2012 Heffron state by-election

A by-election occurred for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Heffron on Saturday 25 August 2012.^[1] This was triggered by the resignation of former Premier of New South Wales Kristina Keneally (Labor) which she announced on 23 June 2012. Labor easily retained the seat with an increased margin. Ron Hoenig received a 60 percent primary and 70 percent two-candidate preferred vote.^[2][3]

2012 Heffron state by-election

First party Second party Third party   DEM Candidate Ron Hoenig Mehreen Faruqi Drew Simmons Party Labor Greens Democrats Popular vote 20,051 8,122 3,749 Percentage 58.9% 23.3% 10.8% Swing 17.7 4.4 10.8 TPP 70.0% 30.0% TPP swing 12.9 30.0

The location of the seat of Heffron within Sydney

MP before election Kristina Keneally Labor Elected MP Ron Hoenig Labor

The by-election was held on the same day as the Northern Territory election.

Dates

Date	Event [4]
23 July 2012	Writ of election issued by the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly.[5]
23 July 2012	Close of electoral rolls
8 August 2012	Close of party nominations
9 August 2012	Close of independent nominations, ballot paper order draw conducted
13 August 2012	Early voting began
25 August 2012	Polling day, between the hours of 8 am and 6 pm

Background

Labor retained the seat of Heffron at the election in March 2011 with a primary vote of 41.2 percent and a two-party-preferred vote of 57.1 percent – the sixth-safest of Labor's 20 seats won at the election of the 93 seats in the Legislative Assembly. The Liberals won 33.3 percent of the primary vote in Heffron, the Greens won 19.0 percent, the CDP won 1.9 percent, with the remaining 4.6 percent to two independent candidates. There was a 16.3 percent two-party-preferred swing away from the Liberal/National Coalition government at the November 2011 Clarence by-election. The Liberals did not contest the Heffron by-election.^[6][7][8]

Candidates

The four candidates in ballot paper order were as follows:

Candidate nominations [9]
	Labor Party	Ron Hoenig	Longest-serving Botany Bay Mayor.[10][11]
	Christian Democratic Party	Robyn Peebles	Pastor of West Ryde Church of the Good Shepherd, state and federal serial candidate.[10]
	Australian Greens	Mehreen Faruqi	Civil/environmental engineer and sustainability expert, contested Heffron at previous election.[10][12]
	Australian Democrats	Drew Simmons	Journalist and various positions in retail/management.[10][13]

Results

2012 Heffron by-election ^[2][14]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor	Ron Hoenig	20,501	58.9	+17.7
	Greens	Mehreen Faruqi	8,122	23.3	+4.4
	Democrats	Drew Simmons	3,749	10.8	+10.8
	Christian Democrats	Robyn Peebles	2,442	7.0	+5.1
Total formal votes			34,814	94.8	–1.9
Informal votes			1,910	5.2	+1.9
Turnout			36,724	65.9	–22.8
Two-candidate-preferred result
	Labor	Ron Hoenig	21,863	70.0	+12.9
	Greens	Mehreen Faruqi	9,366	30.0	+30.0
	Labor hold		Swing	N/A

External links

• "2012 Heffron by-election". Poll Bludger.

See also

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