2002 South Australian state election

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2002 South Australian state election
Flag of South Australia.svg
  1997 9 February 2002 (2002-02-09) 2006  

All 47 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly
24 seats were needed for a majority
11 (of the 22) seats in the South Australian Legislative Council
 First partySecond partyThird party
  Mike Rann (smiling).jpg
LIB
NAT
Leader Mike Rann Rob Kerin Karlene Maywald
Party Labor Liberal National
Leader since5 November 199422 October 200111 October 1997
Leader's seat Ramsay Frome Chaffey
Seats before21 seats22 seats1 seat
Seats won23201
Seat changeIncrease2.svg2Decrease2.svg2Steady2.svg
Popular vote344,559378,92913,748
Percentage36.3439.971.45%
SwingIncrease2.svg 1.18Decrease2.svg 0.43Decrease2.svg0.29
TPP 49.07%50.93%
TPP swingIncrease2.svg0.58ppDecrease2.svg0.58pp

2002 SA state election.jpg
Results by electorate

Premier before election

Rob Kerin
Liberal

Resulting Premier

Mike Rann
Labor

State elections were held in South Australia on 9 February 2002. All 47 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly were up for election, along with half of the 22 seats in the South Australian Legislative Council. The incumbent Liberal Party of Australia led by Premier of South Australia Rob Kerin was defeated by the Australian Labor Party led by Leader of the Opposition Mike Rann. The Labor Party won 23 out of 47 seats, and then secured the one more seat it needed for a majority by gaining the support of independent Peter Lewis.

Contents

Background

This was the first election since Labor narrowly lost as opposition in the 1997 election, doing much better than most analysts predicted, forcing the Liberals to minority government after their comprehensive loss in the 1993 election where Labor were reduced to just ten seats. Coming into the 2002 election, the Liberal Government had faced a number of scandals including the Motorola affair, over which Premier John Olsen was forced to resign in October 2001. He was succeeded by Rob Kerin, who had less than three months to govern before the election was called.

Key dates

Results

House of Assembly

South Australian state election, 9 February 2002 [1]
House of Assembly
<< 19972006 >>

Enrolled voters1,045,563
Votes cast978,569 Turnout 93.59+1.84
Informal votes30,537Informal3.12-0.92
Summary of votes by party
PartyPrimary votes %SwingSeatsChange
  Liberal 378,92939.97Decrease2.svg-0.4320- 2
  Labor 344,55936.34Increase2.svg+1.1823+ 2
  Democrats 71,0267.49Decrease2.svg-8.9500
  Family First 25,0252.64New00
  One Nation 22,8332.41New00
  Greens 22,3322.36Increase2.svg+2.2100
  SA First 16,9021.78New00
  National 13,7481.45Decrease2.svg-0.2910
  Independent 40,2884.25Increase2.svg+1.1230
 Other12,3901.31*00
Total948,032  47 
Two-party-preferred
  Labor 465,22749.07Increase2.svg+0.58
  Liberal 482,80550.93Decrease2.svg–0.58
Popular vote
Liberal
39.97%
Labor
36.34%
Democrats
7.49%
Independents
4.25%
Family First
2.64%
One Nation
2.41%
Greens
2.36%
SA First
1.78%
National
1.45%
Others
1.31%
Two-party-preferred vote
Liberal
50.93%
Labor
49.07%
Seats
Labor
48.94%
Liberal
42.55%
Independents
6.38%
National
2.13%

Independents: Rory McEwen, Bob Such, Peter Lewis

Seats changing hands

SeatPre-2002SwingPost-2002
PartyMemberMarginMarginMemberParty
Adelaide  Liberal Michael Harbison 2.23.21.0 Jane Lomax-Smith Labor 
Colton  Liberal Steve Condous 1.05.64.6 Paul Caica Labor 
Fisher  Liberal Bob Such 9.2N/A12.1 Bob Such Independent 
Hammond  Liberal Peter Lewis 14.6N/A2.1 Peter Lewis Independent 
MacKillop  Independent Mitch Williams N/AN/A11.4 Mitch Williams Liberal 

Formation of Government

Labor won two seats from the Liberals, the districts of Adelaide (Jane Lomax-Smith) and Colton (Paul Caica). This gave Labor 23 seats, Liberals 20 seats, SA Nationals one seat, and three seats to independents. To form majority government, a party needed 24 seats out of 47. Most analysts expected Kerin to form a minority government with the support of Nationals MP Karlene Maywald, and the three independents, who were all former Liberal party members.

On 13 February, one of those crossbenchers, former Liberal Peter Lewis, announced that he had signed an agreement with Labor leader Mike Rann to support a Labor Government in exchange for holding a constitutional convention, making him speaker of the House of Assembly, and concessions for his electorate including the phasing out of commercial fishing in the River Murray, prioritising the eradication of the branched broomrape weed, changing water rates for irrigation, fast-tracking a feasibility study for a weir and lock at Wellington, and improving rural roads. This agreement effectively made Rann premier-elect by one seat.

However, following parliamentary precedent established by Don Dunstan following the 1968 election, Kerin refused to resign until Rann and Labor demonstrated that they had majority support on the floor of the House of Assembly. Kerin claimed to be within this rights to take this course, as longstanding precedent in the Westminster system holds that the incumbent premier should have the first opportunity to form a government if no party has a majority.[ citation needed ]

After three weeks of stalemate, the House of Assembly was called into session several weeks earlier than usual. With Lewis in the speaker's chair, the Kerin Government was defeated on the floor of the House of Assembly on 5 March 2002, after Kerin moved a confidence motion in his own government and lost. Rann then advised Governor Marjorie Jackson-Nelson that he could form a government, which was duly sworn in the following day.

Rann later shored up his government's majority by reaching agreements with crossbenchers Maywald and McEwen, giving them cabinet posts in exchange for their support of the government.

Legislative Council

South Australian state election, 9 February 2002 [2]
Legislative Council
<< 19972006 >>

Enrolled voters1,045,563
Votes cast983,567 Turnout 94.1+1.4
Informal votes53,105Informal5.4+1.1
Summary of votes by party
PartyPrimary votes %SwingSeats
won
Seats
held
  Liberal 373,10240.1Increase2.svg+2.359
  Labor 305,59532.9Increase2.svg+2.347
  Democrats 68,3177.3Decrease2.svg–9.413
  Family First 47,4434.0New11
  Greens 25,7252.8Increase2.svg+1.100
  One Nation 16,8291.8New00
  No Pokies 11,9841.3Decrease2.svg–1.501
  Voluntary Euthanasia 10,9731.2Increase2.svg+0.700
  SA First 9,5671.0New01
  HEMP 8,2410.9Decrease2.svg–0.800
  Grey Power 7,9180.9Decrease2.svg–0.700
  National 4,4120.5Decrease2.svg–0.500
 Other40,3564.3*00
Total930,462  1122

In the Legislative Council, Liberal won 5 seats (Robert Lawson, Caroline Schaefer, Angus Redford, David Ridgway, Terry Stephens), Labor won 4 seats (Gail Gago, Paul Holloway, Terry Roberts, John Gazzola), Australian Democrats won 1 seat (Sandra Kanck), and the recently formed Family First party won their first ever seat in an Australian parliament (Andrew Evans).

This left the overall numbers in the Legislative Council at: Liberal 9, Labor 7, Democrats 3, Family First 1, No Pokies 1, and 1 independent (Terry Cameron).

Post-election pendulum

Labor seats (24)
Marginal
Norwood Vini Ciccarello ALP0.5%
Adelaide Jane Lomax-Smith ALP1.0%
Hammond Peter Lewis CLIC2.1% v LIB
Wright Jennifer Rankine ALP3.2%
Ashford Steph Key ALP3.7%
Florey Frances Bedford ALP3.7%
Elder Pat Conlon ALP3.7%
Colton Paul Caica ALP4.6%
Mitchell Kris Hanna ALP4.7%
Fairly safe
Reynell Gay Thompson ALP6.6%
Lee Michael Wright ALP7.0%
Elizabeth Lea Stevens ALP7.2%
Torrens Robyn Geraghty ALP7.2%
West Torrens Tom Koutsantonis ALP8.6%
Giles Lyn Breuer ALP9.7%
Safe
Kaurna John Hill ALP11.0%
Playford Jack Snelling ALP13.1%
Napier Michael O'Brien ALP14.3%
Enfield John Rau ALP15.9%
Cheltenham Jay Weatherill ALP16.7%
Taylor Trish White ALP17.7%
Croydon Michael Atkinson ALP19.1%
Ramsay Mike Rann ALP20.2%
Port Adelaide Kevin Foley ALP21.7%
Liberal seats (23)
Marginal
Hartley Joe Scalzi LIB1.3%
Stuart Graham Gunn LIB1.3%
Light Malcolm Buckby LIB2.8%
Kavel Mark Goldsworthy LIB2.9% v IND
Mawson Robert Brokenshire LIB3.5%
Heysen Isobel Redmond LIB4.0% v AD
Morialta Joan Hall LIB4.1%
Bright Wayne Matthew LIB5.0%
Newland Dorothy Kotz LIB5.7%
Fairly safe
Unley Mark Brindal LIB9.0%
Morphett Duncan McFetridge LIB10.0%
Safe
MacKillop Mitch Williams LIB11.4% v IND
Davenport Iain Evans LIB11.5%
Frome Rob Kerin LIB11.5%
Waite Martin Hamilton-Smith LIB12.0%
Fisher Bob Such IND12.1% v LIB
Schubert Ivan Venning LIB13.1%
Chaffey Karlene Maywald NAT14.0% v LIB
Finniss Dean Brown LIB15.6%
Goyder John Meier LIB16.2%
Bragg Vickie Chapman LIB19.6%
Mt Gambier Rory McEwen IND26.6% v LIB
Flinders Liz Penfold LIB28.4%
Metro SA: ALP in red, Liberal in blue, Independents in white. These boundaries are based on the 2006 electoral redistribution. Sametro02.png
Metro SA: ALP in red, Liberal in blue, Independents in white. These boundaries are based on the 2006 electoral redistribution.
Rural SA: ALP in red, Liberal in blue, Independents in white, Nationals in green. These boundaries are based on the 2006 electoral redistribution. Sastate02.png
Rural SA: ALP in red, Liberal in blue, Independents in white, Nationals in green. These boundaries are based on the 2006 electoral redistribution.

See also

References

  1. "Details of SA 2002 Election". Australian Politics and Elections Database.
  2. "History of South Australian Elections 1857 - 2006". Electoral Commission SA. Archived from the original on 2 March 2014. Retrieved 13 March 2014.
General information
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