ALP 19.8%
Incumbent MP
Mark Butler, since 2007.
Geography
Port Adelaide covers the northern suburbs of Adelaide, including the port itself. It includes the suburbs of Seaton, Woodville, Croydon, Cheltenham, Semaphore, Largs Bay, Green Fields and Salisbury.
History
Port Adelaide was created as part of the expansion of the House of Representatives at the 1949 election, and has always been held by the ALP.
Port Adelaide was first won in 1949 by Labor candidate Albert Thompson. Thompson had previously won the seat of Hindmarsh in 1946, and before that had been a state Labor MP since 1930. Thompson held Port Adelaide until his retirement at the 1963 election.
He was succeeded by Fred Birrell, who held it until 1974. He was succeeded in 1974 by former ALP National Secretary Mick Young, the architect of Gough Whitlam’s 1972 election win. Young played a key role in the Labor frontbench during the Fraser government, and was appointed to Cabinet after Bob Hawke’s election win in 1983. He was forced to briefly step down in 1984 after breaching Cabinet security, but was later reappointed. He continued in Parliament until 1988, when he resigned over accusations of mishandling of campaign donations.
The 1988 by-election was won by Rod Sawford. Sawford served as a Labor whip from 1994 until 2001, and was a critic of Kim Beazley during his leadership contests against Simon Crean and Mark Latham. Sawford retired at the 2007 election, and was succeeded by Mark Butler, the head of the Labor Left faction in South Australia. Butler was appointed as a Parliamentary Secretary in a 2009 reshuffle.
Candidates
- Kalyna Micenko (Greens)
- Bruce Hambour (Family First)
- Mark Butler (Labor) – Member for Port Adelaide since 2007.
- Nigel McKenna (Liberal)
Political situation
This is the ALP’s safest seat in South Australia. Butler should have no trouble retaining his seat.
2007 result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Mark Butler | ALP | 52,732 | 58.24 | +3.73 |
| Brenton Chomel | LIB | 22,830 | 25.21 | -6.71 |
| Colin Thomas | GRN | 7,935 | 8.76 | +3.34 |
| Bruce Hambour | FF | 5,230 | 5.78 | +1.01 |
| Pam Moore | DEM | 1,822 | 2.01 | +0.01 |
2007 two-candidate-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Mark Butler | ALP | 63,158 | 69.75 | +6.84 |
| Brenton Chomel | LIB | 27,391 | 30.25 | -6.84 |
Booth breakdown
Port Adelaide is covered by four local government areas, although the northern council area of Playford only includes one booth in Port Adelaide, so it has been grouped with the neighbouring Salisbury LGA. These three areas each make up approximately one third of the electorate. The Labor vote is similar in all three areas, although the ALP polls best in the area immediately around Port Adelaide. The Greens poll much better in the bottom two-thirds than in the top third.
| Voter group | GRN % | ALP 2CP % | Total votes | % of ordinary votes |
| Port Adelaide-Enfield | 10.36 | 72.53 | 26,467 | 29.23 |
| Charles Sturt | 9.09 | 68.83 | 25,664 | 28.34 |
| North | 6.29 | 69.78 | 24,908 | 27.51 |
| Other votes | 9.56 | 66.00 | 14,285 | 14.92 |
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Apologies for this map being slightly out of step with Ben’s style. As an ultra-safe seat I was supposed to change the colouring of the labels to a different scale. This is the only one I forgot to do that on.
Of interest, the booth with only 51% for the ALP is the booth at Mawson Lakes. Also there is a very good booth for the Greens at Semaphore, where they got 20%.
Keep an eye out for Mark Butler. He’s supposedly a bit of a rising star of the Labor Left. People talk about him being a future senior cabinet minister.
My prediction: 1-2% swing to Labor. Ultra-safe.