PremierDon Dunstan abruptly resigned on 15 February 1979 due to ill health, and was succeeded by Deputy Premier Des Corcoran. Dunstan resigned from parliament, and his seat was retained for Labor by Greg Crafter at the by-election in March 1979. Spurred by positive opinion polls and seeking to escape the shadow of Dunstan, Corcoran called a snap election in order to gain a mandate of his own. The election campaign was plagued by problems, which allowed an opening for the Liberals under Tonkin. It did not help matters that The Advertiser was biased toward the Liberal campaign.
Summary of results
Labor suffered a large swing, losing seven seats. The Liberals also won 55 percent of the two-party vote to Labor's 45 percent. In most of Australia, this would have been enough for a landslide Liberal victory. However, most of the Liberal margin was wasted on massive landslides in rural areas. The Liberals only won 13 seats in Adelaide, netting them a total of 25 seats, a bare majority of two. This was pared back to 24 seats, just barely enough to form government, after the Norwood by-election. Narrow as it was, it was the first time the main non-Labor party in South Australia had won the most seats while also winning a majority of the vote since the Liberal and Country League won 50.3 percent of the two-party vote in 1959. The Norwood result was annulled because the Court of Disputed Returns found that a Liberal Party advertisement in an Italian language newspaper, which described Liberal candidate Frank Webster as "your representative", gave the false impression that Webster was the sitting member. Labor regained Norwood at the 1980 Norwood state by-election. In the South Australian Legislative Council, the Liberals won 6 seats, Labor won 4, and Australian Democrats won 1; giving numbers of 11 Liberal, 10 Labor and 1 Democrat, leaving the Liberal government one seat short of a majority.
Aftermath
Corcoran was bitter in defeat, believing sections of the ALP had undermined him during the campaign. He resigned as leader soon after the election, and retired from politics in 1982. In 1982, when legislation to enable the Roxby Downsuranium mine was opposed by both Labor and the Democrats, Norm Foster resigned from the Labor Party in order to support the legislation, and sat as an independent in the Legislative Council.
These numbers include the result of the 1980 Norwood state by-election.
Legislative Council
Post-election pendulum
These numbers include the result of the 1980 Norwood state by-election. Subsequently, the 1982 Mitcham by-election and 1982 Florey by-election were held. The Democrats retained Mitcham by 45 votes, while Labor increased their margin in Florey.
