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| Adam Carr's Election Archive
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Australian federal election, 2025
Division of Spence, South Australia
Named for: Catherine Helen Spence (1825-1910): suffragist
and social reformer. First female political candidate in Australia
(1897).
Northern Adelaide: Elizabeth, Gawler, Munno Para, Salisbury
Enrolment at 2019 election: 119,402
Enrolment at 2022 election: 129,099 (+08.3)
1999 republic referendum: No 66.8
2018 same-sex marriage survey: Yes 61.0
2023 Voice referendum: No 72.2
2007 Labor majority over Liberal: 6.6% *
2010 Labor majority over Liberal: 12.0% *
2013 Labor majority over Liberal: 3.4% *
2016 Labor majority over Liberal 10.9% *
2019 Labor majority over Liberal 14.1%
2022 Labor majority over Liberal 12.9%
* as Wakefield
Status: Safe Labor
Labor two-party vote 2004-22
2022 results
Statistics and history
Division of Spence
The seat of Spence was created by the 2018 redistribution, replacing the old seat of
Wakefield, which had existed since
South Australia was first divided into electorates in 1903. For most of its history Wakefield was a rural seat based in the
Riverland area east of Adelaide, extending at times into the state's far north. The 2003 redistribution, however, radically
changed the seat, removing the Riverland and adding a large chunk of Adelaide's northern industrial suburbs. This turned a very safe
Liberal seat into a very marginal one. Since then the seat has got steadily
better for Labor.
Spence's real ancestor is the seat of
Bonython, which existed from 1955 to
2004 and was firmly based on the northern Adelaide suburbs of Elizabeth and Salisbury. That is where Spence is now located, and it
is, as Bonython was, a safe Labor seat.
Spence was created because the 2018 redistribution abolished the seat of
Port Adelaide, requiring that the
surrounding seats be drawn inwards to fill the gap. Spence gained the Paralowie-Salisbury area from Port Adelaide, while
shedding all its rural areas to
Barker and
Grey. Like Bonython and the urban parts of Wakefield, it has a low
median family income. It has the lowest proportion of university graduates and also of people in
professional and managerial occupations of any seat in Austalia. It also has a low level of people living in non English
speaking households for a working-class seat.
The first member for Wakefield was
Sir Frederick Holder, the first Speaker of the House of Representatives. Later members included Liberal Cabinet minister Sir
Philip McBride and another Speaker,
Neil Andrew.
Nick Champion, an official with the Shop
Distributive and Allied Employees' Association and MP for Wakefield 2007-19, was the beneficiary of the 2018 changes. At the 2022 election he retired and went into state politics. He is now a minister in the South Australian Labor government.
Matt Burnell, an official with the Transport Workers Union, won Spence without
difficulty in 2022.
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