2012 Sydney state by-election

27 October 2012

First party Second party Third party   Candidate Alex Greenwich Shayne Mallard Chris Harris Party Independent Liberal Greens Popular vote 17,687 11,543 6,616 Percentage 47.3% 30.9% 17.7% Swing 47.3 5.3 4.9 TPP 63.7% 36.3% TPP swing 63.7 10.6

Electoral district of Sydney in central metropolitan Sydney

MP before election Clover Moore Independent Elected MP Alex Greenwich Independent

A by-election for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Sydney was held on Saturday 27 October 2012. The by-election was triggered by the resignation of independent MP Clover Moore due to the legislation preventing dual membership of state parliament and local council.^[1]

Following the 2012 local government elections in which Moore was re-elected for a third term as Lord Mayor of Sydney, Moore resigned from NSW Parliament. Laws passed through NSW Parliament in 2012 ceased dual state parliament and local council representation.^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

Alex Greenwich, an independent candidate backed by Moore easily won the seat.^{[7][8][9][10]}

Dates

Background

Moore was first elected to the marginal seat of Bligh at the 1988 election. Her largest primary vote was 43.7 percent in 1991, while her largest two-candidate preferred vote was 64.7 percent in 2003. The seat was replaced by Sydney at the 2007 election, where Moore retained the seat with a primary vote of 39.6 percent (+7.2) and a two-candidate preferred vote of 66.6 percent (+1.6) against Labor. At the 2011 election, Moore retained the seat with a primary vote of 36.3 percent and a two-candidate vote of 53.1 percent against the Liberals with a primary vote of 36.2 percent (+14.6), the Greens on 12.8 percent (−2.8), and Labor on 11.3 percent (−8.7). In two-party preferred terms, the seat had a Liberal vote of 65.5 percent (+22.4) against Labor.^[13][14]

There was a 16.3 percent two-party preferred swing away from the Coalition government at the 2011 Clarence by-election. The Coalition did not contest the 2012 Heffron by-election which Labor retained with an increased margin. Labor strategically chose not to contest the Sydney by-election.^[15]

Candidates

The five candidates in ballot paper order were as follows:

Polling

• On 26 September 2012, 422 voters (5% MoE) in the seat were robocall polled by ReachTel. Greenwich was on a primary vote of 31.4 percent, the Liberals were on 30.6 percent, the Greens were on 25.4 percent, with 'others' on 12.5 percent (respondents were told Labor was not fielding a candidate).^[18] Although no two-candidate preferred vote was given, the ABC's election analyst Antony Green said Greenwich would have been favoured to win on preferences given that Labor decided not to run a candidate.^[19]

Results