Hartley – SA 2018

LIB 3.3%

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 shifted north and west, gaining Paradise and part of Newton from Morialta, losing Auldana and Rosslyn Park to Bragg and losing Glynde to Dunstan. These changes increased the Liberal margin from 2.4% to 3.3%.

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.

Candidates

• Marijka Ryan (Independent)
• Bob Jackson (Conservatives)
• Grace Portolesi (Labor)
• Rick Neagle (Dignity)
• Vincent Tarzia (Liberal)
• Lauren Zwaans (Greens)
• Nick Xenophon (SA Best)

Assessment
Three strong candidates are contesting Hartley, and it will be a seat to watch. Nick Xenophon should poll well, and if his party is doing well you’d expect him to have a good chance of winning this seat. Interestingly, Hartley was ranked 20th out of 47 state seats in terms of the NXT Senate vote in 2016, at 27%. Labor has not abandoned the seat, bringing back their two-term MP who was defeated in 2014. Unless Xenophon polls very well, the seat will likely be decided by the preferences of the candidate who comes third.

2014 election result

2014 two-party-preferred result

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 two out of three areas, with 54% in the north-east and 56% in the south. Labor polled 52.3% in the north-west.

Two-party-preferred votes in Hartley at the 2014 SA state election

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