South Australian Election Results 19 March 2018

Barton Deakin Brief: South Australian Election Results 19 March 2018

The South Australian Election was held on Saturday the 17 March 2018. The election has resulted in a change of government, with the Liberal Party forming majority government after 16 years of Labor.

This Barton Deakin Brief summarises preliminary election result in the House of Assembly and the Legislative Council, provides an overview of the incoming Cabinet arrangements, and reviews the Liberal Party’s major policy commitments from the election.

House of Assembly Results

The Liberal Party have won 24 seats in the 47-seat House of Assembly. Labor is projected to take 18 seats, with 3 seats going to independent candidates.

With 66% of the vote counted to date, the seats of Adelaide and Mawson remain in doubt and will be determined once pre-poll and postal ballots are counted. There was a record number of over 200,000 pre-poll and postal votes.

The seats of Mount Gambier, Frome and Florey were won by Independents: Troy Bell, Geoff Brock and Frances Bedford respectively.

Nick Xenophon’s SA Best Party – including Mr Xenophon – failed to win a lower house seat.

The final result will be confirmed by the House of Assembly Returning Officers in the week commencing 26 March 2018.

Below is the current state of the House of Assembly with the two seats mentioned above still under contention.

Liberal Labor SA Greens Independents Australian In Doubt Best Conservatives

First 37.4% 33.95 13.7% 6.6% 3.4% 3.1% Preference Vote

No. Seats 24 18 0 0 3 0 2

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Legislative Council Results

11 seats in the Legislative Council were up for election in the 2018 poll.

With 66% of the vote for the Legislative Council counted, the result is likely to be four Liberal, four Labor, two SA Best, and one Greens.

Formation of Cabinet

Premier the Hon. Steven Marshall MP, Deputy Premier and Attorney General the Hon. Vickie Chapman MP and Treasurer the Hon. Rob Lucas MLC were officially sworn in today by the Governor the Honourable Hieu Van Le AC.

The Premier will announce the full Cabinet by the end of this week.

The Liberal’s Top Policy Commitments of the Election

The Marshall Government campaigned on the promise of ‘More Jobs. Lower Costs. Better Services.’, in particular the need to reduce cost of living pressures on South Australian families.

The following are priority policies for the Marshall Government:

1. Deregulation of Shop Trading Hours: Measures will be taken to remove the current restrictions on trading hours that prevent retailers opening on Sunday mornings and Public holidays. The legislation is aimed at creating more jobs and growth in the economy.

2. Energy and Environment: The key policies the Liberals plan to implement to tackle rising energy prices for household and businesses are a $200 million interconnection fund to improve connectivity with the National Electricity Market, and a $100 million household battery program.

To read Barton Deakin’s Brief on the South Australian Liberal Party’s Energy Policy click here.

3. Changes to healthcare: The Marshall Government plans to half the Emergency Services Levy (ESL) and reopen the Repat hospital to target the cost of living and to attempt to clear a backlog of elective surgeries.

4. Changes to Tax: All businesses with annual payrolls of less than $1.5 million with be exempt from payroll tax. The policy is planned to be introduced in the first budget so that business can benefit from the measure from 1 January 2019. The Liberal Party also pledged to introduce legislation to cap council rates to bring them more in line with the CPI index and inflation.

5. Infrastructure and Defence: The Marshall Government lists 10 priority infrastructure projects to be undertaken over the next 20 years. These include the completion of the North-South road corridor and the GlobeLink upgrade to export infrastructure. The Marshall Government will continue to support the growth of the defence industry in South Australia.

Steven Marshall unveiled a First 100 Days Plan as part of the Liberal Government’s election platform.

To read Barton Deakin’s Brief on the First 100 Days Policy click here.

A full list of the SA Liberal’s policies can be found here.

Further Information

For further information please contact Andrew Coombe on + 61404 566 592 ; John Griffin on +61419 901 159; Robert Bower on +6143 003 6667; or Elizabeth Burrows on +6145 837 089