LIB 20.0%
Incumbent MP
John McGrath, since 2005.
Geography
Inner south of Perth. South Perth covers suburbs on the south side of the Swan river, including South Perth, Como, Kensington, Karawara and Salter Point. The seat covers the entire South Perth council area and a small part of the neighbouring Victoria Park council area.
Redistribution
South Perth underwent minor changes in the redistribution, gaining a sliver of land around Kensington on the seat’s north-eastern border from Victoria Park. This change cut the Liberal margin from 21.1% to 20%.
History
The seat of South Perth has existed continuously since 1950, and has almost always been held by the Liberal Party. While there has been a few periods of independents winning the seat, Labor has never won South Perth.
Liberal Country League MP George Yates won South Perth in 1950. Yates had represented the seat of Canning since 1947. He held South Perth for two terms, retiring in 1956.
Yates was succeeded in 1956 by Bill Grayden. Grayden had held the state seat of Middle Swan from 1947 to 1949, before serving as a federal MP from 1949 until 1954. Grayden was first elected to South Perth as an independent Liberal, but was an official Liberal from 1959.
Grayden held South Perth for well over thirty years, retiring in 1993. He also served as a minister in the Court government from 1974 until 1982.
Phillip Pendal was elected as the Liberal member for South Perth in 1993, after thirteen years in the Legislative Council. Pendal resigned from the Liberal Party in 1995 and was re-elected as an independent in 1996 and 2001.
Pendal retired in 2005, and the seat was won by Liberal candidate John McGrath. McGrath was re-elected in 2008 and 2013.
Candidates
- Jason St Martin (Micro Business Party)
- M Francis (Independent)
- Mark Brogan (Greens)
- John Mcgrath (Liberal)
- Fiona Reid (Independent)
- Rosemary Steineck (Australian Christians)
- Michael Voros (Labor)
Assessment
South Perth is a very safe Liberal seat.
2013 result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| John Mcgrath | Liberal | 13,654 | 67.0 | +14.1 | 65.9 |
| Dustin Rafferty | Labor | 4,432 | 21.7 | -2.2 | 22.8 |
| Peter John Best | Greens | 1,800 | 8.8 | -1.7 | 9.0 |
| David J Mangini | Independent | 501 | 2.5 | +2.5 | 2.3 |
| Informal | 1,095 | 5.1 |
2013 two-party-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| John Mcgrath | Liberal | 14,494 | 71.1 | +15.1 | 70.0 |
| Dustin Rafferty | Labor | 5,890 | 28.9 | -15.1 | 30.0 |
Booth breakdown
Booths have been divided into three parts: central, north and south.
The Liberal Party’s two-party-preferred vote ranged from 71% in the north to 69% in the south.
The Greens came third, with a vote ranging from 7% in the south to 9.4% in the north.
| Voter group | GRN % | LIB 2PP % | Total votes | % of votes |
| North | 9.4 | 70.9 | 7,004 | 32.0 |
| South | 7.0 | 69.2 | 4,885 | 22.3 |
| Central | 8.8 | 70.2 | 5,171 | 23.6 |
| Other votes | 11.6 | 67.4 | 3,233 | 14.8 |
| Pre-poll | 9.1 | 73.1 | 1,611 | 7.4 |
Two-party-preferred votes in South Perth at the 2013 WA state election