Parliament of New South Wales, Legislative Assembly election
Election of 28 March 2015
Government in office and parliamentary support before and after the election
Government in office at election
Government in office after election
Enrolment and voting
New South Wales, Legislative Assembly votes and seats won
Election held on 28 March 2015
Criteria for the inclusion of parties in this table are set out in the Glossary under 'listed party'
| Party Name | First preference vote n | First preference vote share % | Change from previous election % | Seats won n | Uncontested seats held n | Seat share % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal Party | 1,545,168 | 35.08 | -3.50 | 37 | 0 | 39.78 |
| Australian Labor Party | 1,500,855 | 34.08 | +8.52 | 34 | 0 | 36.56 |
| National Party | 464,653 | 10.55 | -2.02 | 17 | 0 | 18.28 |
| Greens | 453,031 | 10.29 | 0.00 | 3 | 0 | 3.23 |
| Independents | 175,954 | 4.00 | -4.90 | 2 | 0 | 2.15 |
| Christian Democratic Party | 142,632 | 3.24 | +0.12 | 0 | ||
| No Land Tax Party | 88,792 | 2.02 | * | 0 | ||
| Country Party (unregistered) | 11,911 | 0.27 | * | 0 | ||
| Animal Justice Party | 5,164 | 0.12 | * | 0 | ||
| Australian Cyclists Party | 4,892 | 0.11 | * | 0 | ||
| Unity Party | 3,647 | 0.08 | * | 0 | ||
| Outdoor Recreation Party | 3,096 | 0.07 | -0.04 | 0 | ||
| Socialist Equality Party | 1,374 | 0.03 | -0.02 | 0 | ||
| Socialist Alliance | 1,295 | 0.03 | -0.05 | 0 | ||
| Australia First | 1,092 | 0.02 | +0.01 | 0 | ||
| Communist League | 490 | 0.01 | +0.01 | 0 | ||
| Liberal Democratic Party | 288 | 0.01 | * | |||
| Votes for other than listed parties | 0 | 0.00 | 0.00 | |||
| Totals | 4,404,334 | 100.00 | 93 | 0 | 100.00 |
Previous election in this series | Display Chart
* Party did not contest previous election or did not meet criteria for listing, or contested previous election under a different party name.
Notes
Premier in office at election: There had been a change of Premier since the previous Legislative Assembly election in 2011. O'Farrell resigned as Premier on 16 April 2014 when evidence was disclosed at a hearing of the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption that he had accepted a bottle of vintage wine (worth about $3,000) from a lobbyist in April 2011 without disclosing the gift, and after denying that he had received such a gift; for the context of the resignation, see David Clune, 'New South Wales', Australian Journal of Politics and History, Political Chronicles, January to June 2014, 60(4) June 2014: 627-633.
Baird was elected leader of the Liberal Party unopposed by a meeting of the Parliamentary Party on 17 April 2014, and was commissioned as Premier of a Liberal Party and National Party coalition government later in the day; the other members of the Ministry were commissioned on 23 April 2014.
Australian Labor Party and Country Labor: Australian Labor Party candidates in 26 electoral districts outside Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong used the campaign label 'Country Labor'; they gained 359,566 votes and won 3 seats. But Country Labor had no separate organization and successful Country Labor candidates sat as members of the Australian Labor Party in the Legislative Assembly. The votes for 'Country Labor' are included with those of the Labor party in the table above.
Independents and unaffiliated candidates: At this Assembly election, 44 candidates listed themselves as Independents and gained 169,731 votes, with two Independent candidates being re-elected; Alex Greenwich (electoral district of Sydney, first won in a by-election in 2012), and Greg Piper (electoral district of Lake Macquarie). In the table above, the vote shown for Independents includes the votes for 4 candidates who did not list themselves as Independents or run as a member of party grouping; such 'unaffiliated' candidates gained 6,223 votes. If candidates who ran as candidates for an unregistered party are included, the total number of votes obtained by nominally 'Independent' candidates rises to 191,109 (see following note).
Unregistered parties: Green, p. 5 (see 'Sources', below) provides details of votes won by candidates who were affiliated with a party grouping which had not registered the party name with the New South Wales Electoral Commission. This meant that no party name appeared on the ballot, and the candidates were nominally Independents (see note above). The votes won by these unregistered parties listed by Green are included in the table above: Australia First (3 candidates); Communist League (1 candidate); Liberal Democratic Party (1 candidate); Socialist Equality (4 candidates); and Country Party (2 candidates). The Country Party is list as 'Country Party (unregistered)' to distinguish it from the Country Party which was the predecessor of the current National Party.
Sources
Antony Green, 2015 New South Wales Election: Analysis of Results,(Sydney: New South Wales Parliamentary Library Research Service, Background Paper No. 1/2015, ISSN 1325-4456, ISBN 9780731319374), available online here [accessed 5 August 2015].