Politics

The maps of the 1984 Federal election and the 1985 State election show a clear regional pattern of party support in South Australia. These patterns have been relatively consistent since the end of the Second World War despite some changes in party affiliation in a small number of electorates at specific elections.

This consistency flows from an equally strong regionalism of demographic and occupational patterns and of industrial development. Industries and their dormitory suburbs developed in the metropolitan area in a band running from the north-east, through the western suburbs, to the Housing Trust developments in the south. The north and the south, especially, have been the heartlands of Labor Party support, with occasional pockets of Liberal strength in the higher income suburbs along the coast. The Liberal Party's strength has always been in the eastern suburbs and foothills developments, although, as shown on the metropolitan map of the 1984 Federal election, a number of Labor-dominated polling places occur in the inner eastern suburbs.

In the country, industrial development and a Labor-voting work force developed only in the Iron Triangle of Whyalla, Port Augusta and Port Pire. These areas still provide some of the strongest Labor support in the State. The remainder of the country area provides strong and consistent support for the Liberal and National parties. Only in some of the larger towns and in the railway towns in the north does Labor receive a majority of the votes.

These relatively consistent patterns of party support have not always been reflected in the South Australian Paramount. Before 1969, distribution of electoral boundaries heavily favoured the non-metropolitan areas, and gave the Liberal Party numbers in Parliament greatly in excess of its share of the total vote. A partial reform of the imbalance was effected by the Hall Liberal Country League government in 1969. It was completed by the Dunstan Labor government in 1975 with the introduction of 'one-vote-one-value' (an equality of enrolments in all electorates with a permitted variation of ± 10%). A further redistribution of South Australian parliamentary electorates was carried out in 1983 when the metropolitan area gained one more electorate to contain 34 of the 47 seats. The ratio of metropolitan to non-metropolitan electorates has changed significantly in recent years as a result of these reforms. Between 1938 and 1969 it was 13:26; from 1969 to 1975, 28:19; from 1975 to 1983, 33:14; and since 1983, 34:13.

1984 Federal Election

This national election was held with new boundaries in all States following the 1983 redistribution. In South Australia, elections were held for 13 seats in the House of Representatives, and for 7 in the Senate. The aggregate patterns for the House of Representatives vote show the marked contrast in party support between the metropolitan and country areas of the State.

The Labor Party's strength in this election is clearly indicated by the polling place results shown on the metropolitan map. Only two seats are safe for the Liberal Party, both in the eastern foothills areas; five seats are safe for the Labor Party; and two seats are marginal (Makin and Hawker), both leaning towards Labor. The party pattern in the country is skewed by the Labor victory in the vast electorate of Grey (due mainly to Labor support in the Iron Triangle). The cartogram of the Federal electoral boundaries offers an unconventional view which distorts the geographic size and shape of the electorates by giving an equal area to every 5000 voters. However, although it distorts, it represents the size of Labor's overall majority more effectively than a conventional map.

1985 South Australian Election

Elections were held on 7 December 1985 for all 47 seats in the House of Assembly, and for 11 of the 22 seats in the Legislative Council. No map has been provided for the Legislative Council. Since 1975 the Council has been elected from a single, State-wide electorate on a proportional representation election system. Eleven members, half of the membership of the Council, retire at each election. The quota for election is 100% ÷ 12 = 8.4% of the formal votes. In 1985, five Labor, five Liberal, and one Democrat were elected to the council, making the total party balance Labor 10, Liberal 10, and Democrat 2.

The House of Assembly elections were based on 'compulsory voting' (in fact, compulsory attendance at the polls), and single-member electorates, using preferential voting. Under the new State Electoral Act, party affiliations were shown on the ballot paper for the first time. A total of 163 candidates nominated for the 47 electorates, of whom 137 were Labor, Liberal or Democrat candidates.

This was an unusual election due to the intervention of six independent Labor and independent Liberal candidates, three of whom had failed to gain pre-selection by their parties. These were sitting members, and were re-elected.

South Australia was the first State to require that all contests be 'counted out' to a two-party result. The following table is based on those counts. In the Semaphore and Elizabeth electorates the final actual contest was Labor versus independent Labor; in Flinders, the final actual two-party contest was Liberal Party versus National Party. In constructing the table, estimated preference distributions were made for these contests.

The Labor Party has a clear majority of votes in the metropolitan area; the Liberal Party and the minority National Party have an equally strong domination of the country areas. If the Iron Triangle, safe Labor, electorates of Whyalla and Stuart are deleted from the country area, the 1985 pattern of two-party support would be Australian Labor Party 36.0%, Liberal Party 64.0%.

The map of the 1985 State election shows the relative security of the Labor Party in a clear majority of the electorates. The metropolitan area is the key to the result of every State election. It contains 34 of the 47 seats, and if the demographic patterns continue to be centripetal, the metropolitan ratio of the total seats will have to increase. Of the 34 metropolitan seats, Labor holds 27 (including 2 independent Labor seats), and of these, 19 require a two-party swing of more than 10% to be lost to the Liberal Party. If the two safe seats in the Iron Triangle are added to this total Labor has 21 safe seats. Applying the same test of ability to withstand a 10% swing, the Liberal Party has only 12 safe seats in both urban and rural areas.