The state election for the 51st Parliament of South Australia was held in the Australian state of South Australia on 18 March 2006 to elect all members of the South Australian House of Assembly and 11 members of the South Australian Legislative Council. The election was conducted by the independent State Electoral Office.
In the 47-seat South Australian House of Assembly, the Labor government was returned in a landslide with 28 seats from a 56.8 per cent two-party-preferred vote, winning six seats from the Liberal Party. The Liberals were reduced to just 15 seats, the worst result in their history.
In the 22-seat South Australian Legislative Council, the balance of power has been continuously held by the crossbench since the 1985 election. With half of the seats up for election, Labor gained an additional seat at the expense of the Liberals, Nick Xenophon and No Pokies rose to prominence after unexpectedly winning a historic fifth of the entire statewide vote, the Greens won their first seat, Family First won their second seat to hold two seats, while the faltering Democrats failed to win a seat for the first time in their history.
Results summary.
House of Assembly.
The centre-left Australian Labor Party, elected in 2002 and led by Premier Mike Rann of the Rann government, gained six Liberal-held seats and a 7.7 per cent statewide two-party preferred swing, resulting in a net gain of five seats and the first Labor majority government since the 1985 election with 28 of the 47 House of Assembly (lower house) seats.
The centre-right South Australian Division of the Liberal Party of Australia, led by Leader of the Opposition Rob Kerin, regained a former independent seat while losing other seats – a net loss of five seats. The Liberals were left with only 15 of 47 seats, the worst result for the Liberals in South Australian electoral history.
Independent members Bob Such and Rory McEwen were re-elected. Kris Hanna, elected in 2002 representing Labor, was re-elected as an independent member. The sitting Nationals SA member Karlene Maywald was also re-elected.
Legislative Council.
With 11 of the 22-member Legislative Council (upper house) standing for election, both major parties finished with a total of eight of the 22 seats, with Labor winning four of the 11 and the Liberals winning three. No Pokies independent Nick Xenophon polled 20.5 per cent, an unprecedented result for an independent or minor party, which resulted in both Xenophon and his running mate, Ann Bressington, being elected. Xenophon's third running mate, John Darley, was later appointed to the vacancy created by Xenophon's resignation. Family First had a second member elected. The Democrats vote collapsed with no candidate elected, leaving them with one remaining member in the upper house. The SA Greens won a seat for the first time.
Leadership changes.
Following the outcome of the election, the member for Davenport, Iain Evans, replaced Rob Kerin as leader of the Liberal Party and thus as Leader of the Opposition.
Party backgrounds.
Australian Labor Party.
The Australian Labor Party is Australia's oldest political party, founded in 1891. It is a centre-left social democratic party which is formally linked to the trade union labour movement. At a state level, the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party had been in government since the previous election in 2002, having been in opposition from 1993 to 2002. Since the 1970 election ending decades of electoral malapportionment of the Playmander, nine of the 12 elections since have been won by Labor. Labor's most notable premiers in South Australia include Thomas Price in the 1900s, reformist Don Dunstan in the 1970s, John Bannon in the 1980s and the factionally nonaligned and pragmatic Mike Rann. The party's deputy leader, and therefore the Deputy Premier, was Kevin Foley.
Liberal Party of Australia.
The South Australian Division of the Liberal Party of Australia is a centre-right conservative liberal party with close links to business and advocating free markets. Whilst primarily a socially conservative party, there exists a more socially liberal wing, colloquially known as 'wet', 'moderate' or small-l liberals, highlighted by the short-lived Liberal Movement who first contested the 1975 election as a separate party led by Steele Hall. At state level, in 1973 the South Australian Division of the Liberal Party of Australia emerged from the Liberal and Country League (LCL), which in turn had resulted from a merger between the Liberal Federation and the Country Party in 1932. The state opposition leader at the 2006 election, Rob Kerin, was seen as being largely aloof from factional disputes.
Nationals SA.
The Nationals SA is a sub-division of the conservative National Party of Australia (formerly the Country Party). First contesting the 1965 election, they have only held two seats: Flinders (1973–1993) and Chaffey (1997–2010). Former member Karlene Maywald, representing the Riverland district of Chaffey, accepted a cabinet position in 2004 as part of the Rann Labor government, as Minister for the River Murray, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Small Business, and later Minister for Water Security. This informal ALP-NAT coalition (the first since 1935) caused an uproar, with the federal Liberal member for the SA seat of Sturt, Christopher Pyne, calling for Maywald's expulsion from the Nationals, and Patrick Secker calling for a corruption enquiry into the appointment. Neither eventuated. As the Liberal Party in South Australia is descended from a historical merger from an earlier Country Party, the SA Nationals are not as dominant in rural areas as their eastern state counterparts.
SA Greens.
The SA Greens, founded in 1995, are a sub-division of the left-wing Australian Greens. They are based on green politics and consider themselves a new politics party with strong beliefs in ecology, democracy and social justice amongst other issues. Federally and locally they have seen a continued rise in primary votes, in part due to the demise of the Australian Democrats. The 2007 federal election saw 77.28% of the Greens' preferences flow to Labor over the Liberal Party in SA. The party's parliamentary leader is Mark Parnell.
Family First Party.
The Family First Party, founded immediately before the 2002 state election, has a political ideology based on Christian-influenced conservatism. Although officially a secular party, it has close links to the Pentecostal movement, and in particular the Assemblies of God denomination. Its social policies generally mirror conservative Christian values (but not necessarily politically conservative values). The 2007 federal election saw 57.10% of their preferences flow to the Liberals over the Labor Party in SA. The party's leader at the time of the election was Andrew Evans.
Australian Democrats.
The Australian Democrats were originally a centrist party, with most current policies based on social liberalism. Federally, the party was founded in 1977 by Liberal splinter groups known as the Liberal Movement, which had split from its parent over electoral reform, and the Australia Party, which had rebelled against Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War. The Australian Democrats were founded by Don Chipp, who had also left the Liberal Party, citing dissatisfaction with the increasing underrepresentation of small-l liberals within the party.
At the state level, it is descended from the New Liberal Movement (New LM) of Robin Millhouse, who held the Democrats' only lower house seats, Mitcham and its successor seat Waite. The Democrats had suffered internal problems and leadership scuffles since 1997. The 2007 federal election saw 65.79% of Democrat preferences flow to Labor over the Liberal Party in SA. The party's leader at the election was Sandra Kanck.
Electoral system.
South Australia is governed by the principles of the Westminster system, a form of parliamentary government based on the model of the United Kingdom. Legislative power rests with the Parliament of South Australia, which consists of The Sovereign (represented by the Governor of South Australia), the House of Assembly (lower house) which forms the government, and the Legislative Council (upper house) as a house of review. Forty-seven members of the lower house represent single-member electorates and are elected under the full-preference Instant-runoff voting (IRV) system for fixed four-year terms. The independent State Electoral Office, which conducts elections, is responsible for a mandatory redistricting of boundaries before each election to ensure one vote one value. At each election, voters choose half of the 22 upper house members, each of whom serves eight-year terms in a single statewide electorate.
The Legislative Council is elected under the preferential Single Transferable Vote (STV) system through a means of Group voting tickets. Voters can choose to vote for a ticket by placing the number '1' in one of the ticket boxes "above the line" or can vote for individual candidates by numbering all the boxes "below the line" (54 in the 2006 election). In above the line voting, ticket votes are distributed according to the party or group voting ticket registered before the election with the election management body. As more than 95% of ballot papers are above the line, this form of voting often leads to pre-election trading between parties on how each party will allocate later preferences to other parties and candidates.
Voting is compulsory once enrolled in South Australian elections, which results in turnout rates above 90 per cent. Informal voting, which occurs when a voting slip is not valid, is at a rate of under five per cent. Voting slips are informal when they are not filled out correctly, such examples are not numbering subsequent numbers, not filling out all the candidate boxes with numbers (except the last candidate), or in some other way that is verified by the State Electoral Office as illegible. South Australian elections have some features that are unique to the rest of Australia.
As elections have fixed four-year terms, the election date of 18 March 2006 was known well ahead of time. The Electoral Act stipulates that the election is to be held on the third Saturday in March every four years. The election campaign must run for a minimum of 25 days or a maximum of 55 days, therefore the Governor would have needed to issue writs for the election by 21 February 2006 at the latest. On 20 February, Premier Mike Rann invited Governor Marjorie Jackson-Nelson to issue writs for the election. In accordance with electoral regulations, the Electoral Commissioner then advertised key dates for the election of the House of Assembly and half of the Legislative Council – close of rolls on 27 February 2006 at noon, nominations to be received by 2 March 2006 at noon, polling day on 18 March 2006, and the return of writs on or before 28 April 2006.
Election background.
In the 2002 election, Labor won 23 seats, the Liberals 20, Nationals 1, and conservative Independents won three. As 24 seats are required to govern, the Liberal Party was expected to retain government with the support of all four independents. However, in a surprise decision, one of the conservative independents, Peter Lewis, decided to support Labor 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. Lewis resigned as speaker in April 2005 after controversy over allegations of paedophilia he had made about a serving MP. However, by this time, Labor had already gained the support of independents Bob Such and Rory McEwen in 2002, as well as Nationals SA member Karlene Maywald in 2004. Such was given the position of speaker for the remainder of the government's term.
Campaign.
The Labor campaign was heavily based around Premier Mike Rann with Labor's advertising swapping between the mottos "Building South Australia" and, to a greater extent, "RANN Gets Results". Some commentators also argued that the "presidential" style of campaign, common in modern Australian politics, could be seen in Labor's formal campaign launch at the Norwood Town Hall the Sunday before the election, which had some similarities to the nomination conventions that the major parties hold in the United States.
Another facet of the Labor campaign was extensive negative campaigning against Liberal leader Rob Kerin, including an advertisement featuring an excerpt of an interview that Kerin had with FIVEaa presenter Keith Conlon, who asked Kerin why he wanted to be leader of the Liberal Party. Kerin stammered for a few seconds and gave the impression that he was uncertain. The advertisement concluded with the question, "Does Rob Want