 2006, ISBN 9781862876231).
References: A comprehensive study of the Legislative Council's history and operation can be found in David Clune and Gareth Griffith, Decision and Deliberation: The Parliament of New South Wales 1856-2003, (Sydney: Federation Press, 2006, ISBN 186287591X), and Anne Twomey, The Constitution of New South Wales, (Sydney: Federation Press, 2004, ISBN 1862875162).
For the context of this election and NSW politics in this period, see David Clune and Rodney Smith (editors), From Carr to Keneally: Labor in Office in NSW 1995-2011, (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2012, ISBN 9781742376639), and note Benjamin Spies-Butcher, 'The New South Wales Election of 2007', Australian Journal of Political Science, 42 (4) December 2007: 693-699.
Sources
Antony Green, 2007 New South Wales Election: Final Analysis, (Sydney: New South Wales Parliamentary Library Research Service, Background Paper No. 1/08, 2008, ISSN 1325-5142, ISBN 97818315), online here [accessed 13 August 2015]; Antony Green, New South Wales Legislative Council Elections 2007, (Sydney: New South Wales Parliamentary Library Research Service, Background Paper No. 1/09, 2009, ISSN 1325-5142, ISBN 9780731318506), online here [accessed 13 August 2015].