LIB 18.2%
Incumbent MP
Geoff Brock (IND), since 2009.
Rural areas north of Adelaide. Frome covers the Adelaide Plains, Clare and Gilbert Valleys and Goyder council areas, as well as a majority of the Light and Northern Areas council areas. The major towns are Clare, Two Wells, Kapunda and Jamestown.
Redistribution
Frome was dramatically redrawn, losing Port Pirie (the largest town in the seat) to Stuart and shifting south. Frome gained the Goyder council area as well as Kapunda from Stuart, as well as the Adelaide Plains council area from Taylor, Schubert and Narungga. These changes have increased the Liberal margin against Labor from 11.1% to 18.2%. They have also removed Geoff Brock’s strongest areas from the electorate, making it impossible to calculate a new margin for the independent MP.
History
Frome has existed in three incarnations, the first as a two-member district from 1884 to 1902, and then from 1938 to 1977 and from 1993 until today. The seat was Labor from 1938 to 1970, and Liberal from 1970 until 2008.
When Frome was restored in 1993, it was won by the Liberal Party’s Rob Kerin.
Kerin served as a minister in the Brown and Olsen ministries from 1995 to 2001, and in 2001 became Liberal leader and Premier six months before the 2002 election.
The 2002 election produced a hung parliament, and Kerin was unsuccessful in forming a majority.
Kerin continued to lead the Liberal Party in opposition, and led them to a landslide defeat at the 2006 state election. Kerin resigned as Liberal leader shortly after the election. He announced his retirement in 2007, and resigned early in late 2008, triggering the 2009 Frome by-election.
Port Pirie mayor Geoff Brock ran as an independent at the by-election, the main rival to Liberal candidate Terry Boylan.
Boylan topped the primary vote, with 39.2%, with the ALP’s John Rohde second on 26.1%. Brock was third on 23.6%.
While such a result would have made it impossible in most cases for a third-placed candidate to win, Brock received strong preferences from minor candidates, and overtook the ALP by 30 votes, allowing him to win comfortably on Labor preferences.
Brock has been re-elected three times.
Candidates
Sitting independent MP Geoff Brock has shifted to the seat of Stuart.
- Cate Hunter (Independent)
- Loma Silsbury (Nationals)
- Caterina Johnston (One Nation)
- Ashton Charvetto (Labor)
- Penny Pratt (Liberal)
Assessment
In the absence of Geoff Brock, who will follow the voters of Port Pirie into Stuart, this seat is a very safe Liberal seat.
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| Kendall Jackson | Liberal | 7,929 | 38.3 | +3.0 | 55.6 |
| Annette Elliot | Labor | 2,077 | 10.0 | -2.4 | 20.0 |
| Geoff Brock | Independent | 9,516 | 46.0 | +2.1 | 7.5 |
| Paul Birkwood | Greens | 622 | 3.0 | +0.2 | 5.5 |
| Cat Connor | Dignity | 556 | 2.7 | +2.7 | 0.9 |
| Others | 10.5 | ||||
| Informal | 717 | 3.3 |
2018 two-candidate-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Geoff Brock | Independent | 12,043 | 58.2 | -1.2 |
| Kendall Jackson | Liberal | 8,657 | 41.8 | +1.2 |
2018 two-party-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| Kendall Jackson | Liberal | 12,648 | 61.1 | +1.3 | 68.2 |
| Annette Elliot | Labor | 8,052 | 38.9 | -1.3 | 31.8 |
Booths in Frome have been divided into three areas: central, north and south.
The Liberal Party won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote in all three areas, ranging from 61.3% in the south to 79.% in the north.
| Voter group | LIB 2PP % | Total votes | % of votes |
| South | 61.3 | 9,431 | 41.8 |
| Central | 74.1 | 5,626 | 25.0 |
| North | 79.3 | 2,405 | 10.7 |
| Other votes | 70.3 | 5,076 | 22.5 |
Election results in Frome at the 2018 South Australian state election
Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and primary votes for the Liberal Party and Labor.
do these figures for votes… include or exclude Port Pirie
Exclude Port Pirie.
Ben, how can Owen have a 58.6% primary vote for the Liberals but a 66.7% 2PP vote for Labor?
Hmm, so I looked into this, thinking that I must have stuffed up somewhere, but this contradiction is in the original ECSA election results – I suspect they’ve transposed the 2PP figures. The 2CP was not Labor vs Liberal so the 2PP would have been conducted later without intense focus from scrutineers and parties so much easier for a mistake to slip by.