1962 New South Wales state election

← 1959 3 March 1962 (1962-03-03) 1965 →
All 94 seats in theNew South Wales Legislative Assembly 48 Assembly seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader Bob Heffron Bob Askin Party Labor Liberal/Country coalition Leader since 23 October 1959 17 July 1959 Leader's seat Maroubra Collaroy Last election 49 seats 44 seats Seats won 54 39 Seat change 5 5 Percentage 48.57% 44.22% Swing 0.55 0.16
Two-candidate-preferred margin by electorate
Premier before election Bob Heffron Labor ElectedPremier Bob Heffron Labor

The1962 New South Wales state election was held on 3 March 1962. It was conducted in single member constituencies with compulsorypreferential voting and was held on boundaries created at a 1961 redistribution. The election was for all of the 94 seats in theLegislative Assembly.

A redistribution of electoral boundaries was undertaken in 1961 based on that year'sAustralian Census. The redistribution reflected the continuing relative population shifts from the Country and Eastern suburbs of Sydney to Western Sydney and the Central Coast. The Hunter Valley seat ofLiverpool Plains, held by theCountry Party was abolished while in the eastern suburbs the safeLiberal seat ofWoollahra and the safeLabor seat ofPaddington-Waverley were combined to form the marginal seat ofBligh. In Northern Sydney, the marginal Labor seat ofNorth Sydney and the safe Liberal seat ofNeutral Bay were combined to form the relatively safe Liberal seat ofKirribilli.Wakehurst was created in the Northern Beaches area with a notional Liberal majority and on the Central Coast, the seat ofWyong was established and was expected to have a large Labor majority. In Western Sydney the seats ofMerrylands andLeichhardt were abolished and replaced by the safe Labor seats ofWentworthville andBass Hill. The seat ofThe Hills was established in North-west Sydney mainly from the northern portion ofBlacktown and this made Blacktown a safe Labor seat. While the theoretical effect of the redistribution was to increase the Liberal numbers by 1 at the expense of the Country Party, the boundary changes significantly improved Labor's position in several seats including Nepean, Coogee and Drummoyne. Joan Rydon estimated that the coalition would have needed 52% of the overall vote to win office.^[1]

In March 1962, Labor had been in power for 21 years andRobert Heffron had been premier for 2 and a half years. Heffron was 72 at the time of the election and his age and the longevity of the government were made issues by the opposition which described it as being composed of "tired old men". The prestige of Heffron's government had suffered when the electors clearly rejected its proposal to abolish theNew South Wales Legislative Council at a referendum in April 1961. Labor's new policies for the election included the establishment of a Department of Industrial Development to reduce unemployment, free school travel, aid to home buyers and commencing the construction of theSydney–Newcastle Freeway as a toll-road.^[2]

In contrast to Labor the leader of the conservative coalition,Robin Askin put forward a positive program and addressed contentious issues including the introduction of State Aid for private schools, making rent control fairer and the legalisation of off-course betting on horse races. Askin accused the state government of allowing the transport infrastructure of the state to decline. He promised to build the Newcastle freeway without a toll, to construct theEastern Suburbs Railway and to plan for a second crossing of Sydney Harbour. Askin also promised more resources for mental health and district hospitals.^[3][4]

The Labor government's position improved substantially at this election. It had a buffer of 7 seats in the new parliament:

Prior to the election Labor had gained the seat ofLismore from the Country Party at a by-election after the Court of Disputed Returns ruling the 1959 election result invalid. Labor had lost the seat ofLiverpool Plains to the Country Party at a by-election caused by the resignation ofRoger Nott. However, Liverpool Plains was abolished by the redistribution at this election. InOxley the sitting member,Les Jordan changed his allegiance from the Country Party to the Liberal Party,

Labor regained the seat ofWaratah from the independent incumbentFrank Purdue and, as expected, won the new seats of Wyong, Wentworthville, Bass Hill and Bligh. Labor also gained Blacktown,Nepean,Drummoyne andCoogee from the Liberals.

The Liberal Party won the new seats of Kirribilli, Wakehurst and The Hills. In Manly, the sitting Liberal memberDouglas Darby, who had lost his party's pre-selection, successfully contested the seat as an Independent Liberal.

The DLP and the Communist party both performed poorly, each party gained less than 2% of the primary vote.

Non-elected Premier Bob Heffron was elected his own right as Premier and would be the last non-elected Premier to achieve this until Morris Iemma in 2007.

Robert Heffron resigned in April 1964, aged 74 and was replaced byJack Renshaw.Robert Askin andCharles Cutler remained as leaders of their respective parties throughout the term of the parliament. During the parliament there were 4by-elections. These produced no change in party representation with the exception of Labor losing Waratah to the independent former member, Frank Purdue.

• Candidates of the 1962 New South Wales state election
• Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, 1962–1965

• Elections in New South Wales
• 1962 elections in Australia
• 1960s in New South Wales
• March 1962 in Australia

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