South Australian state election, 1997

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State election major party leaders
< 1993 1997 2002 >
Liberal John Olsen Premier Parliament: 18 years Leader since: 1996 Division: Kavel WIN
Labor Mike Rann Opposition Leader Parliament: 12 years Leader since: 1994 Division: Ramsay

State elections were held in Australia on October 11, 1997. 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 John Olsen defeated the Australian Labor Party led by Mike Rann.

Independents: Rory McEwen, Mitch Williams

Following the 1993 landslide to the Liberal Party, the Labor Party, led by Mike Rann held just 11 seats in the House of Assembly. The Liberals held 36 seats and there were no independent or minor party members in the House of Assembly. (They had held a record 37, but lost one in a by-election in 1994). However the Liberals had internal tensions, and John Olsen had successfully challenged Dean Brown for the leadership of the Liberal Party in 1996 and had been Premier of South Australia for around 12 months on election day. The margin of 25 seats was seen as insurmountable for the Labor Party despite the Liberal leadership change.

The election was held just after the end of the football season (when the state had been captivated by the Adelaide Crows unexpectedly winning the AFL premiership), leaving only one week for campaigning uninterrupted by football. This was expected to work in the government's favour, though it seems it had the opposite effect.

To the surprise of most observers, the Labor Party polled exceptionally well, gaining 10 seats and coming within a couple of seats of winning government. The Liberals lost a massive 14 seats; 11 to Labor (including one at a 1994 by-election), one to the Nationals, and two to conservative independents.

The election was also notable for the Democrats' highest South Australian state election vote, falling short by two percent to one of the party's predecessors, the Liberal Movement, who contested the 1975 state election.

[edit] Post-election Pendulum

Metro SA: ALP in red, Liberal in blue. Please note that these boundaries are based on the latest electoral redistribution - click here for 1997 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 1997 boundaries.

[edit] Legislative Council Results

In the Legislative Council, voter disquiet was reflected in the fact that 3 of the 11 candidates were from minor parties, with the Australian Democrats having two MLCs elected for the first time. Elected were 4 Liberal, 4 Labor, 2 Australian Democrats, and No Pokies candidate Nick Xenophon. Carrying over from the 1993 election were 6 Liberal, 4 Labor, 1 Democrat; leaving the numbers at: 10 Liberal, 8 Labor, 3 Democrats, 1 No Pokies.

Both on 1.72%, the HEMP Legalise Marijuana party received 15432 votes and the SA Greens received 15377 votes.

[edit] Legacy

The 1997 result put Labor within striking distance of winning government at the next election in 2002. John Olsen was left with internal disquiet over the leadership challenge and poor election result while his opponent, Mike Rann was seen to have 'won' the campaign despite losing the election.

On February 6, 2007, Mike Rann told parliament that some in the Liberal party had leaked information to him before and during the election campaign. The following quote by Rann is from Hansard on 6/2/2007[1]:

You asked me a question and I will give you a 55-minute answer, because you will remem­ber one day when I came into this place and I had, I think, 880 pages of cabinet and other documents... I remember being telephoned and told to go to a certain cafe, not in a white car but in a taxi, and then to walk in a zigzag fashion through the streets of a suburb, where I was to be handed cabinet documents. So much for their cabinet solidarity and cabinet confidentiality! There was a queue on the telephone telling us what had happened the day before. It was the same during the 1997 election campaign. People thought, `How does this guy (the leader of the opposition at the time) know intuitively exactly what John Olsen is doing the next day?' It was because I was being phoned and told! So, do not talk to me about cabinet solidari­ty lest I come in here and start naming names, which will set off another generation of disputation on the other side of the house. Anyway, cabinet approved, among other things, on 20 December 2006 minister Lomax-Smith's proposed statement and approved her to announce publicly that she opposed the proposal in cabinet. She did so because we agreed that she should be able to do so. Somehow I do not think that John Olsen agreed to what happened when I was getting the phone call at 6 o'clock in the morning and at midnight, and walking in a zigzag pattern through suburbs to be handed a cabinet bag and cabinet documents. We have a different approach. We agreed to it. It was a cabinet decision to agree to it. So, please, ask me some more questions, because there were two different camps involved in this leaking to the then poor unpopular leader of the opposition, and I am more than happy to name names.

[edit] References

• State Electoral Office - 1997 results
• Background leading up to the election/Liberals in power. Crikey. Archived from the original on 2005-12-13.

Political Parties

• Australian Labor Party
• Liberal Party of Australia
• Australian Greens
• Australian Democrats
• The Nationals

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