LIB 9.7%
Incumbent MP
John Gardner, since 2010.
Geography
Eastern fringe of Adelaide. Morialta covers the suburbs of Athelstone, Auldana, Castambul, Cherryville, Highbury, Newton, Rostrevor, Woodforde, Vista, and parts of Magill. Most of the electorate lies in the Campbelltown and Tea Tree Gully local government areas, along with a small part of the Adelaide Hills.
Redistribution
Morialta lost its eastern rural fringe, becoming more of an urban Adelaide seat. Morialta lost Birdwood, Gumeracha and Mount Torrens to Schubert, also lost Lobethal to Kavel and lost Montacute, Norton Summit and Uraidla to Heysen. Morialta also gained Vista from Newland, Auldana from Bragg, and Newton and part of Magill from Hartley.
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 and 2018.
- John Gardner (Liberal)
- Nick Zollo (Family First)
- Matthew Marozzi (Labor)
- Alex Dinovitser (Greens)
Assessment
Morialta is a safe Liberal seat.
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| John Gardner | Liberal | 10,332 | 44.3 | -11.2 | 44.5 |
| Peter Field | Labor | 5,146 | 22.1 | -5.6 | 24.1 |
| James Sadler | SA-Best | 4,645 | 19.9 | +19.9 | 19.3 |
| Simon Roberts-Thomson | Greens | 1,525 | 6.5 | -4.3 | 5.4 |
| Matt Smith | Australian Christians | 854 | 3.7 | -2.3 | 3.1 |
| Tim Farrow | Dignity | 560 | 2.4 | +2.4 | 2.1 |
| Peter Smythe | Independent | 240 | 1.0 | +1.0 | 1.4 |
| Informal | 1,007 | 4.1 |
2018 two-party-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| John Gardner | Liberal | 14,151 | 60.7 | -1.5 | 59.7 |
| Peter Field | Labor | 9,151 | 39.3 | +1.5 | 40.3 |
Booths in Morialta 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 58% in the north to 60.6% in the centre.
SA-Best came third, with a primary vote ranging from 17.9% in the south to 20.1% in the centre.
| Voter group | SAB prim % | LIB 2PP % | Total votes | % of votes |
| Central | 20.1 | 60.6 | 6,758 | 29.9 |
| South | 17.9 | 59.3 | 5,380 | 23.8 |
| North | 18.3 | 58.0 | 3,973 | 17.6 |
| Other votes | 20.1 | 60.3 | 6,508 | 28.8 |
Election results in Morialta at the 2018 South Australian state election
Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and primary votes for the Liberal Party, Labor and SA-Best.