{{Short description|Australian state election}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{for|the local government elections held on 16 March|1996 Victorian local elections}} {{Infobox election | election_name = 1996 Victorian state election | country = Victoria | type = parliamentary | ongoing = no | previous_election = 1992 Victorian state election | previous_year = 1992 | next_election = 1999 Victorian state election | next_year = 1999 | seats_for_election = All 88 seats in the [[Victorian Legislative Assembly]]<br />and [[Results of the 1996 Victorian state election (Legislative Council)|22 (of the 44) seats]] in the [[Victorian Legislative Council]]<br />45 seats needed for a majority | election_date = {{Start date|df=yes|1996|03|30}}
<!-- Liberal/National coalition --> | image1 = {{CSS image crop |Image = Jeff Kennett b.jpg|bSize = 137|cWidth = 130|cHeight = 170|oTop = 10|oLeft = 7|Location = center}} | leader1 = [[Jeff Kennett]] | leader_since1 = 23 April 1991 | party1 = Liberal/National coalition | leaders_seat1 = [[Electoral district of Burwood|Burwood]] | popular_vote1 = '''1,397,352''' | percentage1 = '''50.68%''' | swing1 = {{decrease}}1.27 | last_election1 = 61 seats | seats1 = '''58''' | seat_change1 = {{decrease}}3 | 1data1 = '''53.47%''' | 2data1 = {{decrease}}2.81
<!-- Labor --> | image2 = {{CSS image crop |Image = John Brumby b.jpg|bSize = 140|cWidth = 130|cHeight = 170|oTop = 3|oLeft = 0|Location = center}} | leader2 = [[John Brumby]] | leader_since2 = June 1993 | party2 = Australian Labor Party (Victorian Branch) | leaders_seat2 = [[Electoral district of Broadmeadows|Broadmeadows]] | popular_vote2 = 1,189,475 | percentage2 = 43.13% | swing2 = {{increase}}4.72 | last_election2 = 27 seats | seats2 = 29 | seat_change2 = {{increase}}2 | 1data2 = 46.53% | 2data2 = {{increase}}2.83
| 1blank = [[Two-party-preferred|TPP]] | 2blank = TPP swing
| map_image = 1996 Victorian state election.svg | map_size = 320px | map_caption = Results in each electorate
| title = [[Premier of Victoria|Premier]] | before_election = [[Jeff Kennett]] | before_party = Liberal/National coalition | after_election = [[Jeff Kennett]] | after_party = Liberal/National coalition }}
The '''1996 Victorian state election''', held on Saturday, 30 March 1996, was for the 53rd [[Parliament of Victoria]]. It was held in the [[States and territories of Australia|Australian state]] of [[Victoria (Australia)|Victoria]] to elect all 88 members of the state's [[Victorian Legislative Assembly|Legislative Assembly]] and 22 members of the 44-member [[Victorian Legislative Council|Legislative Council]]. The election took place four weeks after the [[1996 Australian federal election|1996 federal election]] which swept the [[Australian Labor Party (Victorian Branch)|Labor Party]] from power nationally.
The [[Liberal Party of Australia (Victorian Division)|Liberal]]–[[National Party of Australia – Victoria|National]] [[Coalition (Australia)|Coalition]] led by [[Jeff Kennett]] and [[Pat McNamara (Australian politician)|Pat McNamara]] was returned for a second term. A swing against the government did not produce a significant seat transfer to the Labor Party, now led by [[John Brumby]] and still recovering from its landslide defeat at the [[1992 Victorian state election|October 1992 state election]]. While Labor obtained significant swings in safe Coalition seats, the marginal outer suburban electorates swung further towards the government.<ref>Economou N. & Costar B.J. 'The Electoral Contest and Coalition Dominance 1992-1998' in Costar B.J & Economou N. (eds) ''The Kennett Revolution'', UNSW Press, Sydney, 1999, p. 124</ref> The overall [[two party preferred]] swing was 2.8% to Labor.
The first signs of rural discontent with the Kennett government began to appear at this election. Independent candidate [[Russell Savage]] won [[Electoral district of Mildura|Mildura]] from the Liberals, while other independents polled strongly in the Coalition-held electorates of [[Electoral district of Benalla|Benalla]], [[Electoral district of Gippsland East|Gippsland East]], [[Electoral district of Polwarth|Polwarth]] and [[Electoral district of Rodney|Rodney]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://psephos.adam-carr.net/countries/a/australia/states/vic/historic/1996assembly.txt |title=1996 Victorian Legislative Assembly elections |website=Psephos Adam Carr's Election Archive}}</ref>
==Results== {{see also|Post-election pendulum for the 1996 Victorian state election}}
===Legislative Assembly=== {{see also|Results of the 1996 Victorian state election (Legislative Assembly)}}
{{Australian elections/Title row | title = Victorian state election, 30 March 1996<ref>{{cite book|last=Hughes|first=Colin A.|author-link=Colin Hughes|title=A Handbook of Australian Government and Politics 1985-1999|publisher=Federation Press|location=Sydney|year=2002|page=318}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/elections/archive/vic/VIC1996_ResultsBook.pdf#page=26|title=1996 Victorian State Election - Summary of Results|author=Antony Green|website=[[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]] |author-link=Antony Green|date=December 1998|access-date=5 July 2013}}</ref> | house = [[Victorian Legislative Assembly|Legislative Assembly]] | series = Victorian state election | back = 1992 | forward = 1999 | enrolled = 3,000,076 | total_votes = 2,822,531 | turnout % = 94.08 | turnout chg = –1.05 | informal = 64,964 | informal % = 2.30 | informal chg = –1.51 }} {{Australian elections/Party summary| |government = yes |party_id = Liberal VIC |votes = 1,212,933 |votes % = 43.99 |votes chg = –0.17 |seats = 49 |seats chg = – 3 }} {{Australian elections/Party summary| |party_id = Labor VIC |votes = 1,189,475 |votes % = 43.13 |votes chg = +4.72 |seats = 29 |seats chg = + 2 }} {{Australian elections/Party summary| |government = yes |party_id = Nationals VIC |votes = 184,419 |votes % = 6.69 |votes chg = –1.14 |seats = 9 |seats chg = ± 0 }} {{Australian elections/Party summary| |party_id = Natural Law |votes = 51,231 |votes % = 1.86 |votes chg = +0.54 |seats = 0 |seats chg = ± 0 }} {{Australian elections/Party summary| |party_id = Call to Australia |votes = 6,222 |votes % = 0.23 |votes chg = +0.19 |seats = 0 |seats chg = ± 0 }} {{Australian elections/Party summary| |party = Other |votes = 13,964 |votes % = 0.51 |votes chg = –0.22 |seats = 0 |seats chg = ± 0 }} {{Australian elections/Party summary| |party_id = Independent |votes = 99,426 |votes % = 3.61 |votes chg = –3.90 |seats = 1 |seats chg = + 1 }} {{Australian elections/Total row | |total_votes = 2,757,567 |total_seats = 88 }} {{Australian elections/2PP summary | |party id 1 = Liberal VIC |party 1 = [[Liberal Party of Australia (Victorian Division)|Liberal]]/[[National Party of Australia – Victoria|National]] |2pp votes 1 = 1,472,365 |2pp % 1 = 53.47 |2pp chg 1 = –2.83 |party id 2 = Labor VIC |2pp votes 2 = 1,281,418 |2pp % 2 = 46.53 |2pp chg 2 = +2.83 }} |}
===Legislative Council=== {{see also|Results of the 1996 Victorian state election (Legislative Council)}} [[File:1996 Victorian state election - Legislative Council.svg|thumb|300px|Results for the Legislative Council.]]
{{Australian elections/Title row | title = Victorian state election, 30 March 1996<ref>Hughes (2002) p.319.</ref> | house = [[Victorian Legislative Council|Legislative Council]] | staggered = yes | enrolled = 3,000,076 | total_votes = 2,826,467 | turnout % = 94.21 | turnout chg = –1.01 | informal = 72,800 | informal % = 2.58 | informal chg = –1.53 }} {{Australian elections/Party summary| |party_id = Liberal VIC |votes = 1,208,168 |votes % = 43.87 |votes chg = +0.38 |seats = 14 |seats held = 28 }} {{Australian elections/Party summary| |party_id = Labor VIC |votes = 1,114,843 |votes % = 40.49 |votes chg = +1.93 |seats = 5 |seats held = 10 }} {{Australian elections/Party summary| |party_id = Nationals VIC |votes = 182,494 |votes % = 6.63 |votes chg = –2.11 |seats = 3 |seats held = 6 }} {{Australian elections/Party summary| |party_id = Democrats |votes = 157,798 |votes % = 5.73 |votes chg = +5.42 |seats = 0 |seats held = 0 }} {{Australian elections/Party summary| |party_id = Democratic Labour |votes = 43,553 |votes % = 1.58 |votes chg = –2.96 |seats = 0 |seats held = 0 }} {{Australian elections/Party summary| |party_id = Natural Law |votes = 14,129 |votes % = 0.51 |votes chg = –0.11 |seats = 0 |seats held = 0 }} {{Australian elections/Party summary| |party_id = Call to Australia |votes = 5,576 |votes % = 0.20 |votes chg = +0.12 |seats = 0 |seats held = 0 }} {{Australian elections/Party summary| |party = Friendly Migrant Workers |votes = 1,339 |votes % = 0.05 |votes chg = +0.05 |seats = 0 |seats held = 0 }} {{Australian elections/Party summary| |party_id = Independent |votes = 25,767 |votes % = 0.94 |votes chg = –2.15 |seats = 0 |seats held = 0 }} {{Australian elections/Total row | |total_votes = 2,753,667 |total_seats = 22 |total_held = 44 }} {{Australian elections/2PP summary | |party id 1 = Liberal VIC |party 1 = [[Liberal Party of Australia (Victorian Division)|Liberal]]/[[National Party of Australia – Victoria|National]] |2pp votes 1 = 1,482,617 |2pp % 1 = 53.96 |2pp chg 1 = –2.69 |party id 2 = Labor VIC |2pp votes 2 = 1,264,879 |2pp % 2 = 46.04 |2pp chg 2 = +2.69 }} |}
==Seats changing hands==
{|class="wikitable" |- ! rowspan="2" | Seat ! colspan="4" | Pre-1996 ! rowspan="2" | Swing ! colspan="4" | Post-1996 |- ! colspan="2" | Party ! Member ! Margin ! Margin ! Member ! colspan="2" | Party |- |[[Electoral district of Bendigo West|Bendigo West]] |{{Australian party style|Liberal}}| |Liberal |[[Max Turner (politician)|Max Turner]] | style="text-align:right;"| 1.1 | style="text-align:right;"| '''-2.8''' | style="text-align:right;"| 1.7 |[[Bob Cameron (Victorian politician)|Bob Cameron]] |Labor |{{Australian party style|Labor}}| |- |[[Electoral district of Carrum|Carrum]] |{{Australian party style|Labor}}| |Labor |[[Mal Sandon]] | style="text-align:right;"| 0.9 | style="text-align:right;"| '''-1.7''' | style="text-align:right;"| 0.8 |[[David Lean (politician)|David Lean]] |Liberal |{{Australian party style|Liberal}}| |- |[[Electoral district of Essendon|Essendon]] |{{Australian party style|Liberal}}| |Liberal |[[Ian Davis (politician)|Ian Davis]] | style="text-align:right;"| 1.2 | style="text-align:right;"| '''-4.6''' | style="text-align:right;"| 3.6 |[[Judy Maddigan]] |Labor |{{Australian party style|Labor}}| |- |[[Electoral district of Ivanhoe|Ivanhoe]] |{{Australian party style|Liberal}}| |Liberal |[[Vin Heffernan]] | style="text-align:right;"| 4.3 | style="text-align:right;"| '''-5.9''' | style="text-align:right;"| 1.6 |[[Craig Langdon]] |Labor |{{Australian party style|Labor}}| |- |[[Electoral district of Mildura|Mildura]] |{{Australian party style|Liberal}}| |Liberal |[[Craig Bildstien]] | style="text-align:right;"| 20.9 | style="text-align:right;"| '''-22.3''' | style="text-align:right;"| 1.4 |[[Russell Savage]] |Independent |{{Australian party style|Independent}}| |- |}
==Key dates== {| class="wikitable" |- ! Date ! Event |- | 5 March 1996 | The Legislative Council was prorogued and the Legislative Assembly was dissolved.<ref name="Gazette 1996:S17">{{Gazette VIC |year=1996 |page=S17 (Special)|title=Proclamation |date=5 March 1996 |url=http://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/view.cgi?year=1996&class=S&page_num=1&classNum=S17}}</ref> |- | 5 March 1996 | Writs were issued by the [[Governor of Victoria|Governor]] to proceed with an election.<ref name="Gazette 1996:S17"/> |- | 8 March 1996 | The electoral rolls were closed. |- | 15 March 1996 | Nominations for candidates for the election closed at noon. |- | 30 March 1996 | Polling day, between the hours of 8am and 6pm. |- | 3 April 1996 | The [[Kennett Ministry]] was re-constituted.<ref name="Gazette 1996:S33">{{Gazette VIC|page=1996:S33 (Special)|date=3 April 1996|title=Ministers of the Crown |url=http://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/view.cgi?year=1996&class=S&page_num=1&classNum=S33}}</ref> |- | 19 April 1996 | The writ was returned and the results formally declared. |}
==See also== * [[Candidates of the 1996 Victorian state election]] * [[Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly, 1992–1996]] * [[Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly, 1996–1999]]
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Victorian elections}} {{Government of Victoria}}
[[Category:Elections in Victoria (state)]] [[Category:1996 elections in Australia]] [[Category:1990s in Victoria (state)]] [[Category:March 1996 in Australia]]