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, Single transferable voting, a form of proportional representation with multi-member seats (modified Hare-Clark), had been changed to single member constituencies and Instant-runoff voting (optional preferential voting).^[1][2][3]

1927 New South Wales state election

← 1925 8 October 1927 (1927-10-08) 1930 →
All 90 seats in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly 46 Assembly seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party   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
Two-candidate-preferred margin by electorate
Premier before election Jack Lang Labor Elected Premier Thomas Bavin Nationalist/Country coalition

Severe divisions occurred within the Labor Party caucus in the four months prior to the election (see Lang Labor). 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.^[4]

As a result of the election the Lang government was defeated and a Nationalist/Country Party coalition government led by Thomas Bavin^[5] and Ernest Buttenshaw^[6] 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.

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.
18 October 1927	Bavin ministry sworn in
29 October 1927	The writs were returned and the results formally declared.
3 November 1927	Opening of 28th Parliament.

Results

See also: Results of the 1927 New South Wales state election

New South Wales state election, 29 October 1927 Legislative Assembly << 1925–1930 >>
Enrolled voters		1,394,254[lower-alpha 1]
Votes cast		1,150,767		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
	Independents	35,504	3.13	+1.02	0	–1 [lower-alpha 2]
Total		1,135,681			90

Popular vote Labor   43.00% Nationalist   38.48% Country   8.89% Ind. Labor   2.84% Ind. Nationalist   2.65% Others   4.15% Parliamentary seats Labor   40 Nationalist   33 Country   13 Ind. Labor   2 Ind. Nationalist   2

Changing seats

1925 election					1927 election
Old Electorate	Member	Party		Note	New Electorate	New Member	Party
Balmain	H. V. Evatt		Labor	Changed party	Balmain	H. V. Evatt	Ind Labor
	Albert Lane		Nationalist	Defeated	Leichhardt	Barney Olde	Labor
	James Dooley		Labor	Retired	Hartley	Hamilton Knight
Botany	Thomas Mutch			Changed party	Botany	Thomas Mutch	Ind Labor
					Enmore	Joe Lamaro	Labor
Byron	Robert Gillies		Labor / Independent	Defeated as Ind Labor	Byron	Arthur Budd	Country
	Frederick Stuart		Progressive	Defeated as Ind Country	Byron
					Clarence	Alfred Pollack	Country
Cootamundra	Peter Loughlin		Labor / Independent	Defeated as Ind Labor	Young	Albert Reid
Eastern Suburbs	Harold Jaques		Nationalist	Changed party	Bondi	Harold Jaques	Ind. Nationalist
	Millicent Preston-Stanley			Defeated	Bondi
	Bob O'Halloran		Labor	Retired	Coogee	Hyman Goldstein	Nationalist
					Randwick	Ernest Tresidder
					Waverley	Carl Glasgow
	Septimus Alldis		Labor	Defeated as Ind Labor	Woollahra	Maurice O'Sullivan	Labor
Goulburn	Paddy Stokes			Defeated	Monaro	William Hedges	Country
Murray	Vern Goodin		Labor / Independent	Defeated as Ind Labor	Albury	John Ross	Nationalist
Newcastle					Newcastle	Peter Connolly	Labor
	Walter Skelton		Protestant Labor	Defeated	Wallsend	Robert Cameron
North Shore	Alick Kay [lower-alpha 2]		Independent	Resigned	Lane Cove	Bryce Walmsley	Nationalist
					Neutral Bay	Reginald Weaver
	William Fell		Ind. Nationalist	Retired	North Sydney	Ernest Marks
	Cecil Murphy		Labor	Defeated as Ind Labor	Rozelle
	Edward Sanders		Nationalist	Changed party	Willoughby	Edward Sanders	Ind. Nationalist
Northern Tablelands	Alfred McClelland		Labor	Defeated	Armidale
Oxley	Theodore Hill		Nationalist	Retired	Oxley	Lewis Martin	Nationalist
	Joseph Fitzgerald		Labor	Retired
Ryde	Robert Greig			Retired	Ryde	Henry McDicken	Labor
St George					Canterbury	Arthur Tonge [lower-alpha 2]
	William Bagnall		Nationalist	Retired	Hurstville	Walter Butler
	George Cann		Labor	Defeated as Ind Labor	Lakemba	Fred Stanley
Sturt	Brian Doe		Nationalist	Defeated	Illawarra
Sydney	Patrick Minahan		Labor	Defeated as Ind Labor	Auburn
	William Holdsworth			Retired	King	Daniel Clyne	Labor
					Surry Hills	Tom Shannon
Wammerawa	Joseph Clark		Labor	Defeated	Castlereagh
					Liverpool Plains	Harry Carter	Country
Western Suburbs	Edward McTiernan		Labor	Retired	Croydon	Bertram Stevens	Nationalist
	Tom Hoskins		Nationalist	Defeated as Ind. Nationalist	Dulwich Hill

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]
2. Alick Kay (Independent), a member for North Shore, resigned in 1926 and was replaced by Arthur Tonge (Labor)

References

1. Green, Antony. "1927 election totals". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 31 July 2019.
2. "Part 5B alphabetical list of all electorates and Members since 1856" (PDF). NSW Parliamentary Record. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
3. "Former members of the New South Wales Parliament, 1856–2006". New South Wales Parliament. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
4. Nairn, Bede. "Lang, John Thomas (Jack) (1876–1975)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
5. McCarthy, John. "Bavin, Sir Thomas Rainsford (Tom) (1874–1941)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
6. Kingston, Beverley. "Buttenshaw, Ernest Albert (1876–1950)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 23 November 2021.

• Nairn, Bede (1986). The 'Big Fella': Jack Lang and the Australian Labor Party 1891-1949. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. p. 369. ISBN 0-522-84406-5. OCLC 34416531.