1985 South Australian state election explained

State elections were held in South Australia on 7 December 1985. 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 John Bannon increased its majority, and defeated the Liberal Party of Australia led by Leader of the Opposition John Olsen.

Background

Parliamentary elections for both houses of the Parliament of South Australia were held in South Australia on 7 December 1985, which saw John Bannon and the Australian Labor Party win a second successive term, against the Liberal Party of Australia opposition led by John Olsen.

Labor won the election with an increased majority–at the time, the biggest majority it had held since the end of the Playmander, a record that would stand until 2006. The Liberal Party retained John Olsen as leader, partly because his main rival Dean Brown lost his seat to Independent Liberal Stan Evans. Evans rejoined the Liberal Party soon after the election.

In the South Australian Legislative Council, Labor won one seat from the Liberals, while the Democrats maintained their 2 seats. This shift gave the Australian Democrats sole balance of power. They would continue to hold it until the 1997 election.

Key dates

• Issue of writ: 10 November 1985
• Close of nominations: 22 November 1985
• Polling day: 7 December 1985
• Return of writ: On or before 2 January 1986

Results

House of Assembly

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Legislative Council

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Seats changing hands

Seat	Pre-1985				Swing	Post-1985
	Party		Member	Margin		Margin	Member	Party
Bright			Liberal	Notional - New Seat	1.0	2.6	1.6	Derek Robertson	Labor
Davenport			Liberal	Dean Brown	22.0	N/A	2.6	Stan Evans	Independent
Fisher			Liberal	Stan Evans	2.1	3.2	1.1	Philip Tyler	Labor

• In addition, Independent MP for Elizabeth, Martyn Evans retained his seat after winning it from Labor at the 1984 by-election.
• Sitting Liberal MP for Fisher, Stan Evans quit the party and contested Davenport as an Independent, and won.

Redistribution affected seats

Seat

1982 election

1983 redistribution

Swing

1985 election

Party

Member

Margin

Party

Member

Margin

Margin

Member

Party

Adelaide

Labor

Jack Wright

15.6

Liberal

Notional

2.8

-3.4

0.6

Mike Duigan

Labor

Newland

Labor

John Klunder

3.6

Liberal

Notional

1.0

-2.5

1.5

Di Gayler

Labor

Todd

Liberal

Scott Ashenden

1.4

Labor

Notional

2.0

+3.9

5.9

John Klunder

Labor

• Sitting Labor MP for Newland, John Klunder instead contested Todd, and won.
• Sitting Liberal MP for Todd, Scott Ashenden instead contested Newland, and lost.

Post-election pendulum

COLSPAN=4 align="center"	Labor seats (27)
Marginal
Adelaide	Mike Duigan	ALP	0.6%
Fisher	Philip Tyler	ALP	1.1%
Newland	Di Gayler	ALP	1.5%
Bright	Derek Robertson	ALP	1.6%
Hayward	June Appleby	ALP	2.8%
Unley	Kym Mayes	ALP	5.0%
Todd	John Klunder	ALP	5.9%
Fairly safe
Norwood	Greg Crafter	ALP	6.3%
Henley Beach	Don Ferguson	ALP	7.3%
Florey	Robert Gregory	ALP	8.2%
Safe
Walsh	John Trainer	ALP	10.7%
Hartley	Terry Groom	ALP	12.5%
Albert Park	Kevin Hamilton	ALP	12.9%
Mitchell	Ron Payne	ALP	13.5%
Baudin	Don Hopgood	ALP	13.7%
Gilles	Jack Slater	ALP	14.2%
Peake	Keith Plunkett	ALP	15.7%
Mawson	Susan Lenehan	ALP	16.1%
Whyalla	Frank Blevins	ALP	17.0%
Briggs	Mike Rann	ALP	17.4%
Spence	Roy Abbott	ALP	18.4%
Ross Smith	John Bannon	ALP	18.7%
Playford	Terry McRae	ALP	19.4%
Stuart	Gavin Keneally	ALP	22.0%
Napier	Terry Hemmings	ALP	23.5%
Ramsay	Lynn Arnold	ALP	24.2%
Price	Murray De Laine	ALP	24.3%

COLSPAN=4 align="center"	Liberal seats (16)
Marginal
Hanson	Heini Becker	LIB	0.9%
Morphett	John Oswald	LIB	4.7%
Fairly safe
Mitcham	Stephen Baker	LIB	8.3%
Coles	Jennifer Adamson	LIB	8.4%
Heysen	David Wotton	LIB	8.8%
Light	Bruce Eastick	LIB	9.3%
Mount Gambier	Harold Allison	LIB	9.9%
Safe
Kavel	Stephen Baker	LIB	11.0%
Goyder	John Meier	LIB	12.4%
Alexandra	Ted Chapman	LIB	15.2%
Eyre	Graham Gunn	LIB	15.8%
Chaffey	Peter Arnold	LIB	16.3%
Custance	John Olsen	LIB	16.3%
Bragg	Graham Ingerson	LIB	17.5%
Victoria	Dale Baker	LIB	18.3%
Murray-Mallee	Peter Lewis	LIB	18.6%
COLSPAN=4 align="center"	Crossbench seats (4)
Davenport	Stan Evans	IND	2.8% v LIB
Elizabeth	Martyn Evans	IND	4.0% v ALP
Semaphore	Norm Peterson	IND	7.3% v ALP
Flinders	Peter Blacker	NAT	8.3% v LIB

See also

• Candidates of the South Australian state election, 1985
• Results of the South Australian state election, 1985 (House of Assembly)
• Results of the 1985 South Australian state election (Legislative Council)
• Members of the South Australian House of Assembly, 1985-1989
• Members of the South Australian Legislative Council, 1985-1989

References

• History of South Australian elections 1857–2006, volume 1: ECSA
• Historical lower house results
• Historical upper house results
• State and federal election results in Australia since 1890

External links

• South Australian Elections 1989: Parliament of Australia Research Library paper, including maps effective from 1983