24 March 1917 (1917-03-24) 1920 → 39 seats 49 seats 13 16 Start date March 24, 1917 | 15 November 1916 February 1917 52 seats 33 seats 47.44% 43.63 | |
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Winner William Holman | ||
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.
Since the previous election, Premier Holman had left the Australian Labor Party with 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 of Australia.
The Nationalists won a sweeping victory, scoring a 17-point 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.