Division of Sturt

This article is about the Australian federal electorate. For the historical state electorates, see Electoral district of Sturt.

Sturt Australian House of Representatives Division
300px Sturt (dark green) in the city of Adelaide
Created	1949
MP	Christopher Pyne
Party	Liberal
Namesake	Charles Sturt
Electors	101,845 (2013)
Area	85 km2 (32.8 sq mi)
Demographic	Inner Metropolitan

The Division of Sturt is an Australian electoral division in South Australia. It was proclaimed at the South Australian redistribution of 11 May 1949. Sturt was named for Captain Charles Sturt, nineteenth century explorer and the first European to discover the Murray River.

Boundaries

Currently stretching from Adelaide's mortgage belt suburbs in the centre-east to the wealthy south-eastern suburbs, boundaries at the seat's creation saw it take in suburbs as far west as Port Adelaide and as far north as Virginia until 1955, after which it began to occupy solely the eastern area of Adelaide. Current boundaries see Sturt covering an area of approximately 85 km² east of the city, from Oakden and Hope Valley in the north to Glen Osmond in the south, taking in the foothills of the Mount Lofty Ranges. Suburbs include Athelstone, Burnside, Campbelltown, Dernancourt, Frewville, Gilles Plains, Glynde, Glenside, Hectorville, Highbury, Hillcrest, Holden Hill, Kensington, Klemzig, Magill, Marden, Paradise, Tranmere and parts of Payneham and Rostrevor.

History

Sturt was first created for the 1949 election as a fairly safe Labor seat with a notional 6.1 percent two-party margin. However, Liberal candidate Keith Wilson won the seat with a marginal 2.8 percent two-party vote from an 8.9 percent two-party swing as part of the massive Liberal victory of that year. Sturt was home to the Wilson political dynasty of Keith and his son Ian for nearly half a century as a marginal to safe Liberal seat, from the 1949 election to the 1993 election. The Wilsons' hold on the seat was interrupted twice by two one-term Labor MPs. Keith Wilson was defeated by Norman Makin at the 1954 election. However, ahead of the 1955 election, Makin opted to contest the newly created Division of Bonython, which had absorbed much of Sturt's Labor-friendly territory. This turned Sturt from a three percent marginal Labor seat to a 2.4 percent marginal Liberal seat. Keith Wilson retook Sturt in 1955 with a healthy 7.9 percent two-party swing, and handed it to Ian in 1966. Norm Foster defeated Ian at the 1969 election, but Ian regained the seat at the 1972 election even as Labor won government.

Ian was a key early member of the progressive Liberal Movement faction within the Liberal Party. However, he remained with the Liberals when the Liberal Movement became a separate party, and eventually served as a minister in the last term of the Fraser government. The Liberal Movement ran a candidate in Sturt in the 1974 election, polling 7.2 percent, much of which derived from Wilson’s vote. Sturt was significantly redistributed prior to the 1993 election, with the Liberals reduced from a fairly safe 7.7 percent two-party margin to a marginal notional 4.7 percent two-party margin. The Wilson dynasty ended at the 1993 election, when Ian was defeated for preselection by current sitting member Christopher Pyne.

The Liberal Movement's successor party, the Australian Democrats, have traditionally polled well in Sturt, highlighted by 13.5 percent at their first showing in the 1977 election and 15 percent in the 1990 election, the best result by a minor party in Sturt. The Democrats vote has dropped sharply in recent years, they gained only 2.26 percent in the 2004 election. Additionally, an independent Liberal contested Sturt at the 1993 election, polling a respectable 14.6 percent.

2007 election

At the 2007 federal election, Pyne suffered a 5.86 percent two-party swing but retained the seat on a 0.94 percent two-party margin, against Labor candidate Mia Handshin, making Sturt the most marginal seat in South Australia. Prior to the pre-selection of Handshin, No Pokies MP Nick Xenophon had been considering running in the seat as an independent, before deciding to run for the Senate instead. At the 2010 federal election, Pyne increased his two-party vote to 53.4 percent, which saw neighbouring Boothby became South Australia's most marginal seat. Pyne increased his two-party margin to 10.1 percent in the 2013 election and is now the Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, and Leader of the House of Representatives in the Turnbull Government.

Nick Xenophon Team

Xenophon confirmed in December 2014 that the Nick Xenophon Team (NXT) party would field lower and upper house candidates around the country at the next federal election, with Xenophon citing the government's ambiguity on the Collins class submarine replacement project as motivation. NXT nominated Sturt as their top South Australian lower house target. The NXT candidate in Sturt is Matthew Wright – an emergency physician at the Flinders Medical Centre who has also worked for humanitarian projects in the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and East Timor.

Members

Member		Party	Term
	Keith Wilson	Liberal	1949–1954
	Norman Makin	Labor	1954–1955
	(Sir) Keith Wilson	Liberal	1955–1966
	Ian Wilson	Liberal	1966–1969
	Norm Foster	Labor	1969–1972
	Ian Wilson	Liberal	1972–1993
	Christopher Pyne	Liberal	1993–present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the Division of Sturt

Australian federal election, 2013: Sturt

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Christopher Pyne	49,429	54.40	+6.22
	Labor	Rick Sarre	26,258	28.90	−7.11
	Greens	Anne Walker	8,902	9.80	−0.28
	Family First	Kylie Barnes	3,565	3.92	+0.16
	Palmer United	Gabriella Scali	2,713	2.99	+2.99
Total formal votes			90,867	95.48	+0.79
Informal votes			4,303	4.52	−0.79
Turnout			95,170	93.45	−0.99
Two-party-preferred result
	Liberal	Christopher Pyne	54,591	60.08	+6.48
	Labor	Rick Sarre	36,276	39.92	−6.48
	Liberal hold		Swing	+6.48

Historical Boundaries

File:Sturt1949.PNG

Sturt in 1951

File:Sturt1967.PNG

Sturt in 1967

References

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

External links

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