Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

New South Wales
Election
Premier/s
between
elections*
Main support in Assembly
Government status
1981 Neville Wran Labor Majority
1984 Neville Wran
Barrie Unsworth
Labor
Labor
Majority
Majority
1988 Nicholas Greiner Liberal–National Coalition Majority
1991 Nicholas Greiner
John Fahey
Liberal–National Coalition
Liberal–National Coalition
Minority
Minority
1995 Robert Carr Labor Majority
1999 Robert Carr Labor Majority
2003 Robert Carr
Morris Iemma
2007 Morris Iemma
Nathan Rees
Kristina Keneally
2011 Barry O’Farrell
Michael Baird
2015 Michael Baird
Gladys Berejiklian
Labor
Labor
Labor
Labor
Labor
Labor
Liberal–National Coalition
Liberal–National Coalition
Liberal–National Coalition
Liberal–National Coalition
Majority
Majority
Majority
Majority
Majority
Majority
Majority
Majority
Majority
Majority
*The first premier listed next to each election date is the first leader who secured office as a
result of the election. Premiers who continued to govern for short periods after losing an
election until a successor was sworn in are not included.
Why was NSW Labor so dominant after 1941? Part of the answer lies in the
sheer extent of the NSW UAP’s collapse in the early 1940s and the difficulty of
establishing a competitive Liberal organisation. The NSW division of the Liberal
Party, formed in 1945, had a similar structure to the UAP, except that it controlled
its own finances, rather than relying on shadowy business interests. Liberal head
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