1982 South Australian state election

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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
			NAT
Leader	John Bannon	David Tonkin	Peter Blacker
Party	Labor	Liberal	National
Leader since	18 September 1979	24 July 1975
Leader's seat	Ross Smith	Bragg	Flinders
Last election	20 seats	24 seats	1 seat
Seats won	24	21	1
Seat change	Increase4	Decrease3	Steady
Popular vote	353,999	326,372	17,782
Percentage	46.28%	42.67%	2.32%
Swing	Increase5.43	Decrease5.27	Increase0.42
TPP	50.9%	49.1%
TPP swing	Increase5.9	Decrease5.9

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State elections were held in South Australia on 6 November 1982. All 47 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly were up for election. The incumbent Liberal Party of Australia led by Premier of South Australia David Tonkin was defeated by the Australian Labor Party led by Leader of the Opposition John Bannon.

A referendum on daylight saving was held on the same day, and was passed.^[1]

Parliamentary elections for both houses of the Parliament of South Australia were held in South Australia in 1982, which saw John Bannon and the Australian Labor Party defeat the incumbent Liberal Party of Australia led by David Tonkin, after one term in power.

As Premier, Tonkin combined fiscal conservatism with socially progressive reforms. In the former, Tonkin made significant cuts to the public service, earning him the enmity of the unions, while an example of the latter was the passage of the land rights bill and the return to the Pitjantjatjara people of 10 per cent of South Australia's area.

Prior to the election, Tonkin removed Robin Millhouse (a former Liberal member who had defected to the Liberal Movement and then the Australian Democrats, and whose popularity enabled him to hold his seat of Mitcham) with an offer of a vacant seat in the Supreme Court.^{[citation needed ]} However the subsequent by-election saw the seat retained by Democrats candidate Heather Southcott.

One potential election factor was the copper and uranium mine at Olympic Dam, near Roxby Downs. Enabling legislation had been passed earlier in 1982, despite the opposition of the Labor Party, only when Norm Foster quit the Labor party to support it. Considered a controversial move in Labor circles, Bannon defused this as an election issue by promising that development would go ahead under a Labor government (a commitment which was honoured), despite having previously opposed it.

The Liberals also had to contend with the early 1980s recession.

Labor achieved a 5.9% swing, and won 4 seats from the Liberals (Brighton, Henley Beach, Mawson and Newland). The Liberals won the seat of Mitcham from the Democrats, so overall lost 3 seats. The House of Assembly numbers were Labor 24, Liberal 21, National Party 1 and Independent Labor 1, giving Labor a narrow majority.

In the Legislative Council, Liberal and Labor won 5 seats each, and the Democrats 1; giving a chamber of 11 Liberal, 9 Labor and 2 Democrats. Labor lost one seat to the Democrats, but regained the seat they had lost when Norm Foster resigned from the Labor party earlier that year. Foster stood as an Independent Labor member in the Legislative Council, but was not re-elected.

After the election loss, Tonkin resigned as Liberal leader and was succeeded by John Olsen, who won a leadership ballot against Dean Brown. A heart complaint caused Tonkin to leave parliament soon after at which a 1983 Bragg by-election was triggered, with the Liberals easily retaining the seat.

A 1984 Elizabeth by-election saw Independent Labor candidate Martyn Evans win the seat from Labor. This gave Labor a minority government (23 out of 47 seats), though it continued to govern with the support of Independent Labor members Evans and Norm Peterson.^[2]

• Issue of writ: 18 October 1982
• Close of nominations: 26 October 1982
• Polling day: 6 November 1982
• Return of writ: On or before 4 December 1982

South Australian state election, 6 November 1982[3] House of Assembly << 1979–1985 >>
Enrolled voters		871,235
Votes cast		811,783	Turnout	93.18	+0.14
Informal votes		46,921	Informal	5.78	+1.35
Summary of votes by party
Party		Primary votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Labor	353,999	46.28	+5.43	24	+4
	Liberal	326,372	42.67	–5.27	21	–3
	Democrats	54,457	7.12	–1.18	0	–1
	National	17,782	2.32	+0.42	1	0
	Independent	12,252	1.60	+0.60	1	0
Total		764,862			47
Two-party-preferred
	Labor	389,625	50.94	+5.94
	Liberal	375,237	49.06	–5.94

Seat	Pre-1982				Swing	Post-1982
	Party		Member	Margin		Margin	Member	Party
Brighton		Liberal	Dick Glazbrook	4.7	5.5	0.8	June Appleby	Labor
Henley Beach		Liberal	Bob Randall	1.0	5.0	4.0	Don Ferguson	Labor
Mawson		Liberal	Ivar Schmidt	3.0	9.6	6.6	Susan Lenehan	Labor
Mitcham		Democrats	Heather Southcott	4.7	15.1	10.4	Stephen Baker	Liberal
Newland		Liberal	Brian Billard	6.2	9.8	3.6	John Klunder	Labor

South Australian state election, 6 November, 1982[4] Legislative Council << 1979–1985 >>
Enrolled voters		871,215
Votes cast		808,363	Turnout	92.8	+0.2
Informal votes		81,400	Informal	10.1	+5.7
Summary of votes by party
Party		Primary votes	%	Swing	Seats won	Seats held
	Labor	345,936	47.6	+7.9	5	9
	Liberal	301,090	41.4	–9.2	5	11
	Democrats	40,405	5.6	–0.9	1	2
	National	14,514	2.0	+0.9	0	0
	Communist	11,837	1.6	+1.6	0	0
	Other	13,181	1.8	*	0	0
Total		726,963			11	22

• Results of the South Australian state election, 1982 (House of Assembly)
• Results of the 1982 South Australian state election (Legislative Council)
• Members of the South Australian House of Assembly, 1982-1985
• Members of the South Australian Legislative Council, 1982-1985

• Historical lower house results
• Historical upper house results
• State and federal election results Archived 18 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine in Australia since 1890