Hartley – SA 2022

LIB 6.5%

Incumbent MP
Vincent Tarzia, since 2014.

Geography
Eastern Adelaide. Hartley covers the suburbs of Campbelltown, Hectorville, Magill, Paradise, Tranmere, and parts of Newton.

Redistribution
Hartley gained Dernancourt from Torrens and also gained Felixstow and Glynde from Dunstan, and lost Newton and part of Magill to Morialta.

History
Hartley was created for the 1977 election. The seat was Labor-held up until the early 1990s, and then Liberal-held until the 2006 election when it was won back by the ALP. It went back to the Liberal Party in 2014.

The seat was first won in 1977 by Des Corcoran, then Deputy Premier in the Labor government. Corcoran had held the seat of Millicent since 1962, when he replaced his father in the seat. Corcoran had served as deputy leader since 1968 and Deputy Premier since the Dunstan government won power in 1970.

Corcoran replaced Dunstan as Premier in 1979, and called a snap election which the Labor government lost. Corcoran retired from Hartley in 1982.

Terry Groom replaced Corcoran in 1982, and won re-election in 1985 and 1989. In 1991, an unfavourable redistribution made Hartley much less winnable for Labor, and Groom sought preselection elsewhere. After he failed to find a new seat, Groom resigned from the ALP and finished his term as an independent.

Joe Scalzi won Hartley for the Liberal Party in 1993. He was returned in 1997 after a large swing left him with a 0.7% margin. In 2002, he managed to increase his margin despite the Liberal Party losing power.

Grace Portolesi defeated Scalzi in 2006 with a 5.9% swing. She retained her seat in 2010 after a swing of 3.9% to the Liberal Party.

Portolesi lost her seat in 2014 to Liberal candidate Vincent Tarzia. Tarzia won a second term in 2018, seeing off a challenge by SA-Best leader and former senator Nick Xenophon.

Candidates

Assessment
Hartley could be in play if Labor does well.

2018 result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing Redist
Vincent Tarzia Liberal 8,619 40.4 -7.3 41.5
Grace Portolesi Labor 5,117 24.0 -15.4 27.0
Nick Xenophon SA-Best 5,319 24.9 +24.9 21.1
Lauren Zwaans Greens 1,028 4.8 -3.1 5.4
Marijka Ryan Independent 526 2.5 +2.5 1.7
Bob Jackson Australian Christians 475 2.2 -2.8 1.7
Rick Neagle Dignity 239 1.1 +1.1 1.6
Informal 1,061 4.7

2018 two-party-preferred result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing Redist
Vincent Tarzia Liberal 12,316 57.8 +4.7 56.5
Grace Portolesi Labor 9,007 42.2 -4.7 43.5

Booth breakdown

Booths in Hartley have been divided into three areas: north-east, north-west and south.

The Liberal Party won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote in all three areas, ranging from 54.7% in the north-west to 59.3% in the south.

SA-Best’s primary vote ranged from 17.3% in the north-east to 25.2% in the south.

Voter group SAB prim % LIB 2PP % Total votes % of votes
North-West 22.2 54.7 6,854 32.0
North-East 17.3 55.1 4,883 22.8
South 25.2 59.3 3,252 15.2
Other votes 20.6 58.2 6,402 29.9

Election results in Hartley at the 2018 South Australian state election
Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and primary votes for the Liberal Party, Labor and SA-Best.

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11 COMMENTS

  1. Vincent Tarzia was hailed by the Liberals on election night as a giant slayer seeing off Nick Xenophon in Hartley. Tarzia certainly got some help with the Greens putting the Liberals ahead of Xenophon on their how to vote cards. Labor was also in no mood to give Xenophon a free lunch after Xenophon put out a open ticket on his how to vote cards which Labor in turn returned the favour. Xenophon failing to make the final two party preferred vote would have not been predicted by anyone before the election.

    Tarzia has to be concerned by where the Xenophon vote will go (24.9%). Tarzia will need to lift his primary vote significantly to hold his seat as the last state election was different circumstances.

  2. Today, Vincent Tarzia was elected the new leader of the SA Liberal Party. He will serve as Leader of the Opposition after David Speirs quit.

  3. On another note apparently there’s a redistribution in sa that’s due to release draft boundaries thu4sday

  4. Given how narrow this electorate is in width and relatively small in size Tarzia could be moved out of the electorate. I have no idea which suburb he lives in though so it’s just a guess. This will likely remain a Campbelltown-based seat.

    The only other Campbelltown-based seat in Australia is Campbelltown in Sydney which is a safe Labor seat.

  5. @np Yea for what reason I’m not sure the campbelltown lga has more then one quota worth of voters so MacArthur should be solely within the lga

  6. @John are you looking at the LGA’s population or enrolment figures? Remember only adults who are Australian citizens vote (and we have compulsory voting).

  7. A politician’s Instagram tells a lot about them. Vincent Tarzia is quite active on there. He has over 11,000 followers and follows 5,915 accounts. This is more than any other Coalition politician as far as I know.

    He appears to be very sporty, following many sports teams both here in Australia and over in the US and Europe.

    If anyone wants me to look at any other politician’s Instagrams (if you want to know how active each MP is or what they like) just let me know.

    Also, another interesting fact: he is one of four incumbent state/territory opposition leaders in Australia to have an Italian surname, the others being David Crisafulli in Queensland, Lia Finocchiaro in the NT and John Pesutto in Victoria. Plus Anthony Albanese himself has an Italian surname.

  8. @np enrollment in my submission I was able to put all of campbelltown lga east of the hwy into one seat. Plus edmonson park. Sa2

  9. David Speirs appeared as a transitory leader or seat-warmer from day 1. I felt the same at times with Mali in 2018 to 2021, following a long, long Labor government but at least Labor was within striking distance. The Dunsten by-election loss was the final straw for Speirs.

    I read that Alex Antic and the religious right are driving the SA Libs. They got their own in the federal seats of Mayo and Boothby and Antic got the top spot on the SA senate ticket. Tarzia might get on Antic’s side, possibly causing tension between the moderates (Pyne, Marshall-aligned) and the right.

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