Morialta – SA 2018

LIB 11.6%

Incumbent MP
John Gardner, since 2010.

Geography
Eastern fringe of Adelaide. Morialta covers the suburbs of Athelstone, Castambul, Cherryville, Montacute, Newton, Paradise, Rostrevor, Teringie, Woodforde, and parts of Basket Range, Marble Hill, Norton Summit and Teringie. Most of the electorate lies in the Campbelltown and Tea Tree Gully local government areas, as well as parts of the Adelaide Hills.

Redistribution
Morialta shifted south and west. The seat lost Paracombe to Newland and part of Athelstone to Hartley. Morialta gained the remainder of Highbury from Newland, Summertown and Uraidla from Bragg, and Lobethal, Birdwood, Gumeracha and Mount Torrens from Kavel. These changes increased the Liberal margin from 10% to 11.6%.

History

Morialta was created in 2002 as a renaming of the former electorate of Coles, which had existed since 1970. Coles was a Labor seat until 1977. Since 1977, the Liberal Party has won Coles/Morialta at all but one election.

Coles was first won in 1970 by the ALP’s Len King, who served as a minister in the Dunstan government. He held the seat until 1975. After leaving Parliament he was appointed to the Supreme Court of South Australia in 1975, and served as Chief Justice from 1978 to 1995.

King was succeeded by Des Corcoran, who had held the seat of Millicent since 1962 and had served as Deputy Premier since 1970.

Corcoran only served one term in Coles, moving to the new seat of Hartley in 1977. Corcoran went on to serve as Premier for seven months in 1979, and retired from Hartley in 1982.

Jennifer Cashmore won Coles for the Liberal Party in 1977. She served in the seat for sixteen years, retiring in 1993. Cashmore was succeeded by Joan Hall, also a Liberal. Hall is the wife of former Liberal Premier Steele Hall, who went on to serve as a crossbench Senator and a Liberal member of the House of Representatives. Joan Hall held the seat for thirteen years, including serving as a minister from 1997 to 2001.

Hall was re-elected in 1997 and 2002, when Coles was renamed as Morialta. Hall lost in 2006 with a 12% swing to the ALP’s Lindsay Simmons.

There was an 11% swing back to the Liberal Party in 2010, and Simmons lost to the Liberal Party’s John Gardner. Gardner was re-elected in 2014.

Candidates

• Tim Farrow (Dignity)
• John Gardner (Liberal)
• Peter Field (Labor)
• Matt Smith (Conservatives)
• Simon Roberts-Thomson (Greens)
• James Sadler (SA Best)
• Peter Smythe (Independent)

Assessment
This would ordinarily be considered a safe Liberal seat, but the seat was a strong area for the Nick Xenophon Team at the 2016 Senate election. After the distribution of preferences, NXT polled 31.8% (sixth-best in the state), 7.4% more than Labor.

2014 election result

2014 two-party-preferred result

Booth breakdown

Booths in Morialta have been divided into three areas: central, east and west. A majority of the seat’s population lies in the west.

The Liberal Party won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote in all three areas, ranging from 60.8% in the west to 68.5% in the east.

The Greens vote ranged from 8.3% in the west to 16.5% in the centre.

Election results in Morialta at the 2014 SA state election
Click on the ‘visible layers’ box to toggle between two-party-preferred votes and Greens primary votes.

Become a Patron!