Division of Sturt
| Sturt Australian House of Representatives Division | |
|---|---|
|
Sturt (dark green) in the city of Adelaide | |
| Created | 1949 |
| MP | Christopher Pyne |
| Party | Liberal |
| Namesake | Charles Sturt |
| Electors | 101,845 (2013) |
| Area | 85 km2 (32.8 sq mi) |
| Demographic | Inner Metropolitan |
The Division of Sturt is an Australian electoral division in South Australia. It was proclaimed at the South Australian redistribution of 11 May 1949. Sturt was named for Captain Charles Sturt, nineteenth century explorer and the first European to discover the Murray River.
Boundaries
Currently stretching from Adelaide's mortgage belt suburbs in the centre-east to the wealthy south-eastern suburbs, boundaries at the seat's creation saw it take in suburbs as far west as Port Adelaide and as far north as Virginia until 1955, after which it began to occupy solely the eastern area of Adelaide. Current boundaries see Sturt covering an area of approximately 85 km² east of the city, from Oakden and Hope Valley in the north to Glen Osmond in the south, taking in the foothills of the Mount Lofty Ranges. Suburbs include Athelstone, Burnside, Campbelltown, Dernancourt, Frewville, Gilles Plains, Glynde, Glenside, Hectorville, Highbury, Hillcrest, Holden Hill, Kensington, Klemzig, Magill, Marden, Paradise, Tranmere and parts of Payneham and Rostrevor.
History
Sturt was first created for the 1949 election as a fairly safe Labor seat with a notional 6.1 percent two-party margin. However, Liberal candidate Keith Wilson won the seat with a marginal 2.8 percent two-party vote from an 8.9 percent two-party swing as part of the massive Liberal victory of that year. Sturt was home to the Wilson political dynasty of Keith and his son Ian for nearly half a century as a marginal to safe Liberal seat, from the 1949 election to the 1993 election. The Wilsons' hold on the seat was interrupted twice by two one-term Labor MPs. Keith Wilson was defeated by Norman Makin at the 1954 election. However, ahead of the 1955 election, Makin opted to contest the newly created Division of Bonython, which had absorbed much of Sturt's Labor-friendly territory. This turned Sturt from a three percent marginal Labor seat to a 2.4 percent marginal Liberal seat. Keith Wilson retook Sturt in 1955 with a healthy 7.9 percent two-party swing, and handed it to Ian in 1966. Norm Foster defeated Ian at the 1969 election, but Ian regained the seat at the 1972 election even as Labor won government.
Ian was a key early member of the progressive Liberal Movement faction within the Liberal Party. However, he remained with the Liberals when the Liberal Movement became a separate party, and eventually served as a minister in the last term of the Fraser government. The Liberal Movement ran a candidate in Sturt in the 1974 election, polling 7.2 percent, much of which derived from Wilson’s vote. Sturt was significantly redistributed prior to the 1993 election, with the Liberals reduced from a fairly safe 7.7 percent two-party margin to a marginal notional 4.7 percent two-party margin. The Wilson dynasty ended at the 1993 election, when Ian was defeated for preselection by current sitting member Christopher Pyne.
The Liberal Movement's successor party, the Australian Democrats, have traditionally polled well in Sturt, highlighted by 13.5 percent at their first showing in the 1977 election and 15 percent in the 1990 election, the best result by a minor party in Sturt. The Democrats vote has dropped sharply in recent years, they gained only 2.26 percent in the 2004 election. Additionally, an independent Liberal contested Sturt at the 1993 election, polling a respectable 14.6 percent.
2007 election
At the 2007 federal election, Pyne suffered a 5.86 percent two-party swing but retained the seat on a 0.94 percent two-party margin, against Labor candidate Mia Handshin, making Sturt the most marginal seat in South Australia. Prior to the pre-selection of Handshin, No Pokies MP Nick Xenophon had been considering running in the seat as an independent, before deciding to run for the Senate instead. At the 2010 federal election, Pyne increased his two-party vote to 53.4 percent, which saw neighbouring Boothby became South Australia's most marginal seat. Pyne increased his two-party margin to 10.1 percent in the 2013 election and was elevated to the Cabinet of Australia.
Nick Xenophon Team
Nick Xenophon confirmed in December 2014 that the Nick Xenophon Team (NXT) party would field lower and upper house candidates around the country at the next federal election, citing the government's ambiguity on the Collins class submarine replacement project as the primary motivation.[1]
Even before the NXT candidate was announced, a ReachTEL opinion poll of 700 Sturt voters conducted during July 2015 put NXT on 38 percent, the Liberals on 30.8 (−23.6) percent and Labor on 17.4 (−11.5) percent. On the two-party vote, the Liberals were on 52 (−8.1) percent to Labor on 48 (+8.1) percent, however, with NXT leading the primary vote, the decisive two-candidate vote put NXT on a winning 62 percent to the Liberals on 38 (−22) percent.[2]
In late 2015, NXT nominated Sturt as their top South Australian lower house target and announced Matthew Wright as their NXT candidate in Sturt. Wright is an emergency physician at the Flinders Medical Centre who has also worked for humanitarian projects in the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and East Timor.[3][4]
Members
| Member | Party | Term | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Keith Wilson | Liberal | 1949–1954 | |
| Norman Makin | Labor | 1954–1955 | |
| (Sir) Keith Wilson | Liberal | 1955–1966 | |
| Ian Wilson | Liberal | 1966–1969 | |
| Norm Foster | Labor | 1969–1972 | |
| Ian Wilson | Liberal | 1972–1993 | |
| Christopher Pyne | Liberal | 1993–present | |
Election results
| Australian federal election, 2013: Sturt | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Liberal | Christopher Pyne | 49,429 | 54.40 | +6.22 | |
| Labor | Rick Sarre | 26,258 | 28.90 | −7.11 | |
| Greens | Anne Walker | 8,902 | 9.80 | −0.28 | |
| Family First | Kylie Barnes | 3,565 | 3.92 | +0.16 | |
| Palmer United | Gabriella Scali | 2,713 | 2.99 | +2.99 | |
| Total formal votes | 90,867 | 95.48 | +0.79 | ||
| Informal votes | 4,303 | 4.52 | −0.79 | ||
| Turnout | 95,170 | 93.45 | −0.99 | ||
| Two-party-preferred result | |||||
| Liberal | Christopher Pyne | 54,591 | 60.08 | +6.48 | |
| Labor | Rick Sarre | 36,276 | 39.92 | −6.48 | |
| Liberal hold | Swing | +6.48 | |||
Historical Boundaries
Notes
References
External links
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Coordinates: 34°53′38″S 138°40′26″E / 34.894°S 138.674°E