Davenport – SA 2026

ALP 3.4%

Incumbent MP
Erin Thompson, since 2022.

Geography
Southern Adelaide. Davenport covers Aberfoyle Park, Bedford Park, Chandlers Hill, Darlington, Flagstaff Hill, and O’Halloran Hill.

Redistribution
No change.

History
The electorate of Davenport has existed since the 1970 election, and had been won by the Liberal Party consistently until 2022.

The seat was first held in 1970 by Liberal and Country League MP Joyce Steele. Steele had been elected as the first woman in the House of Assembly in 1959, winning the seat of Burnside. She served as Minister for Education from 1968 to 1969, and shifted to the new seat of Davenport in 1970.

In 1973, Steele announced her retirement in the face of an impending preselection threat from Dean Brown. Brown won the seat.

Brown held Davenport throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, until the 1985 election. Brown served as a minister from 1979 to 1982, and in 1982 was unsuccessful in a bid to serve as Liberal leader after the party lost power, losing to John Olsen.

Prior to the 1985 election, the neighbouring seat of Fisher shifted, and the member for Fisher, Stan Evans, challenged Brown for preselection in Davenport. Brown won preselection, but lost the election to Evans, running as an independent.

Brown returned to politics at the 1992 Alexandra by-election, in a bid by the Liberal Party to bring both himself and his rival Olsen back into the state parliament. Brown was elected Liberal leader shortly afterwards, and led the Liberal Party to victory in 1993, winning the new seat of Finniss.

Brown served as Premier from 1993 until his deposition by Olsen in 1996. He later served as Deputy Premier from 2001 to 2002, and then as Deputy Leader of the Opposition until 2005, retiring in 2006.

Stan Evans rejoined the Liberal Party shortly after the 1985 election, and won re-election in 1989. He retired in 1993.

Stan Evans was succeeded in 1993 by his son, Iain Evans. Evans served as a minister in the Olsen and Kerin governments from 1997 to 2002. He then served as deputy leader of the opposition from 2005 until the 2006 state election. He was elected Liberal leader following the party’s landslide defeat in 2006, but barely lasted a year before losing the job in April 2007.

Evans was re-elected in 2010, after a failed bid to win preselection for the federal seat of Mayo for the 2008 by-election. He was re-elected again in 2014, and retired in late 2014.

The Liberal Party’s Sam Duluk won the 2015 by-election.

The redistribution prior to the 2018 election shifted a large part of Davenport into Waite, and Duluk switched seats. Liberal candidate Steve Murray won Davenport.

Murray lost to Labor candidate Erin Thompson in 2022.

Candidates
No information.

Assessment
This section will be filled in closer to the election.

2022 result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing
Steve Murray Liberal 9,928 41.2 -1.3
Erin Thompson Labor 9,835 40.8 +15.4
John Photakis Greens 2,266 9.4 +2.2
Dan Golding Independent 2,063 8.6 +2.2
Informal 595 2.4

2022 two-party-preferred result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing
Erin Thompson Labor 12,870 53.4 +11.6
Steve Murray Liberal 11,222 46.6 -11.6

Booth breakdown

Booths have been divided into three parts: north-east, south-east and west.

Labor won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote in all three areas, ranging from 51.8% in the north-east to 59.9% in the west.

The Greens came third, with a primary vote ranging from 8.3% in the north-east to 12.1% in the west.

Voter group GRN prim ALP 2PP Total votes % of votes
North-East 8.3 51.8 6,565 27.2
South-East 9.1 53.0 5,489 22.8
West 12.1 59.9 3,598 14.9
Other votes 9.3 52.2 8,440 35.0

Election results in Davenport at the 2022 South Australian state election
Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and primary votes for the Liberal Party, Labor, and the Greens.

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