Seat of the week: Hindmarsh

Maintaining the recent South Australian focus ahead of the looming state election, the latest instalment of Seat of the Week takes us to the only electorate in the state to change hands at the September federal election.

Red and blue numbers respectively indicate booths with two-party majorities for Labor and Liberal. Click for larger image. Map boundaries courtesy of Ben Raue at The Tally Room.

Covering coastal Adelaide directly to the west of the city centre, Hindmarsh was the Liberals’ only South Australian gain of the 2013 election, at which Matthew Williams unseated Labor’s member of nine years, Steve Georganas. The electorate was one of seven created when South Australian electoral boundaries were first drawn in 1903, its traditional orientation around the working-class suburbs of north-western Adelaide making it a Labor stronghold for much of its history. The creation of the electorate of Port Adelaide in 1949 made it somewhat less secure, pushing it southwards into more conservative Henley Beach, but only with the 1966 landslide was long-term Labor member Clyde Cameron seriously threatened. The watershed in its progress from safe Labor to marginal came with the abolition of Hawker in 1993, which drew Hindmarsh still further south into Liberal-voting Glenelg. Currently the electorate covers the coast from Semaphore Park south to Glenelg South, from which it extends inland to mostly Labor-voting suburbs including Kidman Park and Torrensville in the north and Morphettville and Ascot Park in the south.

The Liberals’ first ever win in the seat followed the aforementioned redistribution at the 1993 election, which cut the Labor margin by 1.2% concurrently with the retirement of John Scott, who had held the seat since 1980. The Liberal candidate was Christine Gallus, who had become the first Liberal ever to win Hawker in 1990, a feat she duly followed by becoming the first Liberal ever to win Hindmarsh. This was achieved on the back of a 2.8% swing, the losing Labor candidate being John Rau, who has since emerged as a senior figure in the state government. Liberal hard-heads rated Gallus’s vote-pulling power very highly, and were duly dismayed when she decided to retire at the 2004 election. Her departure created an expectation that the seat would fall to Labor’s Steve Georganas, a former taxi driver who won preselection for the 2004 election with backing from the “soft Left” faction. So it proved, but the 1.2% swing to Labor was only enough to secure the deal by 108 votes. The unsuccessful Liberal candidate was Simon Birmingham, who went on to enter the Senate in 2007.

Georganas’s margin increased by 5.0% in 2007 and 0.7% in 2010, but these were modest gains by the standards of Labor’s performance in South Australia, leaving him on a weaker margin than Labor colleagues in Makin, Kingston and Wakefield, which unlike Hindmarsh had stayed with the Liberals in 2004. The margin going into the 2013 election was nonetheless a solid 6.1%, having been boosted slightly by redistribution, but this was accounted for by a forceful swing to the Liberals of 8.0%, the largest in the state. The seat is now held by Matt Williams, who had previously been national business development manager with law firm Piper Alderman.

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.

448 comments on “Seat of the week: Hindmarsh”

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  3. @smnaustralia: Australia & Indonesia are now in “open conflict” & repairing the “worsening”… Says @tanya_plibersek
    ►http://t.co/yRqLHhK9eb
    #ASUSpol

  4. soc

    [The scrutiny of Twitter, Facebook and blogs is part of $4.3 million worth of research contracts commissioned by the federal government in its first five months of office.
    Cubit Media Research has two contracts with the Department of Immigration and Border Protection to deliver ”media positioning analysis”.]

    And they couldn’t afford $25 million to save SPC Ardmona.

    The public appear to be saving Ardmona by buying their products in Australian supermarkets. Their sales are growing daily.

  7. victoria

    tveeder.com service for deaf people does a live transcript of Insiders where you will find questions and answers on that.

    FWIW I think the tweet is right

  9. Morrison implied the Indonesian Navy was lying. I expect that the Australian Ambassador will be called in AGAIN.

    I am expecting Indonesia to require Australia to cut back its embassy staff.

  12. [The prime minister declined a seat in a luxury four-wheel drive to arrive at a cattle watering station in a rusty Holden ute.]

    Yep, still doing stunts.

  14. 53
    “They need to leave the land – things change and their land is now unsustainable.”

    This has been the case for many years but no government has had the guts to face the problem. With the farmers generally voting for NP I would of thought that it would be easier for a labor government to tackle.

  15. “The scrutiny of Twitter, Facebook and blogs is part of $4.3 million worth of research contracts commissioned by the federal government in its first five months of office.”

    Now that the feds undoubtedly know about the link to watch cricket free from Murdoch; how long will it take Brandis to do Rupert’s bidding and block that web site?

  16. I’ve just read on Twitter a stunningly accurate portrait of our PM by a British blogger. Lots of 4 letter words (I’m a prude) and apostrophe error (and a pedant), but I gather they’d be reluctant to take Tone back.
    The point seems to me to that Australian voters are still mostly asleep – just don’t want to know – but the rest of the world is beginning to notice just how bad Abbott and his policies are. Even if we manage to make him One Term Tony, it will take many years for Australia’s reputation to recover.
    Insiders was depressing enough – you’re right, Victoria, I shouldn’t watch it. I think for sanity’s sake I’ll isolate myself from all media for the rest of the day, until Rake. I’ve got some great (non- political) books to read.

  17. [The prime minister declined a seat in a luxury four-wheel drive to arrive at a cattle watering station in a rusty Holden ute.]

    Right, so he had the option of being driven to visit a cattle station in either a “luxury four-wheel drive” or a “rusty ute”.

    Many questions spring to mind.

    Firstly, who owned the “luxury four-wheel drive” on offer? One of these farmers who will, no doubt, be lining up with their hands out for taxpayer largesse in the not-to-distant future?

    Secondly, why would anyone rock up to a visit from the Prime Minister in a “rusty ute” and why would said vehicle then be offered to transport him?

    Farmers have many things in spades and one of them is pride. There is no way on earth any farmer would offer someone as important as the PM a ride in any vehicle that was in the condition described in the article. Basic human nature.

    If it happened at all – and I take with a grain of salt that such a thing even happened as described – there would have been no offer made; it would have been pushed upon the farmer by the PM’s staff.

    The fact that this was the thrust of the article tells you all you need to know about the motivations behind it. This isn’t about farmers, or drought, or government assistance. This is yet another taxpayer-funded vanity piece for the PM because his people are worried about the polls.

    Seriously; how much polishing are they going to keep doing before they realise the shit isn’t just on the outside?

  18. I should add that I live in a fairly poor farming town, yet even our farmers don’t drive “rusty utes”.

    In fact, I can’t remember the last time I saw a rusty car on the road. That might be because they get defected …

  19. Daanny

    & just when the Abbott get into the ‘rusty ute’? At the farm gate? I bet aforementioned luxury a/c 4wd is on hand anyway and is being payed for by the taxpayer.

  20. Helen Sykes

    I cant comment on today’s insiders, but generally our msm is beyond pathetic. Andrew elder’s latest blog epitomises precisely the state of affairs. He points out that it was a health journo who investigated Nashgate. The Canberra press Gallery as usual are asleep at the wheel.
    Where is the pressure and scrutiny being applied to Morrison, Nash, Abbott, Hockey et al. They are trashing our democracy and there is hardly a whimper

  21. MTBW

    Posted Sunday, February 16, 2014 at 11:13 am | Permalink

    soc

    And they couldn’t afford $25 million to save SPC Ardmona.
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    But can afford to give $10 million to Abbott’s local NRL club of which he is a member.

    Manly – coz Abbott thinks it is indicative of him..???

    I was a supporter of Manly right up until I found out Abbott was a fan and member. Sold/destroyed all my Manly stuff…still haven’t found another club. Perhaps the team Manly supporters hate the most would be the right one

  23. Danny L:

    I’m in a farming community too, and the rusty Holden utes are strictly kept for paddock work, they don’t go on roads.

  24. [I bet aforementioned luxury a/c 4wd is on hand anyway and is being payed for by the taxpayer.]

    Yes, that occurred to me as well. Funny there was no mention of how he got to the area in the first place. $10,000 chartered flight? Comcar?

    With this PM, no trough is large enough for his snout. That is why the whole Uriah Heep routine is so bloody offensive.

  27. Greensborough Growler

    Posted Sunday, February 16, 2014 at 11:23 am | Permalink

    Why Royal Commissions are a waste of time and money.

    http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/royal-commission-a-blunt-intrument-to-combat-corruption-20140214-32rap.html
    —————————————————–

    Good article. Lacked the punch I expected as it didn’t really push the fact that more corporations/executives have been found to be more involved in bribery/corruption etc than any union officials or workers

  29. From afar, you’d think the SA voters would stick with ALP at state level. Someone to fight for the state subsidies of industries like defence.

    The thought of wall to wall Liberal free marketeers would leave SA an economic wasteland.

  30. Helen Sykes

    [ Even if we manage to make him One Term Tony, it will take many years for Australia’s reputation to recover]
    Our environmental creditability will be taking a hit.This article was published recently in a number of publications under headlines like the following.

    From Slate
    [Does Australia Have the Most Anti-Green Government on Earth?]

    NZ’s national paper
    [Is Australia the world’s most environmentally unfriendly country?]

    The UK Independent
    [Is Tony Abbott’s Australian administration the most hostile to his nation’s environment in history?]
    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/is-tony-abbotts-australian-administration-the-most-hostile-to-his-nations-environment-in-history-9107534.html

  31. Tony Abbott reveals what he really thinks about his bush journey. Let’s not get bogged.

    [“I think we’d better get moving before we get stuck,” Mr Abbott told an aide as he trudged across swelling pools of mud that had been dust minutes before.
    Advertisement
    While Mr Abbott’s four-wheel drive and a couple of others made it through the deepening bogs, the cars of several other visitors, including MP Mark Coulton, were looking heavily bogged.]

    Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/tony-abbotts-drought-tour-gets-off-to-a-wet-start-20140216-32tez.html#ixzz2tRX0ufVI

  32. If Abbott was fair dinkum, he would have ridden his bike.

    There’s nothing more heart warming to “our on the bones of their arse” farmers than to see a lycra clad PM delivering the “Shit Happens” daily news.

  38. “@ABCNews24: .@BillShortenMP: South Australia is leading the nation on mental health & emergency room waiting times #savotes #saparli”

  39. “@nickharmsen: Shorten: If Libs win “nothing is guaranteed, nothing is off the table, everything is up for grabs.” #savotes #saparli @abcnews24”

  42. “@ABCNews24: .@BillShortenMP: What you see in Tony Abbott’s Canberra is what you will get in Steven Marshall’s SA #savotes #saparli”

  44. A delightfully cynical assessment of the pending Royal Commission – Abbott’s biggest stunt yet?.

    [Let’s say the new one comes in at half that – a lazy $50 million. Well, the ACC has a budget of around $93 million so you would think that if the government had funnelled some of the money needed for the royal commission to the existing agency, it could have taken on the investigation without having to start from scratch.

    After all, they have the computers, the staff, the intelligence holdings and the existing links to all law enforcement agencies. They also have their own stubby holders.

    In fact, the ACC and police should have been investigating this area constantly as labour racketeering is just another arm of organised crime, along with drug trafficking, weapons movement, murder, film piracy and cyber crime.

    So we are left with three possibilities:
    1. The Australian Crime Commission doesn’t believe union corruption is as big as we are being told.
    2. The ACC, along with state and federal police, have stuffed up big time.
    3. Or the ACC is so chronically under-funded that it couldn’t find a gangster wearing a hard hat and a fluoro vest if he stood outside the office with a stop sign and a pirated series of Breaking Bad.

    It would be no surprise if Melbourne mediator Mick Gatto was called to the new inquiry as Gatto is to royal commissions what Marina Prior is to Carols by Candlelight. The show seemingly can’t go on without them.]

    Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/royal-commission-a-blunt-intrument-to-combat-corruption-20140214-32rap.html#ixzz2tRgLhjHr

  46. “@ABCNews24: .@JayWeatherill: The Liberals believe government should get out of the way, we all know that means cuts #savotes #saparli”

    “@ABCNews24: .@JayWeatherill: Our emergency departments are among the best performing in the nation #savotes #saparli”

  49. [

    Whoa! Abbott channeling Peter Garret??]

    He reminds me of one of those clowns they send in to rodeo rings to distract the bull once the rider is thrown.

  50. “@ABCNews24: .@JayWeatherill: We will deliver our full six-year commitment to better schools funding #savotes #saparli #Gonski”

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