Created 1903 Electors 107,323 (2016) Founded 1903 Member of parliament Nicolle Flint Namesake William Boothby | MP Nicolle Flint Demographic Outer Metropolitan Area 130 km² Elector 107,323 | |
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Party Liberal Party of Australia | ||
The Division of Boothby is an Australian electoral division in South Australia. The division was one of the seven established when the former Division of South Australia was redistributed on 2 October 1903 and is named for William Boothby (1829–1903), the Returning Officer for the first federal election.
The 130 km² seat currently extends from Clarence Gardens and Urrbrae in the north to Marino and part of Happy Valley in the south, including the suburbs of Aberfoyle Park, Belair, Blackwood, Brighton, Daw Park, Eden Hills, Flagstaff Hill, Marion, Mitcham, Seacliff, St Marys and Panorama.
History
Before 1949 and the creation of the Division of Sturt, Boothby covered most of the southern and eastern suburbs of Adelaide, and changed hands several times between the Liberal Party of Australia (and its predecessors) and the Australian Labor Party. The 1949 expansion of parliament saw parts of the southern portion transferred to the newly created Division of Kingston and parts of the eastern portion transferred to the newly created Division of Sturt. The redistribution prior to the 1949 election saw Boothby change from a marginal Labor seat on a 1.8 percent two-party margin to a marginal Liberal seat on a two percent two-party margin. However, as part of the massive Liberal victory in the 1949 election, the Liberals picked up a 9.3 percent two-party swing, turning it into a safe Liberal seat in one stroke. The Liberals have held the seat ever since, and for most of that time it has been fairly safe to safe for that party.
There was only one substantial redistribution in the past few decades, when Boothby absorbed parts of the abolished Division of Hawker prior to the 1993 election. This cut the Liberal margin by more than half, from a safe 10.7 two-party margin to a marginal notional 4.5 percent two-party margin. However, the Liberals won the seat on a fairly safe 7.8 percent two-party margin. Today Boothby extends from Mitcham and Belair in the east to Brighton and Seacliff in the west.
At the 2004 election, despite a solid national two-party swing and vote to the Liberals, Boothby became a marginal Liberal seat for the first time in over half a century, with Labor's Chloë Fox reducing the Liberal margin to 5.4 percent even as incumbent Andrew Southcott narrowly won enough primary votes to retain the seat without the need for preferences. Labor's Nicole Cornes reduced Southcott's margin even further to 2.9 percent at the 2007 election. At the 2010 election Labor's Annabel Digance came within 638 votes of ending the long Liberal run in the seat. At 0.75 percent Boothby was the most marginal seat in South Australia. However, Boothby became a fairly safe Liberal seat again at the 2013 election.
Boothby's most prominent members were Sir John McLeay, who was Speaker 1956-66, his son John, Jr., a minister in the Fraser government, and former state premier Steele Hall.
Hall handed the seat to Southcott at the 1996 election. In 2015, Southcott announced his retirement from parliament to take effect at the 2016 federal election. The Liberals preselected doctoral student and newspaper columnist Nicolle Flint. Labor preselected 2015 Davenport state by-election candidate Mark Ward. The Nick Xenophon Team announced Mitcham councillor Karen Hockley as their candidate. ABC psephologist Antony Green's 2016 federal election guide for South Australia stated NXT had a "strong chance of winning lower house seats and three or four Senate seats". Flint won the contest.