Seat of the week: Port Adelaide

Keeping things focused on South Australia as the state election looms into view, the latest instalment of Seat of the Week takes us to the state’s safest Labor seat.

Numbers indicate size of two-party preferred booth majority for Labor. Click for larger image. Map boundaries courtesy of Ben Raue at The Tally Room.

The electorate of Port Adelaide includes Port Adelaide itself and the adjacent Le Fevre Peninsula, including the suburbs around Sempahore and Largs Bay, along with Woodville and its surrounds to the north of the city and, some distance to the north-east, a stretch of suburbs from Parfield Gardens north to Salisbury North, which are separated from the rest of the electorate by the Dry Creek industrial area. A very safe seat for Labor, its margin after the 2013 election was 14.0%, pared back from a redistribution-adjusted 20.9% by a 6.9% swing to the Liberals.

Port Adelaide was created with the expansion of parliament in 1949 from an area that had previously made Hindmarsh a safe seat for Labor. Such was Labor’s strength that the Liberals did not field candidates in 1954 and 1955, when the only competition for Labor came from the Communist Party. Rod Sawford assumed the seat at a by-election in 1988 upon the resignation of the rather more high-profile Mick Young, who had been the member since 1974. With Sawford’s retirement at the 2007 election the seat passed on to Mark Butler, the state secretary of the Left faction Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union and a descendant of two conservative state premiers: his great- and great-great-grandfathers, both of whom were called Sir Richard Butler.

Butler quietly established himself as a rising star over Labor’s two terms in government, winning promotion to parliamentary secretary in June 2009 and then to the junior ministry portfolios of mental health and ageing after the 2010 election. The latter promotion came despite his noted hesitancy in jumping aboard the Julia Gillard bandwagon during the June 2010 leadership coup. Butler was elevated to cabinet in December 2011 when social inclusion was added to his existing responsibilities, and he further gained housing and homeless in the February 2013 reshuffle which followed the departure of Nicola Roxon and Chris Evans. He remained solidly behind Gillard when Kevin Rudd challenged her for the leadership in February 2012, but emerged among the decisive defectors to the Rudd camp ahead of his successful leadership bid in June 2013. The subsequent reshuffle saw him promoted to environment and climate change, which he retained in the shadow ministry following the election defeat.

Author: William Bowe

William Bowe is a Perth-based election analyst and occasional teacher of political science. His blog, The Poll Bludger, has existed in one form or another since 2004, and is one of the most heavily trafficked websites on Australian politics.

581 comments on “Seat of the week: Port Adelaide”

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  1. absolutetwaddle

    Didn’t pick you as a supporter of the Tehran theocrats and Al Qaeda. They being the winners of the Bush stupid.

  2. absolutewaddle

    What a silly post.

    The only people who liked Saddam Hussein were the Americans, before he moved in on Kuwait of course.

    The cost of the war in Iraq, to human life, far outweighed the killing of Hussein.

    Look, get real. They could have poisoned him or found other ways seriously.

  3. Briefly

    You know that about sharks, I know that too. Emperor Barnett has probably been told that too. But he is a dill, and probably a badly advised dill too. His top media adviser Dixie Marshall probably thought getting col to pose with the big hook was a good idea. After all she comes from commercial tv and knows the image is everything. Not this time.

  4. Rex Douglas

    Posted Sunday, January 26, 2014 at 5:26 pm | Permalink

    Thanks to WA PBers for shark cull feedback.

    AussieAchmed #76, would you have a link to a relevant statement or article ?
    ===================================

    No, but I have read their opposition in on-line news and I have been speaking with a couple Labor MP’s

  5. Agreed re Iraq War Criminals
    ____________________

    \as said by Boerwar/Poroti/Centre/Badcat and others ???

    >>>>>>>>
    But I have no doubts a similar crew with their Israeli lackeys would have us…and some(?) Australian boys would die ….in the war they want to wage on Iran at Netanyahuj’s behest
    Can’t you see Abbott playing the war leader as Howard did …it’s in their DNA…they love it !

    but I suspect in the USA there is a real public tide against any more such wars in the M East…and Iran has the backing of Russia and China ,,,and Turkey is now moving in the same way …towards a deal with Iran which has gas and oil which the Turks lack

    but a Psephos said “.Iran must be dealt with.”….Hillary will have the Jewish Lobby behind her and she is a “War Democrat”…as was her husband…and many Democrats in the past like Woodrow Wilson in 1917…one of the worst of them !

  7. Iran is an interesting one, if the Middle East is too be stable then the lessons of history need to be taken into account, historically the Middle East is dominated by strong countries from one of three regions.

    Egypt
    Turkey
    Iran/Iraq

    I suspect the day will come when the Middle East will return to habit and those three parts will need to again become the dominate player.

    This is why i would like to see Egypt, Turkey and Iran or maybe Iraq or both gain a greater international status.

    Maybe a few could become members of a more representative UN SC minus veto rights.

  8. [absolutetwaddle
    Posted Sunday, January 26, 2014 at 6:30 pm | Permalink

    I for one am very pleased Saddam Hussein is a goner and remain unimpressed by the anti-war ‘left’. If Tony Blair and George W. Bush (and John Howard for that matter) don’t regret throwing that evil megalomaniac out of power then good for them.]

    Meh. Simple as that, eh? We lefties always complicate stuff, right? Just as well we are not trying to ‘impress’ you then, hey?

    Some 300,000-500,000 kids perished in the anti-Hussein blockade (in which Australia participated). Untold hundreds of thousands of men, women and kids were killed or injured, and those deaths and injuries continue to this very day. Several million people have been driven out of their homes internally. Several more million people have been driven out of their country. That’s right: the equivalent to about the entire population of Melbourne has been chased out of their homes.

    Education and health services are less than what they were under Hussein. In any case, kids missed out on years of their education and risk being blown to pieces in a random sort of way if they go to school now.

    Electricity and sewage services are fitful, at best and worse than under Hussein. Democracy is essentially dead, with the leader of the opposition on the lam in fear for his life. The northern third of the country has essentially seced from the southern two thirds of the country. In the western bits of the country there is a three-cornered war going on that has created hundreds of thousands of refugees – aka potential illegals into Australia. Not to speak of the usual destruction of what is left of the infrastructure, housing and economy.

    I am no fan of Hussein.

    But the neocon war mongers, including Howard in particular, Blair and Bush, have a lot to answer for. They destroyed a country on the basis of a lie.

    There were NO weapons of mass destruction. But that did not stop the West wreaking mass destruction on Iraq.

    There was NO Al Qaeda under Hussein for the simple reason that they were a threat to him, but by golly Iraq is thick with them now.

  9. From watching SBS News, I get the distinct impression that events surrounding Australian Citizenship ceremonies are being rapidly ‘boganised’. I suppose in this way ‘boganism’ will be propagated into all our ethnic communities which have so far resisted.

    Sad really. 🙁

  10. deblonay

    [she is a “War Democrat]

    I was not here back then but the PB battle between the Obama and Hilary supporters was from all reports was EPIC.

  13. Hawaii tried culling Tiger Sharks, did nothing.

    [Between 1959 and 1976, 4,668 tiger sharks were culled in an effort to protect the tourism industry. Despite these efforts, attacks did not decrease.]

  17. Assassinating Saddam Hussein wouldn’t have given the Iraqi people the ability to vote and still would have led to thousands of ‘leftists’ on our streets mourning his passing.

    Now if you will excuse me I have to find this Salman Rushdie fellow, apparently because I’m glad to see Saddam Hussein dead and his party evaporated this means I’m a fan of Iran and the ayatollahs or something.

  18. Boerwar

    Thanks for reminding me that Australian was participating in the anti saddam blockade… Well most of Australia was. except for the cowboys in charge at AWB.

  19. Howard helped create the refugee problem and the Liberals turned their backs on the problem.

    Even today, the Liberals (Morrison) is not being decisive abotu assisting those who have assisted our troops and are under the threat of being murdered for helping.

  20. I go to the beach almost every day of the year, never been bothered by a shark. Except once a dead one washed up and the council had to dig a hole and bury it.

    Seems Barnett has run out of tough on crime stunts, now its tough on fish stunts.

  21. This was in 2010. More classy than Julia? Hmmm.

    [Tony Abbott spoke candidly about his sex life in an interview with Launceston’s The Examiner newspaper, saying he eschewed a “hair shirt” view of the good things in life.
    Although he bemoaned the fact it was difficult for him to have sex sometimes.
    “Let’s face it, it’s almost impossible to have when you are on the campaign trail,” Mr Abbott said.
    “And it is one of life’s great pleasures.”He said the inquiry about his sex life, linked to giving things up for Lent, was a very good question.]

  23. Confessions – re the cull, I read it the same way.

    Reactionary Alston in the West has taken the tack of which is more important – human or shark lives?

    Mind you, he is so pro LNP in his cartoons these days he has ceased to be funny for some time now.

    At the height of the debate of whether to cull or not, the Queensland experience was trotted out in WA on many occasion, pointing out that there had not be a shark attack in 40 years or some such like.

    I would be interested to know what our Banana Benders think about this?

    I think most here take the view that the cull will not make much difference at all, but they are also cute enough to recognise that the government is doing something rather than nothing – even if it is of no value.

    On the other hand, Abbott is doing everything of no value. Much the same kind of story I suppose. Either do something which does not work, or do lots of things which equally don’t work. Take your pick.

  24. [He said the inquiry about his sex life, linked to giving things up for Lent, was a very good question.]

    “I don’t care to talk about that” would have been a much better answer though, as it would have been when he was asked about his daughters’ maidenhood. The latter by the way was in the context of a Women’s Weekly puff piece, lest anyone think a weakness for such things is peculiar to Julia Gillard.

  25. [164
    mexicanbeemer

    I love the Beach but surely everyone who goes into the surf knows that there is a risk of sharks.]

    Me too. I swam this morning in the Indian Ocean with dozens of others, including, in the knee-deep shallows, a marvelous clamour of youngsters and not a few toddlers. This was not far from the area where a 4m pointer was sighted yesterday. I’ve swum around the SW too where large pointers and hammerheads have been seen and at beaches where swimmers and surfers have been lost to sharks in the past.

    But we have helicopters and beach patrols and can make a judgment about the risks and our safety. We do not have to be bound by fear alone. We have the ability to think and act beyond fantasy-horror. Surely the Premier, of all people, should be able to lead us away from our fears.

  26. William Bowe: There is a difference between a woman establishing her image as the first female Prime Minister of this country, and an Opposition Leader looking for coverage.

    JG got 17-19 pages as I recall? As Marty would say, the airhead representation was the start of a slippery slope.

  27. [163
    ruawake

    Hawaii tried culling Tiger Sharks, did nothing.

    Between 1959 and 1976, 4,668 tiger sharks were culled in an effort to protect the tourism industry. Despite these efforts, attacks did not decrease.]

    Killing sharks is just utterly pointless…

    http://gohawaii.about.com/od/mauiocean/a/shark_attacks.htm

    [Question: What is the historical data on shark attacks in Hawaii?
    Answer: From 1828 to December 2013 there have been 128 total unprovoked shark attacks in Hawaii. Ten of these were fatal attacks. (source – International Shark Attack File, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida)

    Question: Are shark attacks the greatest risk in the waters of Hawaii?
    Answer: Definitely not. Far more people die each year of drowning than are injured as a result of a shark attack. The waters of Hawaii are very unpredictable. Currents and wave heights vary from day to day. An average of 60 people die each year by drowning in the waters of Hawaii.
    (source-State of Hawaii Department of Health Injury Prevention and Control Program)

    Question: Why do sharks attack humans?
    Answer: There are several possible explanations. First, there are forty species of sharks found in the waters of Hawaii. This is their natural environment. Of these eight are commonly seen near shore, including the Sandbar, Reef Whitetip. Scalloped Hammerhead and Tiger Shark. The waters of Hawaii are home to many of the prey of various shark species, such as monk seals, sea turtles and baby humpback whales. Humans are not a natural prey of sharks. It is likely that when an attack occurs, the human is mistaken for another prey. Sharks are also attracted to waters frequented by fishing boats, which often trail fish remains and blood.
    (source – Hawaiian Lifeguard Association)

    Question: What can one do to reduce the risk of being attacked by a shark?
    Answer: By learning more about sharks, and using a little common sense, the risk of injury can be greatly reduced. The State of Hawaii Shark Task Force recommends the following measures to reduce the risk of being bitten by a shark:

    Don’t swim alone.
    Swim in guarded areas.
    Avoid swimming at dusk.
    Don’t swim with bleeding wounds.
    Avoid murky water.
    Don’t wear bright jewelry or high contrasting colors.
    Refrain from excessive splashing.
    Don’t swim if sharks are known to be present.
    Be alert if turtles and fish are fleeing the area.
    Remove speared fish from the water.]

  28. [Surely the Premier, of all people, should be able to lead us away from our fears.]

    No briefly. Remember, Barney is a Liberal. Liberals want you scared of something so they can play politics with it.

    For Barnett its the evil child snacking sharks.

    For Howard it was evil Unionists and Asylum Seekers.

    For Abbott its Asylum Seekers, but i’m sure he will get onto Unionists in due course but not in the context of WorkChoices as that is dead buried and cremated, and by the way AGW is total crap…….

    Fear, embedded deeply in the Liberal DNA, and brought to you by the shallow and slightly rancid end of the gene pool. 🙂

  29. 178
    imacca

    Thanks imacca, I’d forgotten your edict. Sadly, you’re right. Fear is a staple part of the menu for the LNP.

  30. [“Let’s face it, it’s almost impossible to have when you are on the campaign trail,” Mr Abbott said.]

    File that one under TMI.

  31. briefly

    [ Don’t wear bright jewelry or high contrasting colors.]

    In W.A. that is probably not the way to go. The Great Whites pig out on the seals that come up to breed. Wearing black wetsuits and paddling on surfboards would give a damn fine impersonation of a fat seal. Bright colours in the sea generally means feck off I’m poisonous or dangerous or both.

  32. 181
    poroti

    I reckon you’re right about that, poroti. But it also shows we just don’t know enough about these animals. For mine, if we knew what stimulates their (incredibly powerful and acute) senses, we could set decoys and attract them away from beaches. Win/win.

  34. [Be alert if turtles and fish are fleeing the area.]

    Lol! I love that one. Years ago i did some diving on the south coast at Coffin Island near Two Peoples Bay. Its a lovely dive.

    Get dropped off in 50m off the est side of the island and swim down and west. Clear water with 20-25m vis and you hit the rocks at about 38m depth. Then slowly work up and west through a huge rock garden until you are just next to the island (20m away) doing a stop in a pinnacle at 5m. With the drop off the pinnacle being straight down into a narrow sandy bottomed gorge bottoming out in about 22m.

    Thing was it was BIG country and as a diver it was easy to feel small and bite sized. We always kept an eye on the sea lions that live on the island and would often be in the water above and around us. Conventional wisdom was that if they buggered off abruptly, it was time to find a crack in the rock and have a good look around. 🙂

    Although, i have to say that the only animal that ever attacked me diving on the south coast was a very large, stroppy, and persistant cuttlefish. I hate them. 🙁

  36. [Anti-government demonstrators trying to derail next week’s general election in Thailand surrounded polling stations and chained them shut, blocking hundreds of thousands of people from casting advance ballots on Sunday in the latest blow to the country’s increasingly embattled government.]

    Isn’t it rather redundant as Government support isn’t in the city?

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/26/thai-opposition-blockade-polling-stations

  37. imacca, Barnett would profit from having a good talk to fishermen, divers, surfers and swimmers. I don’t know a single person who supports the destroy-em policy who also enjoys these pursuits. Professional fishermen, who see these animals up close, are also opposed to it. The only people who favour it seem to be those who are reluctant to go near the ocean in the first place.

  39. [Don’t wear bright jewelry or high contrasting colors.

    In W.A. that is probably not the way to go. The Great Whites pig out on the seals that come up to breed. Wearing black wetsuits and paddling on surfboards would give a damn fine impersonation of a fat seal. Bright colours in the sea generally means feck off I’m poisonous or dangerous or both.]

    https://radiator.net/sams/

    Talking about colors, there is actually a bit of research gone into these new wet suits. Since we are in the water a fair bit for work its likely we will get some of these this year.

    Funny, after my cuttlefish incident years ago i spoke to some people at the aquarium here. Apparently they dont line red wet-suits (which i was wearing at the time), and also the three sided mask i had on. Something about the pattern of reflection, and being able to see themselves like in a mirror which explains why cuttlefish tend to go for the face when they attack.

  40. Briefly

    Local surf legend taj burrow was in the news last week backing Barnett and saying he was spooked by sharks

    From the west Australian

    WA surfing legend Taj Burrow says for the first time he is spooked by sharks.

    Burrow has joined the surfing community in endorsing the WA Government’s shark-kill policy.

    Burrow, ranked fifth on the surfing World Championship Tour, has returned to his home town Yallingup for summer and said that though sharks would never keep him out of the ocean, the issue was weighing on the minds of locals after six fatal attacks in two years.

    “It’s all everyone talks about,” he said.

    “It spooks me a little, too. I never thought about sharks the whole time I grew up down here – not once – and now it’s on my mind almost every surf I go for.

    “I don’t think culling is the right word but I wouldn’t be against people fishing for sharks that are threatening people.”

  41. I was not here back then but the PB battle between the Obama and Hilary supporters was from all reports was EPIC I wasn’t either but surely it can’t have been bigger then R**** versus G******.

  42. And hers more

    “I don’t think culling is the right word but I wouldn’t be against people fishing for sharks that are threatening people.”

    Burrow’s comments were echoed by State governing body Surfing WA and other prominent surfers, who believe the fatal att-ack on Chris Boyd in Gracetown in November was the final straw.

    Surfing WA events manager Justin Majeks said the plan to set drum lines along the coast would make it safer for beachgoers. “I think surfers are probably a little bit scared to go in the water and the sentiment of people I speak to is, ‘Something has to be done’,” he said.

    Margaret River Boardriders Club committee member Tom Innes said many surfers could not understand the negativity towards the shark-kill proposal.

    “There is an overwhelming, ‘Wow, this is happening and it wasn’t happening before’,” he said. “Families are being torn apart and surfers and others are changing their lifestyle to suit the fear they’ve come to know.

    “It’s fair enough protesters want to protect the environment but barely any of them are from the region. They don’t spend time in the water and a lot of them have no idea what’s going on.”

    Yallingup surfer Paul Paterson said the Government’s strategy was not a cull and would give beachgoers peace of mind. “It will bring some balance back to our oceans,” he said. “It’s good to see the Government taking action.”

  44. [Barnett would profit from having a good talk to fishermen, divers, surfers and swimmers.]

    I dont think it would make a difference. There is no science behind this, just the plain politics of being seen to do something, anything, for the sake of being seen to be doing something.

    And if a subsequent Govt discontinues it then it gives them something to get people scared about.

    “Those nasty Greens and ALP care more about Shark welfare than your kids safety!!!!!”

  46. [The most dangerous animal to humans is the mosquito.]

    oooo, will Collin give me a contract to hang out some teeny tiny hooks on drum lines to cull them???

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