ALP 10.8%
Incumbent MP
Tony Zappia, since 2007.
Geography
Northeastern suburbs of Adelaide. Makin covers most of Tea Tree Gully council area as well as parts of Salisbury council area east of Main North Road and a small part of Port Adelaide Enfield council area. Major suburbs include Para Hills, Walkley Heights, Modbury, Redwood Park, Tea Tree Gully, Golden Grove, Greenwith, Salisbury East and Salisbury Heights.
Redistribution
Makin shifted west to take in parts of the former seat of Port Adelaide, including Parafield Gardens. The seat also lost Salisbury South to the new seat of Spence. This change increased the Labor margin from 9.7% to 10.8%.
History
Makin was created at the 1984 election as part of the expansion of the House of Representatives. The seat was won by the party of government at every election until 2013, when Labor held on against the national trend.
The seat was first won by ALP candidate Peter Duncan, a state MP who had served as a state minister from 1975 until the defeat of the Corcoran government in 1979. Duncan served as a federal minister from the 1987 election until the 1990 election, when he was demoted to a Parliamentary Secretary position which he held until the defeat of the Keating government in 1996.
Duncan lost Makin to Liberal candidate Trish Draper at the 1996 election. Draper held Makin for the entirety of the Howard government, although she never moved off the backbench. Her margin was cut to less than 1% at the 2004 election, and she retired before the 2007 election.
At the 2007 election the ALP’s Tony Zappia won Makin with a swing of over 8%. He has been re-elected three times.
Candidates
Assessment
Makin has become a safe Labor seat, slightly helped by the recent redistribution.
2016 result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| Tony Zappia | Labor | 39,358 | 41.8 | -3.7 | 42.7 |
| Graham Reynolds | Liberal | 26,847 | 28.5 | -8.7 | 27.5 |
| Craig Bossie | Nick Xenophon Team | 15,614 | 16.6 | +16.6 | 16.7 |
| Keiran Snape | Greens | 4,373 | 4.6 | -1.3 | 4.7 |
| Paul Coombe | Family First | 4,273 | 4.5 | -1.9 | 4.7 |
| Mark Aldridge | Independent | 2,126 | 2.3 | +2.3 | 2.1 |
| Zarina Greenberg | Animal Justice | 1,479 | 1.6 | +1.6 | 1.6 |
| Others | 0.1 | ||||
| Informal | 4,366 | 4.4 |
2016 two-party-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| Tony Zappia | Labor | 56,116 | 59.7 | +4.6 | 60.8 |
| Graham Reynolds | Liberal | 37,954 | 40.3 | -4.6 | 39.2 |
Booth breakdown
Booths have been divided into three parts: north-east, south-east and west.
The ALP won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote in all three areas, ranging from 55.2% in the north-east to 66.2% in the west.
The Nick Xenophon Team came third, with a primary vote ranging from 16% in the north-east to 17.6% in the south-east.
| Voter group | NXT prim % | ALP 2PP % | Total votes | % of votes |
| West | 16.2 | 66.2 | 37,760 | 36.4 |
| South-East | 17.6 | 57.7 | 22,428 | 21.6 |
| North-East | 16.0 | 55.2 | 18,565 | 17.9 |
| Other votes | 17.8 | 61.2 | 14,530 | 14.0 |
| Pre-poll | 16.3 | 56.9 | 10,343 | 10.0 |
Election results in Makin at the 2016 federal election
Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and Nick Xenophon Team primary votes.
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The Liberals seem to have really under-performed here in the last decade.
Salisbury is Labor voting, but if you look at the state results, Tea Tree Gully is basically a 50-50 area where the Liberals win quite a few booths. You can see from the map that Labor seems to be running a good 5-10% ahead of this at federal level.
Zappia is almost unknown nationally yet his election results speak for themselves. I’d really like to hear from locals how he does it.
Tony Zappia has a huge local profile and he has a good reputation even amongst many who aren’t regular Labor voters. He was also a popular local mayor before hand. It is for this reason that their is a major gap between the ALP vote in these suburbs between state and federal elections.
Zappia probably works the Electorate hard and listens to people.