LIB 7.5%
Incumbent MP
Josh Teague, since 2018.
Geography
Regional South Australia. Heysen covers areas to the south-east of Adelaide, including the suburbs and towns of Aldgate, Bridgewater, Crafers, Clarendon, Echunga, Hahndorf, Kangarilla, Macclesfield, Montacute, Stirling and Summertown. The electorate covers parts of Adelaide Hills, Alexandrina, Mount Barker and Onkaparinga council areas.
Redistribution
Heysen shifted to the north, covering more of the fringe of Adelaide. Heysen lost Strathalbyn to Hammond and another small area to Kavel. Heysen gained Crafers West and Coromandel East from Waite, Cherry Gardens from Davenport, Hahndorf, Verdun and Carey Gully from Kavel, and Ashton, Norton Summit, Summertown and Uraidla from Morialta. These changes reduced the Liberal margin from 8.5% to 7.5%.
History
Heysen has existed since the 1985 election, and had previously existed from 1970 to 1977. The seat has always been held by the Liberal Party. The seat has been a stronghold for the Australian Democrats in the past, with the party coming close to winning at the 1997 election.
William McAnaney won the seat for the first time in 1970 for the Liberal and Country League. McAnaney had held the seat of Stirling from 1963 to 1970.
McAnaney retired at the 1975 election, and was succeeded in Heysen by David Wotton. Wotton had to move to the seat of Murray in 1977 when Heysen was abolished, and returned to the restored Heysen in 1985, when Murray was abolished.
At the 1997 election, the Australian Democrats came second in Heysen, achieving a two-candidate-preferred vote of 48.1%. This was followed by a 46% figure in 2002.
At the 2002 election, Wotton retired and Heysen was won by Isobel Redmond.
Redmond was promoted to the Liberal frontbench in 2004, and was elected Liberal leader in 2009. She led the Liberal Party to the 2010 election, when they won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote but failed to win enough seats to win the election. She continued to serve as Leader of the Opposition until her resignation in January 2013.
Redmond was re-elected in 2014, and retired in 2018. Liberal candidate Josh Teague won Heysen in 2018.
- Rowan Voogt (Labor)
- Alexander Allwood (One Nation)
- Belinda Nikitins (Family First)
- Lynton Vonow (Greens)
- Josh Teague (Liberal)
Assessment
Heysen is a reasonably safe Liberal seat.
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| Josh Teague | Liberal | 9,227 | 40.7 | -13.4 | 40.3 |
| John Illingworth | SA-Best | 5,514 | 24.3 | +24.3 | 23.4 |
| Tony Webb | Labor | 4,123 | 18.2 | -2.1 | 18.9 |
| Lynton Vonow | Greens | 2,557 | 11.3 | -8.3 | 12.1 |
| Lynette Stevenson | Australian Christians | 785 | 3.5 | +3.0 | 3.1 |
| Andrew Ey | Dignity | 467 | 2.1 | -2.7 | 1.8 |
| Others | 0.4 | ||||
| Informal | 767 | 3.3 |
2018 two-candidate-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Josh Teague | Liberal | 11,749 | 51.8 | |
| John Illingworth | SA-Best | 10,924 | 48.2 |
2018 two-party-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| Josh Teague | Liberal | 13,259 | 58.5 | -3.8 | 57.5 |
| Tony Webb | Labor | 9,414 | 41.5 | +3.8 | 42.5 |
Booths in Heysen have been divided into three groups: central, north and south.
The Liberal Party won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote (against Labor) in all three areas, ranging from 55.7% in the centre to 60.5% in the south.
SA-Best came second on the primary vote, ranging from 21.2% in the centre to 27.1% in the south.
| Voter group | GRN prim | SAB prim | LIB 2PP | Total votes | % of votes |
| Central | 13.9 | 21.2 | 55.7 | 9,379 | 40.9 |
| South | 9.0 | 27.1 | 60.5 | 5,217 | 22.8 |
| North | 12.3 | 23.9 | 56.3 | 3,847 | 16.8 |
| Other votes | 11.9 | 23.4 | 58.6 | 4,468 | 19.5 |
Election results in Heysen at the 2018 South Australian state election
Toggle between two-candidate-preferred votes, two-party-preferred votes and primary votes for the Liberal Party, SA-Best, Labor and the Greens.
Libs will probably hold, Greens could come second depending on where SA-Best vote goes.
If there is a seat where a Green candidate could get elected it would be Heysen given the historically high Green compared to the rest of the state. Despite being a rural seat, it had small l liberal tendencies. A high profile Independent could be elected but no such Independent has been declared.
Liberal Retain – Possible GRN in TPP terms.
Ben how can you assess this as a ”Heysen is a reasonably safe Liberal seat.” when they almost lost it to SA-best in 2018? This is a marginal seat. so I don’t get why you consider this a safe seat.
SA-Best isn’t running, I don’t see the relevance of that margin. It’s relatively safe against Labor.
Anyway I didn’t say “safe”, I said “relatively safe”.
Heysen was a safe seat with margin >10% at the 2010 and 2014 elections. CG is correct that the Greens are relatively strong here and finished 2nd in the 2PP count at the 2014 election.
This seats margin is way too low for comfort for the Libs while there is a strong minor party vote here should be safe. The Libs need to work to improve their standing in seats such as Heyson, Waite and Davenport.