1997 South Australian state election

none October 2021 February 2012 1997 South Australian state election South Australia parliamentary no 1993 South Australian state election 1993 2002 South Australian state election 2002 All 47 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly24 seats were needed for a majority11 (of the 22) seats in the South Australian Legislative Council yes 1997 10 11 200x200px John Olsen 28 November 1996 Liberal Party of Australia (South Australian Division) Kavel 359,509 40.40% 12.41 36 23 13 200x200px Mike Rann 5 November 1994 Australian Labor Party (South Australian Branch) Ramsay 312,929 35.16% 4.79 11 21 10 Australian Democrats DEM None Australian Democrats 146,347 16.45% 7.35pp 0 0 National Party of Australia NAT 100px Karlene Maywald National 006644 11 October 1997 Chaffey(won seat) 15,488 1.74% 0.63 0 1 1 TPP TPP swing 51.51% 9.40 48.49% 9.40 Premier Resulting Premier John Olsen Liberal Party of Australia (South Australian Division) John Olsen Liberal Party of Australia (South Australian Division) State elections were held in South Australia on 11 October 1997. All 47 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly were up for election. The incumbent Liberal Party of Australia led by Premier of South Australia John Olsen defeated the Australian Labor Party led by Leader of the Opposition Mike Rann, forming a minority government with the SA Nationals and independent MPs. Background Following the 1993 landslide to the Liberals, ending 11 years of Labor government, Labor now led by Mike Rann held just 11 seats in the House of Assembly. The Liberals held 36 seats and there were no independent or minor party members in the House of Assembly. They had held a record 37, but lost one at the 1994 Torrens by-election. However the Liberals were suffering from heightened internal tensions. Premier Dean Brown had been toppled by Industry Minister and factional rival John Olsen in a 1996 party-room coup. Olsen had been in office for just over 10 months on election day. Key dates Issue of writ: 13 September 1997 Close of electoral rolls: 22 September 1997 Close of nominations: Friday 26 September 1997, at noon Polling day: 11 October 1997 Return of writ: On or before 14 November 1997 (actually returned 7 November) Results House of Assembly Results of the South Australian state election, 1997 (House of Assembly) South Australian state election, 11 October 1997Details of SA 1997 Election http://elections.uwa.edu.au/elecdetail.lasso?keyvalue=842 Australian Politics and Elections Database House of Assembly South Australian state election 1993 2002 1,010,753 927,344 91.75 -1.82 37,430 4.04 +0.94 yes Liberal SA 359,509 40.40 -12.41 23 - 13 Labor SA 312,929 35.16 +4.79 21 + 10 Democrats 146,347 16.45 +7.35 0 0 Nationals SA 15,488 1.74 +0.63 1 + 1 UAP SA 13,569 1.52 New 0 0 Independent 27,870 3.13 +0.01 1 + 1 Independent Liberal SA 6,970 0.78 New 1 + 1 Other 7,232 0.81 * 0 0 889,914 47 Liberal SA 458,399 51.51 –9.40 Labor SA 431,515 48.49 +9.40 |} Popular vote var(--background-color-interactive) 600px 410px Liberal Liberal Party of Australia 40.40 Labor Australian Labor Party 35.16 Democrats Australian Democrats 16.45 Independents Independent 3.91 National National Party of Australia 1.74 United Australia #4169E1 1.52 Others #777777 0.81 Two-party-preferred vote var(--background-color-interactive) 600px 410px Liberal Liberal Party of Australia 51.51 Labor Australian Labor Party 48.49 Seats var(--background-color-interactive) 600px 410px Liberal Liberal Party of Australia 48.94 Labor Australian Labor Party 44.68 Independents Independent 4.26 National National Party of Australia 2.13 Seats changing hands Seat Pre-1997 Swing Post-1997 Party Member Margin Margin Member Party Chaffey  Liberal Kent Andrew 6.3 8.9 1.0 Karlene Maywald National SA  Elder  Liberal David Wade 3.5 6.1 2.6 Patrick Conlon Labor  Florey  Liberal Sam Bass 11.0 12.3 1.3 Frances Bedford Labor  Gordon  Liberal Harold Allison 21.5 N/A 0.1 Rory McEwen Independent  Hanson  Liberal Stewart Leggett 1.9 7.5 5.6 Steph Key Labor  Kaurna  Liberal Lorraine Rosenberg 2.4 8.2 5.8 John Hill Labor  Lee  Liberal Joe Rossi 1.0 8.1 7.1 Michael Wright Labor  MacKillop  Liberal Dale Baker 29.4 N/A 7.9 Mitch Williams Independent  Mitchell  Liberal Colin Caudell 9.4 10.3 0.9 Kris Hanna Labor  Norwood  Liberal John Cummins 7.4 8.2 0.8 Vini Ciccarello Labor  Peake  Liberal Heini Becker 5.0 12.0 7.0 Tom Koutsantonis Labor  Reynell  Liberal Julie Greig 2.5 6.2 3.7 Gay Thompson Labor  Wright  Liberal Scott Ashenden 3.3 6.4 3.1 Jennifer Rankine Labor  Members in italics did not recontest their seats. In addition, Labor retained the seat of Torrens, which it had gained from the Liberals at the 1994 by-election. Labor needed a 13-seat swing to make Rann premier, a deficit thought insurmountable before the election. However, to the surprise of most observers, Olsen lost the massive majority he'd inherited from Brown. Labor polled exceptionally well, regaining much of what it had lost in its severe defeat of four years earlier. Indeed, on election night many Liberal observers feared that Labor had managed the swing it needed to regain government. Ultimately, Labor picked up 10 seats, three seats short of victory. The Liberals lost a massive 13 seats: 10 to Labor, 1 to the Nationals, and 2 to conservative independents. Labor received a record two-party swing of 9.4 percent, as opposed to the previous record of 8.9 percent to the Liberals at the last election. Olsen was forced to seek the support of the Nationals and the independents to stay in office at the helm of a minority government. The Liberals briefly regained a majority when Mitch Williams rejoined the Liberal Party in 1999, but lost it again in 2000 when it expelled Peter Lewis from the party in 2000, and Bob Such resigned from the Liberal Party later in 2000. However they continued to govern with the support of the Nationals and independents until the 2002 election. Legislative Council Results of the 1997 South Australian state election (Legislative Council) South Australian state election, 11 October 1997Green Antony 1997 South Australian Election http://www.abc.net.au/elections/archive/sa/SA1997_Results.pdf?layout=popup ABC Election Archives 7 January 2016 Legislative Council South Australian state election 1993 2002 yes 1,010,753 937,026 92.71 –0.91 40,523 4.32 +0.78 Liberal SA 339,064 37.82 –13.99 4 10 Labor SA 274,098 30.57 +3.17 4 8 Democrats 149,660 16.69 +8.65 2 3 No Pokies 25,630 2.86 New 1 1 HEMP 15,432 1.72 –0.08 0 0 SA Greens 15,377 1.72 –0.02 0 0 Grey Power 14,261 1.59 –0.01 0 0 UAP SA 11,920 1.33 New 0 0 Nationals SA 9,233 1.03 +0.31 0 0 Australia First 9,150 1.02 New 0 0 Recreation and Fishing 7,048 0.79 New 0 0 Overtaxed Motorists 6,024 0.67 New 0 0 Other 19,606 2.18 * 0 0 896,503 11 22 |} In the Legislative Council, the Australian Democrats won two seats for the first time. Elected were 4 Liberal, 4 Labor, 2 Australian Democrats, and No Pokies candidate Nick Xenophon. Carrying over from the 1993 election were 6 Liberal, 4 Labor, 1 Democrat, leaving total numbers at 10 Liberal, 8 Labor, 3 Democrats, 1 No Pokies. The election was notable for the Australian Democrats' strongest performance in South Australia, winning two Legislative Council seats at an election for the only time in their history (though their predecessors, the Liberal Movement (LM), had won two Legislative Council seats on a higher primary vote in the 1975 election). The Democrats also finished second after preferences in seven House of Assembly seats (compared to three for the LM in 1975). However, it marked the peak for Democrats' influence in South Australia. From here on they would slowly lose numbers and influence, winning only one more seat (in 2002), and losing their remaining parliamentary representation as of the 2010 election. Labor Upper House members Terry Cameron and Trevor Crothers would resign from the party in 1998 and 1999 respectively, to support the Liberals over the privatisation of ETSA. This also meant the Democrats lost sole balance of power for the first time since 1985. Post-election pendulum previous pendulums and maps List of elections in South Australia Liberal seats (26)MarginalGordonRory McEwenIND0.1% v LIBHartleyJoe ScalziLIB0.7%StuartGraham GunnLIB1.5%HeysenDavid WottonLIB1.9% v ADChaffeyKarlene MaywaldNAT2.6% v LIBFromeRob KerinLIB2.9%ColtonSteve CondousLIB4.0%DavenportIain EvansLIB4.3% v ADUnleyMark BrindalLIB4.5%MawsonRobert BrokenshireLIB4.7%AdelaideMichael ArmitageLIB5.4%WaiteMartin Hamilton-SmithLIB5.9% v ADFairly safeBrightWayne MatthewLIB6.2%LightMalcolm BuckbyLIB6.3%KavelJohn OlsenLIB6.3% v ADFinnissDean BrownLIB7.3% v ADColesJoan HallLIB7.8%MacKillopMitch WilliamsIND7.9% v LIBNewlandDorothy KotzLIB8.0%SchubertIvan VenningLIB8.7% v ADFisherBob SuchLIB9.8%FlindersLiz PenfoldLIB10.0% v NATSafeMorphettJohn OswaldLIB13.0%HammondPeter LewisLIB14.7%GoyderJohn MeierLIB17.2%BraggGraham IngersonLIB18.8% Labor seats (21)MarginalNorwoodVini CiccarelloALP0.8%MitchellKris HannaALP0.9%FloreyFrances BedfordALP1.3%ElderPat ConlonALP2.6%WrightJennifer RankineALP3.1%ReynellGay ThompsonALP3.7%HansonSteph KeyALP5.6%KaurnaJohn HillALP5.8%Fairly safePeakeTom KoutsantonisALP7.0%LeeMichael WrightALP7.1%NapierAnnette HurleyALP9.5% v ADSafeTorrensRobyn GeraghtyALP10.1%GilesLyn BreuerALP11.4%PlayfordJack SnellingALP12.9%ElizabethLea StevensALP14.3%Ross SmithRalph ClarkeALP14.8%RamsayMike RannALP18.2%TaylorTrish WhiteALP22.2%HartKevin FoleyALP22.7%SpenceMichael AtkinsonALP23.3%PriceMurray De LaineALP24.4% thumb|right|250px|Metro SA: ALP in red, Liberal in blue. These boundaries are based on the 2006 electoral redistribution. thumb|right|250px|Rural SA: ALP in red, Liberal in blue, Independents in white, Nationals in green. These boundaries are based on the 2006 electoral redistribution. Legacy The 1997 result put Labor within striking distance of winning government at the next election in 2002. John Olsen was left with internal disquiet over the leadership challenge and poor election result while his opponent, Mike Rann, was seen to have 'won' the campaign despite losing the election. On 6 February 2007, Mike Rann told parliament that some in the Liberal party had leaked information to him before and during the election campaign. The following quote by Rann is from Hansard on 6/2/2007 : "You asked me a question and I will give you a 55-minute answer, because you will remember one day when I came into this place and I had, I think, 880 pages of cabinet and other documents... I remember being telephoned and told to go to a certain cafe, not in a white car but in a taxi, and then to walk in a zigzag fashion through the streets of a suburb, where I was to be handed cabinet documents. So much for their cabinet solidarity and cabinet confidentiality! There was a queue on the telephone telling us what had happened the day before. It was the same during the 1997 election campaign. People thought, 'How does this guy (the leader of the opposition at the time) know intuitively exactly what John Olsen is doing the next day?' It was because I was being phoned and told! So, do not talk to me about cabinet solidarity lest I come in here and start naming names, which will set off another generation of disputation on the other side of the house. Anyway, cabinet approved, among other things, on 20 December 2006 minister Lomax-Smith's proposed statement and approved her to announce publicly that she opposed the proposal in cabinet. She did so because we agreed that she should be able to do so. Somehow I do not think that John Olsen agreed to what happened when I was getting the phone call at 6 o'clock in the morning and at midnight, and walking in a zigzag pattern through suburbs to be handed a cabinet bag and cabinet documents. We have a different approach. We agreed to it. It was a cabinet decision to agree to it. So, please, ask me some more questions, because there were two different camps involved in this leaking to the then poor unpopular leader of the opposition, and I am more than happy to name names." See also Candidates of the South Australian state election, 1997 Members of the South Australian House of Assembly, 1997-2002 Members of the South Australian Legislative Council, 1997-2002 Results of the South Australian state election, 1997 (House of Assembly) Results of the 1997 South Australian state election (Legislative Council) References 1997 election maps and results: Antony Green ABC archive History of South Australian elections 1857–2006, volume 1: ECSA https://web.archive.org/web/20011026003058/http://www.crikey.com.au/politics/olsen.html 26 October 2001 Background leading up to the election/Liberals in power Crikey http://www.crikey.com.au/politics/olsen.html dead Political parties Australian Labor Party Liberal Party of Australia Australian Greens Australian Democrats The Nationals Specific Category:1997 elections in Australia Category:Elections in South Australia Category:1990s in South Australia Category:October 1997 in Australia