1993 South Australian state election

State elections were held in South Australia on 11 December 1993. All 47 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly were up for election. The incumbent Australian Labor Party led by Premier of South Australia Lynn Arnold was defeated by the Liberal Party of Australia led by Leader of the Opposition Dean Brown. The Liberals won what is still the largest majority government in South Australian history.

1993 South Australian state election
11 December 1993 (1993-12-11)
All 47 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly
24 seats were needed for a majority
11 (of the 22) seats in the South Australian Legislative Council
  First party Second party
 
Leader Dean Brown Lynn Arnold
Party Liberal Labor
Leader since 11 May 1992 4 September 1992
Leader's seat Finniss Taylor
Seats before 22 seats 23 seats
Seats won 37 seats 10 seats
Seat change 15 13
Percentage 60.9% 39.1%
Swing 8.9 8.9
Premier before election

Lynn Arnold
Labor

 Elected Premier

Dean Brown
Liberal

Background

The campaign was dominated by the issue of the collapse of the State Bank of South Australia in 1991. The State Bank's deposits were legally underwritten by the Government of South Australia, putting South Australia into billions of dollars of debt. Labor premier John Bannon had resigned over the issue in 1992, being replaced by Lynn Arnold just over a year before the election. The Liberals also changed leaders in 1992, switching from Dale Baker to Dean Brown. Following the Labor leadership change and by early 1993, Newspoll had recorded a total rise of 13 percent in the Labor primary vote.[1] However, the gains did not last. A warning sign of things to come came with the March 1993 federal election, which saw two of Labor's longest-held seats in South Australia, Hindmarsh and Grey, fall to the Liberals. Hindmarsh had been in Labor hands without interruption since 1919, while Grey had been in Labor hands for all but one term since 1943.

Key dates
  • Issue of writ: 4 November 1993
  • Close of electoral rolls: 12 November 1993
  • Close of nominations: Friday 19 November 1993, at noon
  • Polling day: 11 December 1993
  • Return of writ: On or before 7 January 1994

Results

House of Assembly

South Australian state election, 11 December 1993[2]
House of Assembly
<< 1989–1997 >>

Enrolled voters 1,006,035
Votes cast 941,301 Turnout 93.57 -0.86
Informal votes 29,206 Informal 3.10 +0.27
Summary of votes by party
Party Primary votes % Swing Seats Change
  Liberal 481,623 52.80 +8.60 37 + 15
  Labor 277,038 30.37 –9.72 10 – 12
  Democrats 82,942 9.09 –1.18 0 ± 0
  National 10,157 1.11 –0.07 0 – 1
  Natural Law 9,386 1.03 +1.03 0 ± 0
  Independent 28,498 3.12 +1.89 0 ± 0
  Independent Labor 6,225 0.68 –0.83 0 – 2
  Other 16,226 1.78 * 0 ± 0
Total 912,095     47  
Two-party-preferred
  Liberal 555,534 60.91 +8.87
  Labor 356,561 39.09 –8.87

The Liberals under Dean Brown went into the election as unbackable favourites, and swept the 11-year Labor government from power in a massive landslide. They won 37 of 47 seats (78.7 percent of the available seats, a majority of 14) in the South Australian House of Assembly from a 15-seat swing − in terms of seat count and percentage of seats won, the largest majority government in the state's history. By comparison, Sir Thomas Playford never governed with more than 23 seats in a 39-seat legislature during his record 27 years as Premier, and Don Dunstan never governed with more than 27 seats in a 47-seat legislature.

The Liberals won 60.9 percent of the two-party vote, the largest two-party preferred vote in South Australian state history (dating back to the first statewide two-party calculations from 1944). Labor fell to just 39.1 percent of the two-party vote from a two-party swing of 8.9 percent—at the time, the largest two-party swing in South Australian state history (second only to the 9.4 percent swing at the following 1997 election, and still the largest that resulted in a change of government. The 15-seat swing is still the largest in South Australian state history.

Adelaide, which had been Labor's power base in the state for decades, swung over dramatically to support the Liberals. Labor lost seats in several parts of Adelaide where it had not been seriously threatened in memory, and was cut down to only nine seats in the capital. Additionally, Labor suffered what proved to be permanent swings in much of country South Australia; it was cut down to only one seat outside of Adelaide, the Whyalla-based seat of Giles.

The stratospheric records for seat count and percentage of seats in the House led to predictions of a generation of Liberal government. However, the Liberal gains were short lived. Factional stoushes between the moderate and conservative wings of the Liberal Party led to Brown's factional rival, John Olsen, successfully challenging Brown for the Liberal leadership in 1996. In turn, the Liberals were reduced to a minority government as a result of the 1997 election, following another record two-party swing in the other direction of 9.5 percent.

A 1994 Torrens by-election saw Labor take the seat from the Liberals. The 1994 Elizabeth by-election and 1994 Taylor by-election saw Labor retain both seats.

Legislative Council

South Australian state election, 11 December 1993[3]
Legislative Council
<< 1989–1997 >>

Enrolled voters 1,006,035
Votes cast 941,864 Turnout 93.62 –0.91
Informal votes 33,338 Informal 3.54 –0.35
Summary of votes by party
Party Primary votes % Swing Seats
won		 Seats
held
  Liberal 470,675 51.81 +10.71 6 11
  Labor 248,970 27.40 –12.35 4 9
  Democrats 73,051 8.04 –2.65 1 2
  HEMP 16,353 1.80 +1.80 0 0
  Grey Power 14,560 1.60 –0.68 0 0
  Greens 11,853 1.30 +1.30 0 0
  Shooters 10,622 1.17 +1.17 0 0
  Call to Australia 9,317 1.03 –1.50 0 0
  National 6,516 0.72 –0.06 0 0
  Green Alliance 3,960 0.44 +0.44 0 0
  Independent Alliance 3,533 0.39 +0.39 0 0
  Natural Law 3,421 0.38 +0.38 0 0
  Other 35,695 3.93 * 0 0
Total 908,526     11 22

Post-election pendulum
For pendulums and maps, see List of elections in South Australia.
LIBERAL SEATS (37)
Marginal
Lee Joe Rossi LIB 1.1%
Hanson Stewart Leggett LIB 1.2%
Reynell Julie Greig LIB 1.2%
Kaurna Lorraine Rosenberg LIB 2.8%
Elder David Wade LIB 3.4%
Wright Scott Ashenden LIB 4.0%
Peake Heini Becker LIB 5.6%
Frome Rob Kerin LIB 5.7%
Fairly safe
Chaffey Kent Andrew LIB 6.3% vs NAT
Eyre Graham Gunn LIB 6.5%
Torrens Joe Tiernan LIB 6.5%
Norwood John Cummins LIB 7.4%
Flinders Liz Penfold LIB 7.8% vs NAT
Mitchell Colin Caudell LIB 9.4%
Mawson Robert Brokenshire LIB 9.6%
Safe
Davenport Iain Evans LIB 10.2% vs AD
Florey Sam Bass LIB 10.4%
Colton Steve Condous LIB 10.5%
Unley Mark Brindal LIB 11.5%
Hartley Joe Scalzi LIB 13.2%
Adelaide Michael Armitage LIB 14.1%
Coles Joan Hall LIB 15.9%
Light Malcolm Buckby LIB 16.4%
Newland Dorothy Kotz LIB 17.4%
Bright Wayne Matthew LIB 19.0%
Fisher Bob Such LIB 20.7%
Morphett John Oswald LIB 21.9%
Gordon Harold Allison LIB 22.2%
Goyder John Meier LIB 23.3%
Waite Stephen Baker LIB 23.3% vs AD
Kavel John Olsen LIB 24.3%
Finniss Dean Brown LIB 24.4%
Heysen David Wotton LIB 24.5%
Custance Ivan Venning LIB 24.5%
Ridley Peter Lewis LIB 25.1%
MacKillop Dale Baker LIB 27.7%
Bragg Graham Ingerson LIB 28.7%
LABOR SEATS (10)
Marginal
Napier Annette Hurley ALP 1.1%
Ross Smith Ralph Clarke ALP 2.1%
Giles Frank Blevins ALP 2.4%
Playford John Quirke ALP 2.7%
Fairly safe
Elizabeth Martyn Evans ALP 7.6%
Spence Michael Atkinson ALP 7.7%
Taylor Lynn Arnold ALP 8.0%
Hart Kevin Foley ALP 8.5%
Ramsay Mike Rann ALP 9.9%
Safe
Price Murray De Laine ALP 11.0%
Metro SA: ALP in red, Liberal in blue. These boundaries are based on the 2006 electoral redistribution.
Rural SA: ALP in red, Liberal in blue. These boundaries are based on the 2006 electoral redistribution.

See also

Notes
  1. "SA voting intention and leader ratings: Newspoll/The Australian". Archived from the original on 2012-02-06. Retrieved 2012-01-21.
  2. "Details of SA 1993 Election". Australian Politics and Elections Database.
  3. Green, Antony. "South Australian 1993 Election Results" (PDF). ABC Election Archives. Retrieved 11 April 2016.

References
Political Parties
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