Labor's election promises included making the supply of state housing a top priority, reviving the State Bank which had been under the control of the federal government since 1932 and revitalizing the state's railways including the long delayed Eastern Suburbs line.
The opposition campaigned on the government's broken promises and uncompleted public works as well as resentment against compulsory unionism and the implementation of the Cumberland Plan, which reserved a large area of the Sydney Basin from development.