Electoral district of Chaffey

Chaffey South Australia—House of Assembly
Map of South Australia with the electoral district of Chaffey highlighted Electoral district of Chaffey (green) in South Australia
State	South Australia
Created	1938
MP	Tim Whetstone
Party	Liberal Party of Australia (SA)
Namesake	George Chaffey and William Chaffey
Electors	24,576 (2014)
Area	25,477 km2 (9,836.7 sq mi)
Demographic	Rural
Coordinates

Chaffey, created in 1936, is an electorate for the South Australian House of Assembly. It covers the Riverland region of South Australia including the towns of Renmark, Berri, Barmera, Loxton and Waikerie. The seat is named after brothers George and William Chaffey who established the irrigation area along the Murray River from 1886.

Usually a comfortably conservative seat, Chaffey was won three times by Labor's Reg Curren as their most marginal seat – in 1962 on 50.1%, 1965 on 50.7% and 1970 on 50.2%, two-party-preferred. Chaffey was one of the seats that put Labor in government in 1965 after three decades in opposition due to the Playmander, and one of two seats that put the Liberal and Country League back in government in 1968. 1975 saw permanent large two-party swings away from Labor in a few rural seats − 13.5 percent in Chaffey, 15.5 percent in Mount Gambier and 16.4 percent in Millicent. Chaffey has since been held by the Liberal Party (as the LCL had been renamed in 1974).

In 2006, SA Nationals MP Karlene Maywald retained her seat with a large majority. She received a primary vote of 53.2% and a two-candidate-preferred vote of 67.2%. Maywald was first elected in 1997. She was defeated in 2010 by Liberal Tim Whetstone, who still holds the seat.

Members for Chaffey

Member		Party	Term
	William MacGillivray	Independent	1938–1956
	Harold King	Liberal and Country	1956–1962
	Reg Curren	Labor	1962–1968
	Peter Arnold	Liberal and Country	1968–1970
	Reg Curren	Labor	1970–1973
	Peter Arnold	Liberal and Country	1973–1974
		Liberal	1974–1993
	Kent Andrew	Liberal	1993–1997
	Karlene Maywald	Nationals SA	1997–2010
	Tim Whetstone	Liberal	2010–present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the district of Chaffey

South Australian state election, 2014: Chaffey

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Tim Whetstone	14,196	64.8	+17.1
	Labor	Mahanbir Grewal	3,615	16.5	+9.1
	Family First	Yvonne Zeppel	2,891	13.2	+5.7
	Greens	Jason Garrood	1,199	5.5	+3.3
Total formal votes			21,901	96.6	−0.3
Informal votes			767	3.4	+0.3
Turnout			22,668	92.2	−1.4
Two-party-preferred result
	Liberal	Tim Whetstone	16,454	75.1	−3.3
	Labor	Mahanbir Grewal	5,447	24.9	+3.3
	Liberal hold		Swing	N/A

References

• ABC profile for Chaffey: 2014
• ECSA profile for Chaffey: 2014
• Poll Bludger profile for Chaffey: 2014