South Australian state election, 2002

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. 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.

Independents: Rory McEwen, Bob Such, Peter Lewis

Background

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.

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 5 March 2002, with Rann becoming Premier on 6 March.

Post-election Pendulum

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).

See also

• Candidates of the South Australian state election, 2002
• Members of the South Australian House of Assembly, 2002-2006
• Members of the South Australian Legislative Council, 2002-2006
• Full results of the South Australian state election, 2002
• Previous election: South Australian state election, 1997
• Next election: South Australian state election, 2006

References

• State Electoral Office - 2002 results
• "Background leading up to the election/Liberals in power". Crikey. Archived from the original on 2005-12-13. http://web.archive.org/web/20040822011655/www.crikey.com.au/politics/2001/10/21-olsen.html. 
• "SA Election - The last domino". Crikey. Archived from the original on 2005-12-13. http://web.archive.org/web/20040822011655/www.crikey.com.au/politics/2001/12/30-saelection.html. 
• "Labor still a chance to take the final state". Crikey. Archived from the original on 2005-12-13. http://web.archive.org/web/20040822011655/www.crikey.com.au/politics/2002/02/03-saelectiontips.html. 

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