2007 New South Wales state election

Labor, running on the slogan "More to do, but we're heading in the right direction," heavily outspent the Liberals, whose slogan was "Let's fix NSW." Though water and infrastructure emerged as key issues in the campaign, much of the parties' advertising focussed on the negatives: Debnam's business record and Labor's record in office.

The media concluded that the choice facing voters was in finding the lesser of two evils: the three major newspapers sold in New South Wales endorsed Debnam, though not without criticising his ineptitude on the campaign trail.

The result was widely perceived as a foregone conclusion, with opposition leader Peter Debnam conceding as much the week before the poll. Opinion polls consistently put Labor ahead in terms of voting intention and preferred premier.

The ALP would eventually lose government at the next election in a landslide defeat in 2011. There has been a view that the party would have suffered a less worse defeat if it had lost government at the 2007 election.[1]

The New South Wales Legislative Assembly has 93 members elected for four-year terms using instant-runoff voting, a form of preferential voting. The voting system is the same as for the Australian House of Representatives except that New South Wales has optional preferential voting. This means that while voters may number every candidate if they wish, their vote is still formal if they choose not to. They may vote for one candidate only, or for as many candidates as they choose, provided that they number them in correct sequence.

The New South Wales Legislative Council has 42 members who serve eight year terms, one-half of the body being elected every four years. The Council uses the Single Transferable Vote method, a form of preferential voting for use with proportional representation. As for the Assembly, the numbering of preferences is optional.

After each election, the Governor of New South Wales, appoints a member of the Legislative Assembly to the position of Premier of New South Wales. By convention, the party leader with the largest bloc of votes in the Assembly, is chosen.

Government is formed in the Legislative Assembly, the lower house of Parliament. The seats for this election resulted from the boundary redistribution conducted in 2004, which did not change the number of seats notionally held by each party.

Sydney

Balmain, in Sydney's inner-western suburbs, was with Marrickville one of two seats considered potentially winnable for the Greens. Labor incumbent Verity Firth suffered a 2.9% primary and 3.2% two-candidate preferred swing against the Greens, to finish on 39.2% and 53.8% respectively.

The Liberals held on to Hawkesbury despite an independent challenge from Steven Pringle, the disendorsed Liberal incumbent. Pringle won 28.0% of the primary vote, at the expense of Labor and other independent candidates. Liberal candidate Ray Williams saw his primary vote dip by just 1.0%.

In Macquarie Fields, high-profile Liberal candidate Nola Fraser achieved a 12% swing in two-party-preferred terms compared to the 2003 poll. The incumbent, Labor's Steven Chaytor, had bowed out of the contest after being convicted for assaulting his girlfriend. Local issues such as hospital scandals and the 2005 Macquarie Fields riots may have also contributed to the high Liberal vote. Labor candidate Andrew McDonald won Macquarie Fields comfortably.

The Liberals won Manly from the independents for the first time since the 1980s. Sitting MP David Barr lost to future Premier Mike Baird, who increased the Liberals' primary vote by 4.4%.

Marrickville, in Sydney's inner west, was with Balmain the other seat considered potentially winnable for the Greens. Labor's Carmel Tebbutt suffered a 1.1% primary and 2.6% two-candidate preferred swing against the Greens, to finish on 46.6% and 57.5% respectively. Tebbutt won the seat in a 2005 by-election after quitting the Legislative Council, and is a senior member of the party's left wing and has a strong personal following in the area.

The Liberals lost Pittwater to independent Alex McTaggart at a by-election called after the resignation of John Brogden. The Liberals' Rob Stokes won the seat back on primaries, taking 50.5% of the vote.

The Legislative Council, elected by proportional representation, operates as a house of review in the New South Wales parliament. It is rare for parties or coalitions to secure a majority in this house.

The count was completed and results for the Legislative Council declared on 10 April.

The Liberal and National parties ran a joint Legislative Council ticket, winning 5 seats for the Liberals and 3 seats for the Nationals and bringing the parties' totals to 10 and 5 respectively.

Electoral changes made after the 1999 election, which saw seats go to so-called microparties through elaborate preference deals, meant that both the major party groups made gains in the 2007 election. The Labor Party with 39.1% of the vote gained 1 seat, to win 9, whilst the Liberal and National Parties with 34.2% gained 1 seat each to make a combined gain of 2, thereby winning 8 seats. The effect of this outcome is that Labor now holds 19 out of 42 council seats, just 3 short of a majority, whilst the Coalition holds 15 seats.

The Greens achieved a primary vote of 9.1%, an increase from their result in the 2003 election. This has allowed them to win 2 seats (1 additional seat), bringing their total to 4 seats. This result appears to put them in a favourable position, in which they can exercise the parliamentary balance of power, and potentially provide the Labor government with the necessary majority to get legislation through the upper chamber of Parliament.

Fred Nile's Christian Democratic Party (CDP) achieved 4.4% of the vote (↑1.4%), allowing Nile to retain his seat, and keeping the CDP's representation at 2 seats. The Shooters Party won the remaining seat, on 2.8% of the vote, thereby increasing their representation to 2 seats.

The losers from the 2007 election were the Australian Democrats, Unity Party, Outdoor Recreation Party (ORP), Human Rights Party (HRP) (formerly Reform the Legal System Party) and One Nation. These five parties lost their single remaining parliamentary seat, which they had won in 1999. The Australian Democrats and Unity Party polled less than 2%, ORP and HRP polled well below 1%, whilst neither One Nation, nor their former representative-turned-Independent, David Oldfield, contested the 2007 election.

• Candidates of the 2007 New South Wales state election