1917 New South Wales state election

1917 New South Wales state election

← 1913 24 March 1917 (1917-03-24) 1920 →
All 90 seats in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly 46 Assembly seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader William Holman John Storey Party Nationalist Labor Leader since 15 November 1916 February 1917 Leader's seat Cootamundra Balmain Last election 39 seats 49 seats Seats won 52 seats 33 seats Seat change 13 16 Percentage 47.44% 43.63 Swing 1.17 4.00
Legislative Assembly after the election
Premier before election William Holman Nationalist Elected Premier William Holman Nationalist

The 1917 New South Wales state election was held on 24 March 1917. This election was for all of the 90 seats in the 24th New South Wales Legislative Assembly and it was conducted in single-member constituencies with a second ballot if a majority was not achieved on the first. The 23rd parliament of New South Wales was dissolved on 21 February 1917 by the governor, Sir Gerald Strickland, on the advice of the premier William Holman.^[1][2][3]

Since the previous election, Premier Holman had left the Labor Party with 17 of his supporters and entered into a coalition with the opposition Liberal Party, as a result of the 1916 conscription dispute that split the Labor Party nationally. In early 1917, Holman's supporters merged with the Liberals to form the New South Wales branch of the Nationalist Party. Although the merged party was dominated by former Liberals, Holman became its leader, and thus remained premier.

The Nationalists won a sweeping victory, scoring a 13-seat swing which was magnified by the large number of former Labor MPs who followed Holman out of the party. It thus presaged the federal Nationalists' equally comprehensive victory in the federal election two months later.