1980 Murray state by-election

A by-election was held for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Murray on 13 September 1980. It was triggered by the death of Mary Meillon (Liberal).^[1] The seat had not been contested by the Country party since 1973 as the Coalition agreement prohibited the party from endorsing candidates to run against sitting Liberals. The 1980 redistribution would see the district of Sturt abolished,^[2] and much of the district included in the Murray. Tim Fischer (Country) was the member for Sturt and resigned to contest the by-election.^[3]

By-elections for the seats of Bankstown and Ku-ring-gai were held on the same day.

Dates

Date	Event
8 June 1980	Mary Meillon died.^[1]
11 August 1980	Writ of election issued by the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly and close of electoral rolls.^[4]
18 August 1980	Date of nomination
13 September 1980	Polling day
26 September 1980	Return of writ

Result

1980 Murray by-election]]
Saturday 13 September ^[3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Country	Tim Fischer	8,496	45.4
	Labor	Robert Allen	5,804	31.0	+6.3
	Liberal	Bill Hazelton	4,435	23.7	-19.7
Total formal votes			18,735	98.5
Informal votes			289	1.5
Turnout			19,024	83.3
Two-party-preferred result
	Country	Tim Fischer	12,396	67.0
	Labor	Robert Allen	6,119	33.1	-6.8
	Country gain from Liberal		Swing

See also

• Electoral results for the district of Murray
• List of New South Wales state by-elections

References

1. "Mrs Mary Meillon". Former members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
2. . Atlas of New South Wales. NSW Land & Property Information. Archived from the original on 23 June 2015.
3. Green, Antony. "1980 Murray by-election". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
4. "Writ of election: Murray". Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales. No. 111. 11 August 1980. p. 4153. Retrieved 17 March 2021 – via Trove.