Frome state by-election, 2009
Encyclopedia
South Australian House of Assembly
The House of Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. The other is the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide.- Overview :...
seat of Frome
Electoral district of Frome
Frome is an electoral district of the House of Assembly in the Australian state of South Australia. It is named after Edward Charles Frome, the third surveyor-general of South Australia. The electorate is based around the industrial city of Port Pirie and the agriculture areas of Clare and Gilbert...
on 17 January 2009. This was triggered by the resignation of former Premier and state Liberal
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
MHA Rob Kerin
Rob Kerin
Robert Gerard Kerin was the Liberal Premier of South Australia from 22 October 2001 to 5 March 2002. He also served as Deputy Premier of South Australia to John Olsen from 7 July 1998 until he became premier upon Olsen's resignation....
. The seat had been retained by the Liberals at the 2006 state election on a 3.4 per cent margin, and at the 2002 state election on an 11.5 per cent margin.
The writ
Writ of election
A writ of election is a writ issued by the government ordering the holding of a special election for a political office.In the United Kingdom and in Canada, this is the only way of holding an election for the House of Commons...
for the by-election was issued on 28 November, with the rolls closing on 8 December. Candidate nominations closed 18 December at midday.
Independent candidate Geoff Brock
Geoff Brock
Geoffrey Graeme "Geoff" Brock is a South Australian politician, representing the seat of Frome in the South Australian House of Assembly as an Independent, after a shock win at the 2009 Frome state by-election, defeating the Liberal candidate Terry Boylan. He had a high local profile prior to the...
ended up winning the seat from the Liberals in a very close contest.
Background
Kerin was first elected as the member for the new rural seat of FromeElectoral district of Frome
Frome is an electoral district of the House of Assembly in the Australian state of South Australia. It is named after Edward Charles Frome, the third surveyor-general of South Australia. The electorate is based around the industrial city of Port Pirie and the agriculture areas of Clare and Gilbert...
at the 1993 state election. From 1995 he held various ministries in the Brown
Dean Brown
Dean Craig Brown, AO was the Liberal Premier of South Australia between 14 December 1993 and 28 November 1996, and Deputy Premier of South Australia between 22 October 2001 and 5 March 2002 to Rob Kerin.-Political career:...
and Olsen
John Olsen
John Wayne Olsen, AO was Premier of South Australia between 28 November 1996 and 22 October 2001.-Parliament:Olsen was a member of the Liberal Party and Member of Parliament for more than 20 years...
Liberal governments until he became Premier of South Australia in October 2001, before losing government to the Mike Rann
Mike Rann
Michael David Rann MHA, CNZM , Australian politician, served as the 44th Premier of South Australia. He led the South Australian branch of the Australian Labor Party to minority government at the 2002 election, before attaining a landslide win at the 2006 election...
-led Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
at the March 2002 state election. When the party went in to opposition, Kerin remained Liberal leader until after the 2006 state election when he resigned the leadership to make way for Iain Evans
Iain Evans
Iain Frederick Evans is a South Australian Liberal Party politician. He studied at Heathfield High School and gained a Bachelor Degree for Building Technology from the SA Institute of Technology . Prior to entering politics he managed a family-owned building and retailing business...
.
The by-election was the first to be held for a state seat in South Australia since the November 1994 by-election
Taylor state by-election, 1994
The Taylor state by-election, 1994 was a by-election held on 5 November 1994 for the South Australian House of Assembly seat of electoral district of Taylor, centred on Paralowie in the northern suburbs of Adelaide. This was triggered by the resignation of former Premier and state Labor MHA Lynn...
for Taylor
Electoral district of Taylor
Taylor is an electoral district of the House of Assembly in the Australian state of South Australia. This district is named after Doris Irene Taylor MBE, a leading force in the founding of Meals on Wheels, and Australian Labor Party activist. Taylor is a 549.8 km² semi-urban electorate in...
, when another former Premier, Lynn Arnold
Lynn Arnold
Lynn Maurice Ferguson Arnold, AO , former Australian politician, was the Labor Premier of South Australia between 4 September 1992 and 14 December 1993....
, retired from politics.
Candidates
Nominations in ballot order were:- Australian Labor PartyAustralian Labor PartyThe Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
- John Rohde, postal worker. - Nationals SA - Neville Wilson, deputy Mayor of Port Pirie Regional CouncilPort Pirie Regional CouncilThe Port Pirie Regional Council is a Local Government Area in South Australia, focused on the city of Port Pirie. It has a population of about 22,000 people. The council's administrative facilities and works depot can be found in Port Pirie. Other rural towns such as Crystal Brook, Redhill,...
. - Liberal Party of AustraliaLiberal Party of AustraliaThe Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
- Terry Boylan, police officer. - SA Greens - Joy O'Brien, former librarian and Burnside councillor.
- One Nation PartyOne Nation PartyOne Nation is a far-right and nationalist political party in Australia. It gained 22% of the vote translating to 11 of 89 seats in Queensland's unicameral legislative assembly at the 1998 state election and made major inroads into the vote of the existing parties...
- Peter Fitzpatrick, small business contractor. - Independent Your Voice - Geoff Brock, Mayor of Port Pirie Regional Council.
The Family First Party
Family First Party
The Family First Party is a socially conservative minor political party in Australia. It has two members in the South Australian Legislative Council...
and the Australian Democrats
Australian Democrats
The Australian Democrats is an Australian political party espousing a socially liberal ideology. It was formed in 1977, by a merger of the Australia Party and the New LM, after principals of those minor parties secured the commitment of former Liberal minister Don Chipp, as a high profile leader...
, who ran candidates in the previous election, polling 5.2 percent and 2 percent respectively, did not nominate a candidate to contest the by-election.
Issues
Of concern to the electorate was the potential closure of the NyrstarNyrstar
Nyrstar N.V is the world’s largest zinc metal producer and is also one of the world’s largest primary lead smelting and refining companies. It was formed on 31 August 2007 through a merger between the zinc alloys operations of the Belgian company Umicore and the zinc and lead smelting operations of...
smelter in Port Pirie
Port Pirie, South Australia
-Transport:Port Pirie is located off National Highway One. It is serviced by an airport five minutes out of the city.- Railways :The first railways in Port Pirie were of the narrow [3' 6"] gauge....
due to the federal government's emissions trading
Emissions trading
Emissions trading is a market-based approach used to control pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants....
scheme known as the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme
Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme
The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme was a proposed cap-and-trade system of emissions trading for anthropogenic greenhouse gases, due to be introduced in Australia in 2010 by the Rudd government, as part of its climate change policy. It marked a major change in the energy policy of Australia...
, however it won special exemption from the scheme on 17 December.
Port Pirie
Port Pirie Regional Council
The Port Pirie Regional Council is a Local Government Area in South Australia, focused on the city of Port Pirie. It has a population of about 22,000 people. The council's administrative facilities and works depot can be found in Port Pirie. Other rural towns such as Crystal Brook, Redhill,...
Mayor and Independent candidate Geoff Brock was considered a possibility for winning the seat, with a strong local profile, and receiving "how to vote" preferences from Labor and the Nationals, whilst the Greens did not allocate preferences. His own how to vote card preferences the Nationals, Labor, Liberal, Green, and One Nation, in that order. Independent Senator Nick Xenophon
Nick Xenophon
Nicholas "Nick" Xenophon is a South Australian barrister, anti-gambling campaigner and politician. He attended Prince Alfred College, and studied law at the University of Adelaide, attaining his Bachelor of Laws in 1981. Xenophon established and became principal of his own law firm, Xenophon & Co....
also campaigned for Brock.
Results
The by-election was closely contested, with the result being uncertain for over a week. Initial reports suggested a slight swing to the Liberal candidate Terry Boylan on the two-party preferred count against Labor, but with Independent candidate Geoff BrockGeoff Brock
Geoffrey Graeme "Geoff" Brock is a South Australian politician, representing the seat of Frome in the South Australian House of Assembly as an Independent, after a shock win at the 2009 Frome state by-election, defeating the Liberal candidate Terry Boylan. He had a high local profile prior to the...
not far behind Labor. By 21 January 2009, both the ABC's Antony Green and the State Electoral Office were indicating a two percent swing against the Liberals toward Labor, but not enough to lose the seat. Liberal leader Martin Hamilton-Smith
Martin Hamilton-Smith
Martin Leslie James Hamilton-Smith is the member for the electoral district of Waite in the South Australian House of Assembly since 1997...
claimed victory on behalf of the party.
The result hinged on the performance of Brock against Labor in the competition for second place. Brock polled best in the Port Pirie area, and received enough eliminated candidate preferences to end up ahead of the Labor candidate by 30 votes.
Brock received 80 percent of fifth count preferences to achieve a two-candidate preferred vote of 51.72 percent (a majority of 665 votes) against the Liberal candidate, despite a slight improvement in the Liberal primary vote since the previous count. This was announced by the Electoral Commissioner, Kay Mousley
Kay Mousley
Kay Mousley is the Electoral Commissioner for the Electoral Commission of South Australia. She is the first woman to hold the post and had previously worked for 25 years for the Australian Electoral Commission rising to the head of that agency in South Australia...
, at 8:30 pm local time on 24 January 2009, but without a formal declaration. The commissioner rejected a request for a recount by Boylan, with a formal request being lodged by the Liberal Party, which was also rejected, after which the Liberals ruled out a possibility of taking the result to the Court of Disputed Returns. A formal declaration of the by-election outcome was made by the State Electoral Office on 29 January. The by-election saw a rare two-party swing to an incumbent
Incumbent
The incumbent, in politics, is the existing holder of a political office. This term is usually used in reference to elections, in which races can often be defined as being between an incumbent and non-incumbent. For example, in the 2004 United States presidential election, George W...
government, and was the first time an opposition had lost a seat at a by-election in South Australia. The result in Frome
Electoral district of Frome
Frome is an electoral district of the House of Assembly in the Australian state of South Australia. It is named after Edward Charles Frome, the third surveyor-general of South Australia. The electorate is based around the industrial city of Port Pirie and the agriculture areas of Clare and Gilbert...
at the 2010 state election saw Brock increase his primary vote by 14.1 percent to a total of 37.7 percent and his two-candidate vote by 6.5 percent to a total of 58.2 percent. Despite a statewide swing against Labor at the election, Labor again increased its two-party vote in Frome by 1.8 percent to a total of 50.1 percent.