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
Gordon
Gordon may refer to:
People
* Gordon (given name), a masculine given name, including list of persons and fictional characters
* Gordon (surname), the surname
* Gordon (slave), escaped to a Union Army camp during the U.S. Civil War
* Clan Gordon, ...
on 2 May 1992 because of the resignation of
Tim Moore,
following the release of the findings of the
Independent Commission Against Corruption into the 'Metherell Affair'.
The seat was comfortably won by
Jeremy Kinross
Jeremy Stirton Prevost Kinross (born 18 December 1959) is a former Australian politician. He was the Liberal Party member for Gordon in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1992 to 1999.
Kinross was born in Sydney to John Stirton Kinr ...
of the Liberal Party despite a 5.5% drop in the Liberal primary vote, and a 5.7% drop in their two party preferred vote.
Background
The seat of Gordon, a traditionally safe Liberal seat, was held since 1976 by Tim Moore. However, with the
hung parliament
A hung parliament is a term used in legislatures primarily under the Westminster system to describe a situation in which no single political party or pre-existing coalition (also known as an alliance or bloc) has an absolute majority of legisl ...
result of the
1991 election, the performance of the
Greiner government had become dependent on the support of the few independent members of the legislative assembly. When former minister
Terry Metherell
Terry Alan Metherell (born 9 January 1947) is a former Australian politician who represented the Electoral district of Davidson in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1981 to 1992. When the Liberal Party won the 1988 election, Premi ...
resigned in October 1991 the government's ability to command a majority became even more difficult. The government subsequently created a job for Metherell, a position with the Environment Protection Agency, which he accepted, effectively engineering a vacancy in a seat the Liberal Party would recover at a by-election.
[
While the Liberal Party won the by-election, there was a much higher cost. Because the Greiner government was in a minority, it could not prevent the Legislative Assembly referring the matter of Metherell's appointment to the Independent Commission Against Corruption, which made findings of corruption. These findings were eventually ruled by the ]Supreme Court of New South Wales
The Supreme Court of New South Wales is the highest state court of the Australian State of New South Wales. It has unlimited jurisdiction within the state in civil matters, and hears the most serious criminal matters. Whilst the Supreme Court i ...
as being outside the powers of the ICAC to make, but by then Premier Greiner had already resigned as Premier and an MP after the four independent MPs threatened to bring down the government if Greiner stayed in office.
Result
Tim Moore () resigned.
See also
* Electoral results for the district of Gordon (New South Wales)
*List of New South Wales state by-elections
This is a list of by-elections for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly. A by-election may be held when a member's seat becomes vacant through resignation, death or some other reasons. These are referred to as casual vacancies.
*Brackets aro ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon 1992
New South Wales state by-elections
1992 elections in Australia
1990s in New South Wales