The 1988 Victorian state election, held on Saturday, 1 October 1988, was for the 51st Parliament of Victoria. It was held in the Australian state of Victoria to elect all 88 members of the state's Legislative Assembly and 22 members of the 44-member Legislative Council.

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1988 Victorian state election

← 1985 1 October 1988 (1988-10-01) 1992 →
All 88 seats in the Victorian Legislative Assembly 45 seats needed for a majority and 22 (of the 44) seats in the Victorian Legislative Council
First party Second party Third party   Leader John Cain Jr. Jeff Kennett Peter Ross-Edwards Party Labor Liberal National Leader since 9 September 1981 26 October 1982 17 June 1970 Leader's seat Bundoora Burwood Shepparton Last election 47 seats 31 seats 10 seats Seats won 46 seats 33 seats 9 seats Seat change 1 2 1 Popular vote 1,131,750 986,311 188,776 Percentage 46.55% 40.51% 7.76% Swing 3.46 1.30 0.47 TPP 49.49% 50.51% TPP swing 1.21 1.21
Results in each electorate.
Premier before election John Cain Jr. Labor Elected Premier John Cain Jr. Labor

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The incumbent Labor Party government led by Premier John Cain Jr. won a third term in office, despite a swing against it, and only lost the seat of Warrandyte in Melbourne's north-east. This was credited by commentators to a strong campaign targeting Liberal leader and future Premier Jeff Kennett whose aggressive leadership style was still seen as a liability, as well as continuing instability in the federal Coalition.^[1] Labor's narrow wins in middle class marginal seats saw it retain its majority despite the Liberals winning a bare majority of the two party preferred vote.^[2]

• Members listed in italics did not recontest their seats.

On 23 May 1989, Jeff Kennett was voted out of the Liberal leadership in favour of Alan Brown; Brown led the party until 23 April 1991 when he was also forced out after a successful comeback by Kennett. During Brown's period as Opposition Leader, the Liberals negotiated the first coalition agreement with the Nationals in over forty years, in part due to a belief by some (in spite of what political scientist Brian Costar called a "lack of psephological evidence to support this assertion") that had the parties been in coalition at the election, they would have won.^[7]