Division of Grey

Grey Australian House of Representatives Division
Grey (dark green) in the state of South Australia
Created	1903
MP	Rowan Ramsey
Party	Liberal
Namesake	Sir George Grey
Electors	100,749 (2013)
Area	904,881 km2 (349,376.5 sq mi)
Demographic	Rural

The Division of Grey is an Australian electoral division in South Australia. The division was one of the seven established when the former Division of South Australia was redistributed on 2 October 1903 and is named for Sir George Grey, who was Governor of South Australia from 1841–45 (and later Prime Minister of New Zealand).

The division covers the rural mid-north and north of South Australia, with a size of 904,881 square kilometres (349,377 sq mi) spanning 92% of the state. The borders of the electorate include the Western Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland and New South Wales borders, in addition to much of the southern coastal border. The electorate spans to Marion Bay and Eudunda in the south. The main population centres of the electorate include Ceduna, Port Lincoln, Whyalla, Port Augusta, Roxby Downs, Coober Pedy, Port Pirie, Kadina, Maitland, Orroroo, Peterborough, Burra and Eudunda.

Grey was held by Labor for much of its history, and was one of the few country seats where Labor usually did well. It remained in Labor hands from 1943 to 1993, except for one Liberal win at the landslide 1966 election. For most of that time, it was a fairly safe Labor seat.

This changed in 1993, when Liberal Barry Wakelin became the fifth non-Labor member to win it, and only the second in 50 years. This happened even as Labor was re-elected to another term; it was the first time at an election that Labor won government without winning Grey. Wakelin was re-elected with a large swing in 1996, and since then the decline in the mining and pastoral vote has made it a fairly safe Liberal seat. While Whyalla, Port Augusta and Port Pirie still tilt Labor, they are not enough to overcome the increasing conservative lean in the rest of the seat. The Liberals consolidated their hold on the seat ahead of the 2004 election with the addition of the Yorke Peninsula and the state's upper east, both historically strongly conservative areas, from the heavily redistributed seat of Wakefield. The Liberals suffered a nine-point swing at the 2007 election, but Wakelin's successor, Rowan Ramsey, was still able to retain it on 54 percent of the two-party vote.

Members

Member		Party	Term
	Alexander Poynton	Labor	1903–1916
		National Labor	1917–1917
		Nationalist	1916–1922
	Andrew Lacey	Labor	1922–1931
	Philip McBride	United Australia	1931–1937
	Oliver Badman	Country	1937–1940
		United Australia	1940–1943
	Edgar Russell	Labor	1943–1963
	Jack Mortimer	Labor	1963–1966
	Don Jessop	Liberal	1966–1969
	Laurie Wallis	Labor	1969–1983
	Lloyd O'Neil	Labor	1983–1993
	Barry Wakelin	Liberal	1993–2007
	Rowan Ramsey	Liberal	2007–present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the Division of Grey

Australian federal election, 2013: Grey

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Rowan Ramsey	49,334	55.65	−0.16
	Labor	Ben Browne	24,205	27.30	−3.76
	Family First	Cheryl Kaminski	4,878	5.50	+0.14
	Palmer United	Kristian Rees	4,457	5.03	+5.03
	Greens	Alison Sentance	3,289	3.71	−4.06
	Independent	Greg Fidge	2,488	2.81	+2.81
Total formal votes			88,651	94.60	−0.05
Informal votes			5,063	5.40	+0.05
Turnout			93,714	93.02	−0.53
Two-party-preferred result
	Liberal	Rowan Ramsey	56,330	63.54	+2.38
	Labor	Ben Browne	32,321	36.46	−2.38
	Liberal hold		Swing	+2.38

References

• ABC profile for Grey: 2013
• AEC profile for Grey: 2013
• Poll Bludger profile for Grey: 2013

External links

• SA boundary map, 2001: AEC
• SA boundary map, 1984: Atlas SA