A by-election for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Miranda occurred on 19 October 2013. The by-election was triggered by the resignation of

Graham Annesley Graham Annesley (born 26 May 1957) is an Australian former politician. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly representing Miranda for the Liberal Party from 2011 to 2013. From 3 April 2011 to 28 August 2013 he was the Min ...

(), which was announced on 28 August 2013. Barry Collier () won the seat with a 55 percent two-party vote from a 26-point two-party swing, the largest swing in New South Wales history.

Background

The Liberal member for Miranda, Graham Annesley, resigned from the New South Wales Parliament and as

Minister for Sport and Recreation The Minister for Sport and Recreation in New Zealand is the cabinet member appointed by the Prime Minister to be in charge of the Sport New Zealand. The current Minister for Sport and Recreation is Grant Robertson. List of ministers The follow ...

on 28 August 2013 to take up the post of chief executive officer of the Gold Coast Titans rugby league team. Annesley in his resignation to Parliament said he never regarded himself as a politician and that there were many aspects of politics he did not care for and he has always felt more at home as a sports administrator. A central Sutherland Shire electorate, Miranda crosses the peninsula between the

Georges River The Georges River, also known as Tucoerah River, is an intermediate tide-dominated drowned valley estuary, located to the south and west of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The river travels for approximately in a north and then easterly ...

and Port Hacking. It includes the suburbs of Como,

Bonnet Bay Bonnet Bay is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia that is located south of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the Sutherland Shire. Its postcode is 2226, which it shares ...

, Oyster Bay,

Kareela Kareela is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. History Kareela was the first mixed-use estate developed by Stockland, developed in 1953. The estate was originally called Sylvan Headland. Sylvan Headland ...

, Kirrawee, Gymea, Gymea Bay, Grays Point and parts of Sylvania, Miranda and Jannali. The seat's federal equivalent is in the western half of the

Division of Cook The Division of Cook is an Australian electoral division in the State of New South Wales. History Cook was created in 1969, mostly out of the Liberal-leaning areas of neighbouring Hughes. It was thus a natural choice for that seat's one-ter ...

. Created in

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events Ja ...

, Miranda had traditionally been a Liberal electorate. It had only been won by Labor in landslide elections, two under Neville Wran in

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...

and

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

, and again under Bob Carr in

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

and

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

. According to ABC psephologist Antony Green, the seat should have been recovered by the Liberals in

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

but was narrowly retained by Labor. Going into the 2011 election, Miranda was Labor's most marginal seat, with a 0.8 percent two-party margin. In the 2011 election, the Liberals won government in a landslide. In the process, they picked up a large enough swing in Miranda to turn it into a very safe Liberal seat on paper in one stroke, with a 21.0 percent two-party margin. There were 39 seats held by the

Coalition A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces. Formation According to ''A Gui ...

on smaller margins.

Campaign

Questions were raised over the Liberal-controlled Sutherland Shire Council's alleged property development favours in their draft Local Environmental Plan. Internal Liberal Party polling conducted two weeks before the by-election produced a 54–46 lead to Labor indicating a 25-point two-party

swing Swing or swinging may refer to: Apparatus * Swing (seat), a hanging seat that swings back and forth * Pendulum, an object that swings * Russian swing, a swing-like circus apparatus * Sex swing, a type of harness for sexual intercourse * Swing rid ...

against the Liberal government, however a follow-up internal Liberal Party poll had the Liberals "marginally in front". Sportsbet offered $1.25 for the Liberals against $3.50 for Labor with Antony Green predicting a Liberal retain. Both major party leaders played down expectations of a win.

Dates

Candidates

The six candidates in ballot paper order were:

Results

Labor won the seat with a two-party swing of 26 percent in the largest by-election swing in the state's history, outdoing even the 2010 Penrith by-election result. Premier Barry O'Farrell claimed Annesley's "unexpected, mid-term resignation" as the reason for the loss and rejected claims of a backlash against the Liberal government. Labor's Collier said the major issues for local voters were overdevelopment in the Sutherland Shire, the frequent closure of fire stations (uniformed firefighters were at polling stations protesting against the Liberal government), cuts to TAFE, and poor transport services at the Jannali and Kogarah train stations. Labor leader

John Robertson John, Jon, or Jonathan Robertson may refer to: Politicians United Kingdom politicians * J. M. Robertson (John Mackinnon Robertson, 1856–1933), British journalist and Liberal MP for Tyneside 1906–1918 *John Robertson (Bothwell MP) (1867–1926) ...

released a statement claiming there was a clear message to the Liberal government from Miranda voters, saying "The people of the shire have sent Barry O'Farrell the strongest of messages tonight ... in the last two-and-a-half years Barry O'Farrell and his government have taken families for granted ... Barry Collier was an outstanding local candidate who ran a strong community campaign, standing up for the Shire against Liberal cuts to services".

() resigned.

References