1927 New South Wales state election

The 1927 New South Wales state election to elect the 90 members of the 28th Legislative Assembly was held on 8 October 1927. During the previous parliament the voting system, which had been a form of proportional representation with multi-member seats and a single transferable vote (modified Hare-Clark), was changed to single member constituencies with optional preferential voting. Severe divisions occurred within the Labor Party caucus in the four months prior to the election (see Lang Labor) and a caretaker government composed of the supporters of the Premier of New South Wales and party leader, Jack Lang was in power at the time of the election.

1927 New South Wales state election

8 October 1927
All 90 seats in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly 46 Assembly seats were needed for a majority
Leader Thomas Bavin Jack Lang Party Nationalist/Country coalition Labor Leader since 24 September 1925 31 July 1923 Leader's seat Gordon Auburn Last election 41 seats 46 seats Seats won 46 seats 40 seats Seat change 5 6 Percentage 47.3% 43.0% Swing 1.3 3.0
Legislative Assembly after the election
Premier before election Jack Lang Labor Elected Premier Thomas Bavin Nationalist/Country coalition

As a result of the election the Lang government was defeated and a Nationalist/Country Party coalition government led by Thomas Bavin and Ernest Buttenshaw was formed with a parliamentary majority of 1 and the usual support of the 2 Nationalist independents. The Parliament first met on 3 November 1927, and ran its maximum term of 3 years. Lang remained the leader of the Labor Party throughout the Parliament.

To date, it remains the only time that an elected Labor Premier in New South Wales has been defeated after only one parliamentary term.

Key dates

Date	Event
7 September 1927	The Legislative Assembly was dissolved, and writs were issued by the Governor to proceed with an election.
14 September 1927	Nominations for candidates for the election closed at noon.
8 October 1927	Polling day.
29 October 1927	The writs were returned and the results formally declared.
3 November 1927	Opening of 28th Parliament.

Results

New South Wales state election, 29 October 1927 Legislative Assembly << 1925–1930 >>
Enrolled voters		1,394,254[lower-alpha 1]
Votes cast		1,135,681		Turnout	82.54	+13.47
Informal votes		15,086		Informal	1.31	–2.06
Summary of votes by party
Party		Primary votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Labor	488,306	43.00	–2.99	40	–6
	Nationalist	437,050	38.48	+1.41	33	+1
	Country	100,963	8.89	–2.58	13	+4
	Independent Labor	32,217	2.84	+2.58	2	+2
	Ind. Nationalist	30,061	2.65	+2.06	2	+1
	Protestant Labor	7,264	0.64	–1.47	0	–1
	Independent Country	4,316	0.38	+0.38	0	±0
	Constitutionalist	106	0.01	+0.01	0	±0
	Independents	35,398	3.12	+1.01	0	±0
Total		1,135,681			90

See also

• Candidates of the 1927 New South Wales state election
• Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, 1927–1930

Notes

1. There were 1,409,493 enrolled voters, but 15,239 were enrolled in Tenterfield which was uncontested.[1]

References

1. Green, Antony. "1927 election totals". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 31 July 2019.

• Nairn, Bede (1995) Jack Lang the 'Big Fella':Jack Lang and the Australian Labor Party 1891-1949 Melbourne University Press Melbourne ISBN 0-522-84700-5 OCLC 34416531