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 ...

electorate of

Clarence Clarence may refer to: Places Australia * Clarence County, New South Wales, a Cadastral division * Clarence, New South Wales, a place near Lithgow * Clarence River (New South Wales) * Clarence Strait (Northern Territory) * City of Clarence, a l ...

on 19 November 2011, following the resignation from parliament on 16 September of

Steve Cansdell Stephen Rhett Cansdell (born 23 September 1950 in Dubbo) is an Australian former professional boxer and former member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly. He was Australian professional light heavyweight boxing champion in 1973/1974 an ...

(). Despite a large

two-party-preferred In Australian politics, the two-party-preferred vote (TPP or 2PP) is the result of an election or opinion poll after preferences have been distributed to the highest two candidates, who in some cases can be independents. For the purposes of TPP, ...

swing, Nationals candidate

Chris Gulaptis Christopher Gulaptis is an Australian politician who was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly. He represented Clarence for The Nationals from the 2011 by-election until his retirement in March 2023. Background and early caree ...

retained the seat.

Background

resigned from parliament after admitting to making a false

statutory declaration A statutory declaration is a legal document defined under the law of certain Commonwealth nations and in the United States. It is similar to a statement made under oath, but it is not sworn. Statutory declarations are commonly used to allow a pers ...

regarding a speeding offence. Eight candidates contested the by-election including Nationals candidate

who previously contested the federal seat of

Page Page most commonly refers to: * Page (paper), one side of a leaf of paper, as in a book Page, PAGE, pages, or paging may also refer to: Roles * Page (assistance occupation), a professional occupation * Page (servant), traditionally a young m ...

at the

2007 federal election This electoral calendar 2007 lists the national/federal direct elections held in 2007 in the de jure and de facto sovereign states and their dependent territories. Referendums are included, although they are not elections. By-elections are not i ...

, and Labor candidate Peter Ellem. One of the main issues of the campaign was

coal seam gas Coalbed methane (CBM or coal-bed methane), coalbed gas, coal seam gas (CSG), or coal-mine methane (CMM) is a form of natural gas extracted from coal beds. In recent decades it has become an important source of energy in United States, Canada, Au ...

(CSG) production. Labor accused the Coalition government of putting the environment at risk by not ruling out future CSG, while resources minister

Chris Hartcher Christopher "Chris" Peter Hartcher (born 21 December 1946) is an Australian politician. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1988 to 2015, representing the electorates of Gosford (1988–2007) and Terrigal (2007–2 ...

claimed that "Every CSG licence that exists in NSW was granted by the Labor government of which John Robertson was a minister". Other issues in the campaign were more local, with candidates jousting over ways to create more jobs in Grafton and reduce crime in

Casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...

Results

() resigned. The Nationals suffered a 16-point

swing, but since Clarence was already a very safe National seat, Gulaptis retained the seat for the Nationals with a majority of 15 percentage points.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clarence 2011 2011 elections in Australia New South Wales state by-elections 2011 in New South Wales November 2011 events in Australia

Background

Results

See also

References