He was re-elected in 1977 and 1980,[3] defeated by Labor's Jim Snow in 1983 and failed in an attempt to regain the seat in 1984.
[4] According to Paul Kelly, Sainsbury was part of "the vanguard of the free market lobby within the Liberal Party" along with three other backbenchers (Jim Carlton, John Hyde, and Peter Shack).
[1] In 1982, Sainsbury approached local artist Tom Thompson to depict proceedings of the House of Representatives.
Thompson's sketches have been cited as "the first and only occasion that an artist has been permitted to draw in the house", and are now held by the Museum of Australian Democracy.
In a submission to a parliamentary committee on behalf of the organisation, he argued against the abolition of the Life Gold Pass Scheme, which provided former MPs and senators with 10 free return airfares within Australia each year.