A by-election was held for the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament Ho ...

seat of Rockdale on 2 August 1986. It was triggered by the resignation of sitting

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

Brian Bannon Brian Joseph Bannon (22 August 1930 – 6 October 2017) was an Australian politician. He was the Australian Labor Party (New South Wales Branch), Labor member for Electoral district of Rockdale, Rockdale in the New South Wales Legislative As ...

. The by-election was won by Labor candidate and Premier

Barrie Unsworth Barrie John Unsworth (born 16 April 1934) is a former Australian politician, representing the Labor Party in the Parliament of New South Wales from 1978 to 1991. He served as the 36th Premier from July 1986 to March 1988. Early years Unswo ...

. The Rockdale by-election was held the same day as the Bass Hill by-election.

Background

become

Premier of New South Wales The premier of New South Wales is the head of government in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The Government of New South Wales follows the Westminster Parliamentary System, with a Parliament of New South Wales acting as the legislature. ...

on 4 July 1986, by virtue of succeeding

Neville Wran Neville Kenneth Wran, (11 October 1926 – 20 April 2014) was an Australian politician who was the Premier of New South Wales from 1976 to 1986. He was the national president of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1980 to 1986 and chairman of ...

as parliamentary leader of the New South Wales Labor Party. Wran resigned the premiership after more than 10 years in the role. At that time, Unsworth was a member of the Legislative Council, whereas premiers are typically members of the Legislative Assembly. Rockdale MP

resigned his seat on 3 July 1986, officially to accept a government job as Chairman of the Homebush States Sports Centre Trust, but in reality to create a vacancy for Unsworth to fill.

Results

Barrie Unsworth's transition from the upper house to the lower house was a very close run thing. Whilst Labor had held Rockdale at all times since the district's re-creation in 1941, it only barely retained the seat at the by-election. Labor suffered a large drop in its vote compared with the 1984 state election. In the finish, Unsworth prevailed by only 54 votes after the distribution of preferences.

resigned.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rockdale 1986 1986 elections in Australia New South Wales state by-elections 1980s in New South Wales August 1986 events in Australia

Background

Results

See also

Notes

References