South Australian state election, 1989
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| 25 November 1989 (1989-11-25) |
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State elections were held in South Australia on 25 November 1989. All 47 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly were up for election. The incumbent Australian Labor Party led by Premier of South Australia John Bannon defeated the Liberal Party of Australia led by Leader of the Opposition John Olsen.
Independents: Martyn Evans, Norm Peterson (both Independent Labor).
Background
Parliamentary elections for both houses of the Parliament of South Australia were held in South Australia in 1989, which saw John Bannon and the Australian Labor Party win a third successive term and 11 years in government. The John Olsen-led Liberal Party of Australia failed to win office despite gaining 51.9 percent of the two-party vote. Bannon's government had initially presided over an economic boom, but at the time of the election the economy had slowed due to the late 1980s recession. The Liberals' campaign blamed Bannon for the poor economic conditions.
The Liberals gained several seats, but Labor held power with of the support of the two "independent Labor" members.
It was only the second time that a Labor government in South Australia had been re-elected for a third term, however it would be the first eleven-year-incumbent Labor government.
Before the election, the Liberal Party made allegations of a Labor 'gerrymander', due to the perceived unfair state of the electoral boundaries. While Labor had not instituted any type of imbalanced electoral legislation, it had nonetheless not issued a redistribution since 1983. The electoral districts, with the correct 10 percent tolerances at the time, had not been updated, and due to population shifts, had changed beyond the tolerance allowed. Legislation made redistributions mandatory by the Electoral Commission of South Australia after each election, and included a 'fairness clause' where the commission should redraw boundaries with the objective that the party which receives over 50 percent of the statewide two-party vote at the forthcoming election should win the two-party vote in a majority of seats. One element of the Playmander remains to this day − the change from multi-member to single-member seats.
Olsen was replaced as Liberal leader by Dale Baker in 1990. He did not contest an election as leader, resigning the leadership to Dean Brown in 1992.
The 1990 Custance by-election, the 1992 Alexandra by-election and the 1992 Kavel by-election saw the Liberals retain each of the seats.
In the South Australian Legislative Council, the sole balance of power was held unbroken by the Australian Democrats from their inception in mid-1970s, until the late 1990s. Though the Democrats would exceed 16 percent of the vote at the 1997 election, during the following term the Democrats would lose the sole balance of power for the first time, sharing the balance of power with independent members, slowly losing numbers and influence, until they were eventually without parliamentary representation as of the 2010 election.
Post-election Pendulum
See also
References
External links
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