1979 South Australian state election

1979 South Australian state election

15 September 1979 (1979-09-15)

All 47 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly
24 seats were needed for a majority
11 (of the 22) seats in the South Australian Legislative Council
  First party Second party Third party
 
DEM
Leader David Tonkin Des Corcoran Robin Millhouse
Party Liberal Labor Democrats
Leader since 24 July 1975 15 February 1979
Leader's seat Bragg Hartley Mitcham
Seats before 18 27 1
Seats won 24 20 1
Seat change 6 7
Popular vote 352,343 300,277 60,797
Percentage 47.94% 40.86% 8.30%
Swing 6.73pp 10.78pp 4.82pp
TPP 55.0% 45.0%
TPP swing 8.40pp 8.40pp

  Fourth party
 
NAT
Leader Peter Blacker
Party National
Leader's seat Flinders
Seats before 1
Seats won 1
Seat change
Popular vote 14,013
Percentage 1.91%
Swing 0.31pp

Results by electoral division for the House of Assembly.

Premier before election

Des Corcoran
Labor

Elected Premier

David Tonkin
Liberal

State elections were held in South Australia on 15 September 1979. All 47 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly were up for election. The incumbent Australian Labor Party led by Premier of South Australia Des Corcoran was defeated by the Liberal Party of Australia led by Leader of the Opposition David Tonkin.

The Liberals originally won 25 seats, but a court decision overturned their win in Norwood. Labor won the Norwood by-election, which meant the Liberals held 24 seats, with Labor on 20 seats, and 1 each to the Australian Democrats, National Country Party, and an Independent Labor.