1978 New South Wales state election

A general election was held in the state of New South Wales, Australia, on Saturday 7 October 1978. The result was a landslide victory for the Labor Party under Neville Wran, popularly known as the "Wranslide."

1978 New South Wales state election

7 October 1978 (1978-10-07)
All 99 seats in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly and 15 (of the 44) seats in the New South Wales Legislative Council 50 Assembly seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader Neville Wran Peter Coleman Party Labor Liberal/National coalition Leader since 17 November 1973 16 December 1977 Leader's seat Bass Hill Fuller (lost seat) Last election 50 seats 48 seats Seats won 63 35 Seat change 13 13 Popular vote 1,615,949 1,031,780 Percentage 57.77% 36.88% Swing 8.02 9.18 TPP 60.70% 39.30% TPP swing 9.10 9.10
Legislative Assembly after the election
Premier before election Neville Wran Labor Elected Premier Neville Wran Labor

It is notable for being so successful for the Labor Party that it tallied 57 percent of the primary vote, the largest primary vote for any party in over a century. Having gone into the election with a razor-thin majority of one seat, Labor scored a 13-seat swing, giving it a strong majority of 63 seats. Labor even managed to defeat the Leader of the Opposition, Peter Coleman, in his own electorate. The seats of many other prominent Shadow Ministers fell to Labor as well. Labor also won took many seats in areas long reckoned as Coalition heartland. Among them were four seats that Labor had never won before this election--Willoughby (contested for the Liberal Party by Nick Greiner who later became Premier), Manly, Wakehurst and Cronulla. It also came within striking distance of taking several more. For instance, it pared down the margin in Pittwater, the seat of former premier Bob Askin, to only 1.4 percent.

The state's first elections to the New South Wales Legislative Council, the state parliament's upper house, were held simultaneously. Voters had approved a referendum to introduce a directly elected council in June of that year. Starting with this election, Single transferable voting (STV) was used to fill the Council seats up for election.[1] The election of 15 members in a single contest was the largest District Magnitude seen in a STV election. It would be surpassed, again by NSW in 1995 when it began to elect 21 in a single contest.[2]

The election was also the first in the state to be contested by the Australian Democrats.

Labor continued to campaign heavily on the strengths of Wran himself, with the slogan "Wran's our man".