2015 New South Wales state election

2015 New South Wales state election

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All 93 seats in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly and 21 (of the 42) seats in the New South Wales Legislative Council 47 Assembly seats were needed for a majority
Opinion polls
First party Second party Third party   Leader Mike Baird Luke Foley No leader Party Liberal/National coalition Labor Greens Leader since 17 April 2014 5 January 2015 Leader's seat Manly Auburn (won seat) Last election 69 seats, 51.2% 20 seats, 25.6% 1 seat, 10.29% Seats before 61 seats 23 seats 1 seat Seats won 54 34 3 Seat change 7 11 2 Popular vote 2,009,821 1,500,855 453,031 Percentage 45.63% 34.08% 10.29% Swing 5.52 8.52 0.00 TPP 54.32% 45.68% TPP swing 9.90 9.90
Two-candidate-preferred margin by electorate
Premier before election Mike Baird Liberal/National coalition Elected Premier Mike Baird Liberal/National coalition

The 2015 New South Wales state election was held on Saturday 28 March 2015. Members were elected to all 93 seats in the Legislative Assembly using optional preferential voting. Members were also elected to 21 of the 42 seats in the Legislative Council using optional preferential proportional representation voting. The election was conducted by the New South Wales Electoral Commission.

The one-term incumbent Liberal/National Coalition Government led by Premier Mike Baird and Deputy Premier Troy Grant was re-elected to a second four-year term with a reduced majority in the Legislative Assembly, where government is formed. The main Opposition Labor Party under Luke Foley won an increased share of the vote in most districts, though the party lost ground in some key races, including Foley's seat of Auburn. It managed to take 7 seats off the Coalition and 5 seats off Liberal turned Independents mostly in areas of Labor "heartland" lost to the Liberals during the landslide in 2011, but nevertheless the Liberals still won a second consecutive landslide^[1] while the coalition still won a comfortable 15–seat majority they nevertheless saw there majority be seriously cut from a high of 47 seats. Most notably, Labor regained seats in west Sydney, the Central Coast and the lower Hunter.

Baird had campaigned on a controversial plan to lease 49 per cent of the state-owned electricity distribution network (known as the "poles and wires") to deliver an ambitious transport and social infrastructure program. Labor, supported by the state's union movement, ran on an anti-privatisation platform, while also promising a moratorium on coal-seam gas (CSG) extraction, and encouraging voters to register a protest vote against the Liberal-led Coalition federal government. Although the poles-and-wires proposal was poorly received in opinion polls, Baird himself was widely liked by the electorate.

Candidate nominations closed on 12 March and early voting began on 16 March.