Electoral district of Fisher

This article is about the South Australian state electorate. For the Australian federal electorate, see Division of Fisher.

Fisher South Australia—House of Assembly
Electoral district of Fisher (green) in the Greater Adelaide area
State	South Australia
Created	1970
MP	Nat Cook
Party	Australian Labor Party (SA)
Namesake	James Hurtle Fisher
Electors	25,829 (2014)
Area	94.2 km² (36.4 sq mi)
Demographic	Metropolitan
Coordinates	35°5′31″S 138°36′57″E / 35.09194°S 138.61583°E / -35.09194; 138.61583Coordinates: 35°5′31″S 138°36′57″E / 35.09194°S 138.61583°E / -35.09194; 138.61583

Fisher is an electoral district of the House of Assembly in the Australian state of South Australia. It is named after James Fisher, a colonial politician and the first mayor of Adelaide. It covers a 94.2 km² suburban and semi rural area on the southern fringes of Adelaide, taking in the suburbs of Aberfoyle Park, Chandlers Hill, Cherry Gardens, Coromandel East, Happy Valley, Reynella East and parts of Clarendon, O'Halloran Hill and Woodcroft.

Before the 1983 electoral redistribution, Fisher took in the Blackwood area and was a safe Liberal seat, held by Stan Evans. The redistribution turned it into a marginal "mortgage belt" seat on a notional Liberal 2.1 percent two-party margin. The bulk of Evans' base was shifted to neighbouring Davenport, prompting Evans to transfer there. Philip Tyler won it for the Labor at the 1985 election as Labor's second-most marginal seat. It fell to Liberal Bob Such at the 1989 election. Such substantially increased his margin at the 1993 election landslide.

Changes in demographics during the 1990s made Fisher a marginal to fairly safe Liberal seat, but the Liberals lost control of the seat when Such resigned from the party to sit as an independent MP from October 2000. Such successfully retained his seat with an increased margin at the 2002 election. Such as an independent MP served as Speaker of the South Australian House of Assembly from 2005 to 2006 in the Mike Rann Labor government. He subsequently retained his seat with another margin increase to 16.7 percent at the 2006 election, despite early reports that the seat may fall to either the Labor or Liberal parties. The outcome of the 2006 election saw Such face former President of Australian Young Labor Amanda Rishworth on the two-candidate vote as opposed to a Liberal candidate in 2002, and Labor finished ahead of the Liberals on a 59.4 percent two-party vote from a 15.1 percent two-party swing, marking the first time since the 1985 election that Labor won the two-party vote in Fisher. Rishworth went on to win the federal seat of Kingston at the 2007 election, which takes in suburbs to the south west of Fisher. At the 2010 election, Such again retained Fisher on a virtually unchanged margin however he once again faced a Liberal candidate on the two-candidate vote, and again at the 2014 election, however on a significantly decreased 9.4 percent margin.

Such was diagnosed with a brain tumour a week after the 2014 election and died on 11 October. A 2014 Fisher by-election occurred on 6 December. Labor's Nat Cook won the by-election by five votes from a 7.3 percent two-party swing, giving Labor a majority by one seat. On a 0.02 percent margin, it is the most marginal seat in parliament.^[1]^[2]

Members for Fisher

	Party	Term
Stan Evans	Liberal and Country	1970–1974
Stan Evans	Liberal	1974–1985
Philip Tyler	Labor	1985–1989
Bob Such	Liberal	1989–2000
Bob Such	Independent	2000–2014
Nat Cook	Labor	2014–present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the district of Fisher

Fisher state by-election, 2014^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Heidi Harris	7,413	36.1	+1.0
	Labor	Nat Cook	5,495	26.7	+9.0
	Independent Continue Such's Legacy	Dan Woodyatt	4,789	23.3	+23.3
	Independent Honest True Local	Dan Golding	880	4.3	+4.3
	Independent Leading the Community	Rob de Jonge	809	3.9	+3.9
	Greens	Malwina Wyra	708	3.4	−1.3
	Stop Population Growth Now	Bob Couch	270	1.3	+1.3
	Independent Australian Democrats	Jeanie Walker	195	0.9	+0.9
Total formal votes			20,559	96.1	−1.5
Informal votes			841	3.9	+1.5
Turnout			21,400	82.9	−10.5
Two-party-preferred result
	Labor	Nat Cook	10,284	50.02	+7.27
	Liberal	Heidi Harris	10,275	49.98	−7.27
	Labor gain from Independent		Swing	+7.27

Notes

References

Electoral districts of South Australia

Former electoral districts of South Australia

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