South Australian general election, 2002

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State election major party leaders
< 1997 2002 2006
Liberal Rob Kerin Premier Parliament: 9 years Leader since: 2001 Division: Frome
Labor Mike Rann Opposition Leader Parliament: 17 years Leader since: 1994 Division: Ramsay

State elections were held in Australia on February 9, 2002. All 47 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly were up for election. The incumbent Liberal Party of Australia led by Premier of South Australia Rob Kerin was defeated by the Australian Labor Party led by Mike Rann.

Independents: Peter Lewis, Bob Such, Rory McEwen

This was the first election since Labor narrowly lost as opposition in the 1997 election, doing much better than most analysts predicted, after their comprehensive loss in the 1993 election where the ALP were reduced to just 10 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. However, the new Liberal Premier Rob Kerin was successful in communicating a more positive message to voters and presented a more down to earth image than either his predecessor or Australian Labor Party leader Mike Rann.

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. In order to form majority government, a party needed 24 seats out of 47. Most analysts expected Rob Kerin to form a minority government with the support of all the independents.

On 13 February, independent Peter Lewis announced that he had signed an agreement 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. Following parliamentary precedent established by Don Dunstan following the 1968 election, the Kerin Government refused to resign until after Rann and Labor demonstrated that they had majority support on the floor of the House of Assembly. The Liberal Government was defeated on the floor of the House of Assembly on March 5, 2002 and Labor took office promptly after.

[edit] Post-election Pendulum

LABOR SEATS (24)
Marginal
Norwood	Vini Ciccarello	ALP	0.5%
Adelaide	Jane Lomax-Smith	ALP	1.0%
Hammond	Peter Lewis	CLIC	2.1% v LIB
Wright	Jennifer Rankine	ALP	3.2%
Ashford	Stephanie Key	ALP	3.7%
Florey	Frances Bedford	ALP	3.7%
Elder	Pat Conlon	ALP	3.7%
Colton	Paul Caica	ALP	4.6%
Mitchell	Kris Hanna	ALP	4.7%
Fairly safe
Reynell	Gay Thompson	ALP	6.6%
Lee	Michael Wright	ALP	7.0%
Elizabeth	Lea Stevens	ALP	7.2%
Torrens	Robyn Geraghty	ALP	7.2%
West Torrens	Tom Koutsantonis	ALP	8.6%
Giles	Lyn Breuer	ALP	9.7%
Safe
Kaurna	John Hill	ALP	11.0%
Playford	Jack Snelling	ALP	13.1%
Napier	Michael O'Brien	ALP	14.3%
Enfield	John Rau	ALP	15.9%
Cheltenham	Jay Weatherill	ALP	16.7%
Taylor	Trish White	ALP	17.7%
Croydon	Michael Atkinson	ALP	19.1%
Very safe
Ramsay	Mike Rann	ALP	20.2%
Port Adelaide	Kevin Foley	ALP	21.7%

LIBERAL SEATS (23)
Marginal
Hartley	Joe Scalzi	LIB	1.3%
Stuart	Graham Gunn	LIB	1.3%
Light	Malcolm Buckby	LIB	2.8%
Kavel	Mark Goldsworthy	LIB	2.9% v IND
Mawson	Robert Brokenshire	LIB	3.5%
Heysen	Isobel Redmond	LIB	4.0% v AD
Morialta	Joan Hall	LIB	4.1%
Bright	Wayne Matthew	LIB	5.0%
Newland	Dorothy Kotz	LIB	5.7%
Fairly safe
Unley	Mark Brindal	LIB	9.0%
Morphett	Duncan McFetridge	LIB	10.0%
Safe
MacKillop	Mitch Williams	LIB	11.4% v IND
Davenport	Iain Evans	LIB	11.5%
Frome	Rob Kerin	LIB	11.5%
Waite	Martin Hamilton-Smith	LIB	12.0%
Fisher	Bob Such	IND	12.1% v LIB
Schubert	Ivan Venning	LIB	13.1%
Chaffey	Karlene Maywald	NAT	14.0% v LIB
Finniss	Dean Brown	LIB	15.6%
Goyder	John Meier	LIB	16.2%
Bragg	Vickie Chapman	LIB	19.6%
Very safe
Mt Gambier	Rory McEwen	IND	26.6% v LIB
Flinders	Liz Penfold	LIB	28.4%

Metro SA: ALP in red, Liberal in blue, Independents in white. Please note that these boundaries are based on the latest electoral redistribution - click here for 2002 boundaries.

Rural SA: ALP in red, Liberal in blue, Independents in white, Nationals in green. Please note that these boundaries are based on the latest electoral redistribution - click here for 2002 boundaries.

[edit] Legislative Council Results

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). [1]

This left the overall numbers in the Legislative Council at: Labor 7, Liberal 9, Democrats 3, Family First 1, and 2 independents (Terry Cameron and Nick Xenophon).

[edit] See also

• South Australian legislative elections
• South Australian Legislative Council
• South Australian House of Assembly

[edit] References

• State Electoral Office - 2002 results
• Background leading up to the election/Liberals in power. Crikey. Archived from the original on 2005-12-13.
• SA Election - The last domino. Crikey. Archived from the original on 2005-12-13.
• Labor still a chance to take the final state. Crikey. Archived from the original on 2005-12-13.

[edit] External links

General information

• ABC Election Guide - South Australia 2002 Election

Political Parties

• Australian Labor Party
• Liberal Party of Australia
• SA Greens
• Australian Democrats
• Family First Party
• The Nationals