Mawson – SA 2014

ALP 4.5%

Incumbent MP
Leon Bignell, since 2006.

Geography
Southern fringe of Adelaide. Mawson covers the suburbs of Woodcroft, Hackham, Hackham West, Huntfield Heights and Noarlunga Downs. The entire district lies within the City of Onkaparinga.

Map of Mawson's 2010 and 2014 boundaries. 2010 boundaries marked as red lines, 2014 boundaries marked as white area. Click to enlarge.
Map of Mawson’s 2010 and 2014 boundaries. 2010 boundaries marked as red lines, 2014 boundaries marked as white area. Click to enlarge.

Redistribution
Mawson gained the remainder of Onkaparinga Hills from Reynell, and Old Noarlunga and Noarlunga Downs from Kaurna, and lost parts of Woodcroft to Fisher. The ALP’s margin remained steady on 4.5%.

History
Mawson has existed since the 1970 election. The ALP and Liberal Party have exchanged the seat back and forth, with the ALP winning the seat eight times and the Liberal Party winning four times.

Two successive Labor MPs held the seat from 1970 to 1979. In 1979, the Liberal Party’s Ivar Schmidt won the seat for one seat, losing in 1982.

Susan Lenehan won the seat for the ALP in 1982. She went on to serve as a minister from the late 1980s until 1993. In 1993, she attempted to move to the new seat of Reynell, but lost the race.

The Liberal Party’s Robert Brokenshire replaced Lenehan in Mawson in 1993. He went on to win re-election in 1997, and served as a minister from 1998 until the government’s defeat in 2002. Brokenshire then served as a shadow minister, until he lost his seat in 2006.

Brokenshire went on to join the Family First Party and was appointed to fill a casual vacancy in the South Australian Legislative Council in 2008. He was re-elected to the Legislative Council at the 2010 election.

Brokenshire lost Mawson in 2006 to the ALP’s Leon Bignell. Bignell was re-elected in 2010, and continues to sit on the backbench.

Candidates
Sitting Labor MP Leon Bignell is running for re-election. The Liberal Party is running Stephen Annells. The Greens are running Katie Wright. Family First are running Geoff Doecke.

Assessment
Mawson is a marginal seat and with a margin of less than 5% will be vulnerable, but is not one of the top priorities for the Liberal Party.

2010 result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing
Leon Bignell ALP 9,849 45.9 +2.1
Matt Donovan LIB 7,642 35.6 -4.3
Andrew Tainsh FF 1,570 7.3 +0.8
Palitja Moore GRN 1,387 6.5 +1.4
Ben Ernst G4C 413 1.9 +1.9
David Senior RAH 259 1.2 +1.2
Michael Lee IND 168 0.8 +0.8
Harry Tsekouras FLT 155 0.7 +0.7

2010 two-party-preferred result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing
Leon Bignell ALP 11,659 54.4 +2.2
Matt Donovan LIB 9,784 45.6 -2.2
Polling places in Mawson at the 2010 state election. Hackham in blue, Noralunga in green, South in yellow, Woodcroft in red. Click to enlarge.
Polling places in Mawson at the 2010 state election. Hackham in blue, Noralunga in green, South in yellow, Woodcroft in red. Click to enlarge.

Booth breakdown
Booths have been divided into four areas. The single booth of Woodcroft is very large and is not near any other booths at the northern end of the seat, and has not been combined with any other booths. Three booths in the south of the seat have been combined. Most voters lie in the northwestern corner, and these voters have been split between Noarlunga in the west and Hackham in the east.

The ALP won a majority in three out of four areas, ranging from 52.8% in Woodcroft to 61.2% in Hackham. The Liberal Party won a 56.4% in the south of the seat.

Family First outpolled the Greens in three out of four areas, with the Greens coming third with almost 10% in the south of the seat.

Voter group GRN % FF % ALP 2PP % Total votes % of ordinary votes
Hackham 5.78 8.83 61.23 6,681 37.96
South 9.54 6.67 43.57 4,726 26.85
Woodcroft 3.50 7.08 52.83 4,140 23.52
Noarlunga 4.53 7.50 60.64 2,053 11.66
Other votes 7.76 6.90 54.30 4,766
Two-party-preferred votes in Mawson at the 2010 state election.
Two-party-preferred votes in Mawson at the 2010 state election.

5 COMMENTS

  1. I think Mawson will be a top target for the Liberal Party – it’s gone with the winning party since 1970, barring 2002. 2010’s result here would have been caused by Labor’s successful sandbagging campaign.

    A more likely Liberal gain than Wright or Florey in my book.

  3. 4140 voters at one booth? Bloody hell. The local P&C must’ve made a fair bit from their sausage sizzle.

  4. My prediction: Liberal gain, considering the seat’s bellwether history and the swing to Labor in 2010.

Comments are closed.