1993 South Australian state election


The 1993 South Australian state election was held on Saturday, 11 December 1993, to elect members of the Parliament of South Australia. All 47 seats in the House of Assembly were up for election, along with 11 of the 22 seats in the Legislative Council. The three-term incumbent Arnold [South Australian South Australian Labor Party|Labor Party|Labor] government were defeated in a landslide victory for the opposition Liberal Party, led by Dean Brown. The Liberals won 37 seats in the House of Assembly, the highest number of seats ever won by a single party in a South Australian election, and reduced Labor to 10 seats in opposition, their lowest amount since 1938.
This marked the Liberal's first election win since 1979, and only their second since the end of the Playmander after the 1968 election. It brought to an end a decade of Labor governance, led by John Bannon for nine of those years. It was also the first time since 1970 that no crossbenchers were elected to the House of Assembly.
Labor's historic defeat was largely attributed to the collapse of the State Bank of South Australia in 1991, which led to the resignation of Premier John Bannon the next year.

Background

The campaign was dominated by the issue of the collapse of the State Bank of South Australia in 1991. The State Bank's deposits were legally underwritten by the Government of South Australia, putting South Australia into billions of dollars of debt. Labor premier John Bannon had resigned over the issue in 1992, being replaced by Lynn Arnold just over a year before the election. The Liberals also changed leaders in 1992, switching from Dale Baker to Dean Brown. Following the Labor leadership change and by early 1993, Newspoll had recorded a total rise of 13 percent in the Labor primary vote. However, the gains did not last. A warning sign of things to come came with the March 1993 federal election, which saw two of Labor's longest-held seats in South Australia, Hindmarsh and Grey, fall to the Liberals. Hindmarsh had been in Labor hands without interruption since 1919, while Grey had been in Labor hands for all but one term since 1943.

Key dates

Seats changing hands

  • Members in italics did not recontest their seats.
  • Martyn Evans was elected as an Independent in 1989, then joined Labor in 1993. Pre-election margin is vs. Labor, after margin is vs. Liberal.
  • The new district of Hart was largely based on the abolished district of Semaphore, which had been won by Norm Peterson as an Independent in 1989.
  • Don Hopgood was the sitting MP for the abolished district of Baudin, which was largely replaced by Kaurna.
  • Kevin Hamilton was the sitting Labor MP for the abolished district of Albert Park, which took in parts of the new district of Lee.
  • Susan Lenehan instead contested the seat of Reynell and lost.
  • Paul Holloway instead contested the seat of Elder and lost.
  • John Klunder was the sitting Labor MP for the abolished district of Todd, which took in most of the new district of Torrens.
  • The new district of Wright was largely based on the abolished district of Briggs. The sitting Briggs MP Mike Rann instead contested the seat of Ramsay and won.

Redistribution affected seats

  • Heini Becker contested the seat of Peake and won.
  • Terry Groom was elected as a Labor member in 1989 but quit the party in 1991. He contested the seat of Napier and lost.