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1983 Western Australian state election

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Field	Value
election_name	1983 Western Australian state election
country	Western Australia
type	parliamentary
ongoing	no
previous_election	1980 Western Australian state election
previous_year	1980
next_election	1986 Western Australian state election
next_year	1986
seats_for_election	All 57 seats in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly
and 18 (of the 34) seats to the Western Australian Legislative Council
29 Assembly seats were needed for a majority
election_date
image1
leader1	Brian Burke
leader_since1	18 September 1981
party1	Australian Labor Party (Western Australian Branch)
leaders_seat1	Balga
popular_vote1	342,536
percentage1	53.16%
swing1	7.21
last_election1	23 seats
seats1	32
seat_change1	9
image2	[[File:Ray O'Connor 1965.jpg	100px]]
leader2	Ray O'Connor
leader_since2	25 January 1982
party2	Liberal/NCP coalition
leaders_seat2	Mount Lawley
popular_vote2	278,994
percentage2	43.30%
swing2	4.75
last_election2	29 seats
seats2	23
seat_change2	6
image3
leader3	Hendy Cowan
leader_since3	1979
party3	National Party of Australia (WA)
leaders_seat3	Merredin
popular_vote3	10,767
percentage3	1.67%
swing3	1.29
last_election3	3 seats
seats3	2
seat_change3	1
1blank	TPP
2blank	TPP swing
1data1	53.74%
1data2	46.26%
2data1	4.71
2data2	4.71
title	Premier
before_election	Ray O'Connor
before_party	Liberal/NCP coalition
after_election	Brian Burke
after_party	Australian Labor Party (Western Australian Branch)

and 18 (of the 34) seats to the Western Australian Legislative Council 29 Assembly seats were needed for a majority

Elections were held in the state of Western Australia on 19 February 1983 to elect all 57 members to the Legislative Assembly and 18 members to the 34-seat Legislative Council.

The three-term Liberal-National Country coalition government, led by Premier Ray O'Connor since 25 January 1982 (after the retirement of Sir Charles Court) was defeated by the Labor Party, led by Opposition Leader Brian Burke since 10 September 1981.

Results

Legislative Assembly

| turnout % = 87.93% | informal % = 2.83% |votes % = 53.16% |votes % = 39.86% |votes % = 3.44% |votes % = 1.67% |votes % = 0.80% |votes % = 0.14% |votes % = 0.93% |votes % = 0.50% |2pp % 1 = 53.74% |2pp % 2 = 46.26% |}

Notes: : 754,226 electors were enrolled to vote at the election, but one seat, Narrogin, held by the National Country Party's Peter Jones and representing 9,239 electors, was held unopposed. : The National Country Party (NCP) and the National Party (NP) were two separate parties, the former in coalition with the Liberal Party, the latter an independent party which had split from the NCP on 10 August 1978.

Legislative Council

| turnout % = 88.98% | informal % = 3.72% |votes % = 50.63% |votes % = 41.57% |votes % = 3.18% |votes % = 3.15% |votes % = 1.45% |votes % = 0.00% |2pp % 1 = 52.81% |2pp % 2 = 47.19% |}

Seats changing parties

Seat	Post-1983	Party	Member	Margin	Margin	Member	Party
Bunbury	Liberal	John Sibson	1.3	4.0	2.7	Phil Smith	Labor
Mandurah	Liberal	notional	N/A	N/A	0.3	John Read	Labor
Mount Marshall	National Country	Ray McPharlin	10.8*	16.5	5.7**	Bill McNee	Liberal
Mundaring	Liberal	Tom Herzfeld	3.5	3.6	0.1	Gavan Troy	Labor
Pilbara	Liberal	Brian Sodeman	1.6	19.1	17.5	Pam Buchanan	Labor
Scarborough	Liberal	Ray Young	6.2	11.9	5.7	Graham Burkett	Labor
Whitford	Liberal	Mick Nanovich	8.3	16.0	7.7	Pam Beggs	Labor

Members listed in italics did not contest their seat at this election.
- figure is vs. Liberal
** figure is vs. National (NP)

Post-election pendulum

Opinion polling

Date	Primary vote	Leader's approval rating	Labor	Liberal-NCP	Labor	Liberal	February–April 1981	48	47	June–August 1981	49	51	18 September 1981	September–November 1981	51	47	December 1981–January 1982	46	46	63	21 January 1982	February–April 1982	51	52	May–June 1982	49	59	July–August 1982	51	63	September–October 1982	48	62	November–December 1982	48	61	19 February 1983 election	53.8
44	39
42	37
Brian Burke replaces Ron Davies as leader of the Labor Party
39	33
39
Ray O'Connor replaces Charles Court as leader of the Liberal Party
42	50
44	54
44	56
42	54
47	58
44.2

References

"Results for".
(1988). "Burkie: A biography of Brian Burke". St. George Books.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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