Division of Wakefield

Wakefield Australian House of Representatives Division
Division of Wakefield in South Australia, as of the 2016 federal election.
Created	1903
MP	Nick Champion
Party	Labor
Namesake	Edward Gibbon Wakefield
Electors	112,251 (2016)
Area	6,407 km2 (2,473.8 sq mi)
Demographic	Rural

The Division of Wakefield is an Australian electoral division in the state of South Australia. The 6,407 km² seat is a hybrid rural-urban electorate that stretches from Salisbury in the outer northern suburbs of Adelaide at the south of the seat right through to the Clare Valley at the north of the seat, 135 km from Adelaide. It includes the suburbs of Elizabeth, Craigmore, Munno Para, and part of Salisbury, and the towns of Balaklava, Clare, Freeling, Gawler, Kapunda, Mallala, Riverton, Tarlee, Virginia, Williamstown, and part of Port Wakefield.

The division was named after Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who promoted colonisation as a tool for social engineering, plans which formed the basis for settlements in South Australia, Western Australia, New Zealand and Canada. The division was one of the seven established when the multi-member Division of South Australia was redistributed into single-member seats on 2 October 1903. It was first contested at the 1903 federal election on very different boundaries. Two of the seat's former members of particular note have been the inaugural Speaker of the House and two-time Premier of South Australia, Frederick Holder, and Howard government two-term Speaker Neil Andrew.

Before 2004

Before 2004, Wakefield covered most of the eastern rural area of South Australia, and was held by the Liberal Party and its predecessors for all but five years from 1903 to 2004. For most of that time, it was a safely conservative seat. Labor only succeeded in winning it twice, at a 1938 by-election and the 1943 federal election.

In its final configuration as an exclusively rural seat, it stretched from the Yorke Peninsula in the west to the New South Wales border in the east, and included much of the Riverland. It covered the towns of Angaston, Balaklava, Barmera Berri, Gawler, Gumeracha, Kadina, Kapunda, Loxton, Minlaton, Moonta, Morgan, Mount Pleasant, Nuriootpa, Renmark, Tanunda, Waikerie, Wallaroo and Yorketown.

Since 2004

The seat's character was dramatically altered by a redistribution prior to the 2004 election. Bonython, a comfortably safe Labor seat based on the outer northern suburbs of Adelaide, was abolished, and Wakefield was pushed well to the south to absorb much of Bonython's territory. In the process, Wakefield lost much of its vast rural territory, which went to Grey and Barker. Wakefield's current area of 6,407 km² is roughly a fifth of its pre-2004 extent of 31,841 km².

Neil Andrew, the seat's member since 1983, had previously held the old rural Wakefield with a comfortably safe majority of 14.6 percent. However, the new hybrid urban-rural (though still classed rural) Wakefield became a marginal Labor seat with a notional 1.3 percent two-party margin. Andrew believed this made Wakefield impossible to hold and retired. However, David Fawcett retained it for the Liberals in 2004 with a 0.7 percent two-party margin, defeating the former member for Bonython, Martyn Evans.

At the 2007 election, Nick Champion became only the third Labor member ever to win Wakefield, with a 6.6 percent two-party margin. At the 2010 election, Champion made it a safe Labor seat on paper by winning a 12 percent two-party margin. He became the first Labor member to be re-elected to Wakefield, and the second to be elected for a full term. The South Australian federal redistribution in 2011 had the greatest impact on Wakefield where the Labor margin declined by 1.5 percent. Champion retained it at the 2013 election on a 3.4 percent two-party margin even as Labor lost government, marking the first time the non-Labor parties won government at an election without winning Wakefield. Champion increased his two-party margin at the 2016 election to 11 percent, again making Wakefield a safe Labor seat on paper.

Under the electoral redistribution completed in 2018, Wakefield will be renamed Spence in honour of Catherine Helen Spence, and become an entirely urban seat based on Adelaide's northern suburbs. The more rural portions will transfer to Grey and Barker.

Members

Member		Party	Term
	Sir Frederick Holder	Independent	1903–1909
	Richard Foster	Commonwealth Liberal	1909–1917
		Nationalist	1917–1922
		Liberal Union	1922–1925
		Nationalist	1925–1928
	Maurice Collins	Country	1928–1929
	Charles Hawker	Nationalist	1929–1931
		United Australia	1931–1938
	Sydney McHugh	Labor	1938–1940
	Jack Duncan-Hughes	United Australia	1940–1943
	Albert Smith	Labor	1943–1946
	(Sir) Philip McBride	Liberal	1946–1958
	Bert Kelly	Liberal	1958–1977
	Geoffrey Giles	Liberal	1977–1983
	Neil Andrew	Liberal	1983–2004
	David Fawcett	Liberal	2004–2007
	Nick Champion	Labor	2007–present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the Division of Wakefield

Australian federal election, 2016: Wakefield

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor	Nick Champion	38,197	39.82	−1.70
	Liberal	Kathleen Bourne	25,299	26.37	−11.52
	Xenophon	Richard Inwood	19,592	20.42	+20.42
	Family First	Marilyn Phillips	5,396	5.62	−0.36
	Greens	Craig Vanstone	4,102	4.28	−0.87
	Independent	John Bolton	2,728	2.84	+2.84
	Christian Democrats	Ralph Anderson	619	0.65	+0.65
Total formal votes			95,933	94.61	+0.30
Informal votes			5,470	5.39	−0.30
Turnout			101,403	90.34	−2.77
Two-party-preferred result
	Labor	Nick Champion	58,494	60.97	+7.57
	Liberal	Kathleen Bourne	37,439	39.03	−7.57
	Labor hold		Swing	+7.57

See also

• Australian federal election, 2016
• Results of the Australian federal election, 2016 (South Australia)

References

• ABC profile for Wakefield: 2016
• Poll Bludger profile for Wakefield: 2016
• AEC profile for Wakefield: 2016

External links

• SA boundary map, 2001: AEC
• SA boundary map, 1984: Atlas SA
• "Profile of the electoral division of Wakefield (SA)". Australian Electoral Commission. 2011. Retrieved 13 April 2015. (includes link to 2011 map)