Psephos - Adam Carr's Election Archive

Adam Carr's Election Archive

Australian federal election, 2025
Division of Sturt, South Australia

Named for: Charles Sturt (1795-1869), explorer of the Murray River


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Eastern Adelaide: Glenunga, Highbury, Norwood, Rostrevor, Windsor Gardens

Enrolment at 2019 election: 123,833
Enrolment at 2022 election: 128,977 (+04.3)
1999 republic referendum: Yes 53.7
2018 same-sex marriage survey: Yes 61.6
2023 Voice referendum: No 57.1

Sitting member: James Stevens (Liberal): Elected 2019, 2022


2007 Liberal majority over Labor: 0.9%
2010 Liberal majority over Labor: 3.4%
2013 Liberal majority over Labor: 10.1%
2016 Liberal majority over Labor: 5.9%
2019 Liberal majority over Labor: 6.9%
2022 Liberal majority over Labor: 0.5%

Status: Very marginal Liberal
Liberal two-party vote 1983-2022


  • 2022 results
  • Statistics and history

  • Announced candidates:

    Claire Clutterham
    Australian Labor Party
    James Stevens
    Liberal Party

    Division of Sturt

    Sturt was created in 1949, and has always occupied a block of territory in Adelaide's eastern suburbs, between the city and the hills. It includes some very wealthy areas in the south and in the fringes of the Adelaide Hills, but is mostly middle-class suburbia. There are a few Labor-voting areas in the north of the seat. Sturt combines a fairly high median family income level, a fairly high proportion of people in non English speaking households and a fairly high proportion of people in professional occupations.

    This is usually a dangerous combination for a Liberal member. But although Sturt has usually been a marginal seat, Labor has only won it twice, in 1954 and 1969. The 2018 redistribution added some marginal territory around Norwood and St Peters, slightly reducing the Liberal majority.

    Christopher Pyne was a 25-year-old solicitor and Liberal staffer when he succeeded the veteran former minister Ian Wilson in 1993. He was a junior minister in the last term of the Howard government. He was very nearly defeated at the 2007 election, but suvived and was a Cabinet minister throughout the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government, finally as Defence Minister under Scott Morrison. He retired at the 2022 election.

    James Stevens, Liberal MP for Sturt since 2919, was chief of staff to SA Premier Steven Marshall, and Pyne's campaign manager and preferred successor. He retained Sturt without difficulty in 2019 despite the loss of Pyne's personal vote, but had a very close call in 2022, when many upper-income voters in seats in like Sturt deserted the Liberals. He is now Shadow Assistant Minister for Government Waste Reduction. The Labor candidate in 2025 will be Claire Clutterham, a lawyer and a member of Norwood Payneham and St Peters Council.

    Boundaries following most recent redistribution:



    See full-size map of this Division



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