Electoral district of Giles

Giles South Australia—House of Assembly
Electoral district of Giles (green) in South Australia
State	South Australia
Created	1993
MP	Eddie Hughes
Party	Australian Labor Party (SA)
Namesake	Ernest Giles
Electors	22,712 (2014)
Area	493,365 km^2 (190,489.3 sq mi)
Demographic	Rural
Coordinates	29°39′S 133°52′E / 29.650°S 133.867°ECoordinates: 29°39′S 133°52′E / 29.650°S 133.867°E

Giles is an electoral district of the House of Assembly in the Australian state of South Australia. The largest electorate in the state, named after explorer Ernest Giles, covers a 493,365 km² swathe of South Australian outback. Its main population centre is the industrial town of Whyalla on the far south-east border of the seat which represents half of the seat's voters. The remaining half covers significant areas of pastoral leases and Pitjantjatjara Aboriginal land stretching to the Western Australian and Northern Territory borders, taking in the remote towns of Andamooka, Coober Pedy, Hawker, Iron Knob, Kimba, Quorn, Roxby Downs and Woomera. Giles also has a far north mobile booth.

Giles was created at the 1991 electoral redistribution to replace the abolished seat of Whyalla. It covered an area that had traditionally been one of the few country areas where Labor consistently did well. Support for the party was particularly strong in the city of Whyalla, which had been a Labor bastion for the better part of the 20th century. Labor also had longstanding support in remote mining towns and indigenous communities. Sitting Labor MP for Whyalla and incumbent government minister Frank Blevins won his seat at the 1989 election with a safe 10.9 percent two-party margin.

However, upon the creation of Giles, Labor's two-party margin was halved to a notionally marginal 5.2 percent. The seat became even more marginal at the 1993 election landslide, as Blevins saw his margin cut in half to 2.4 percent. Giles was the only rural seat retained by Labor in an election that not only saw Labor cut down to only 10 seats total, but also saw permanent swings away from Labor in most of country South Australia. Giles would be the only rural Labor-held seat until Labor took Light off the Liberals at the 2006 election landslide; Light has been in Labor hands ever since.

At the 1997 election Giles was massively expanded beyond just Whyalla, stretching to the Western Australia and Northern Territory borders, taking in the western half of the abolished seat of Eyre, with the eastern half going to the Port Augusta-based seat of Stuart. At this election, Blevins retired, and his successor, Lyn Breuer, picked up a large swing, turning Giles into a safe Labor seat once again.

Breuer made the seat fairly secure for Labor at subsequent elections before retiring from politics at the 2014 election, with Labor candidate Eddie Hughes retaining the seat.

Members for Giles

Member		Party	Term
	Frank Blevins	Labor	1993–1997
	Lyn Breuer	Labor	1997–2014
	Eddie Hughes	Labor	2014–present

Election results

South Australian state election, 2014: Giles^[1][2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labor	Eddie Hughes	9,800	51.4	−1.2
	Liberal	Bernadette Abraham	7,134	37.4	+8.1
	Family First	Cheryl Kaminski	1,196	6.3	+0.3
	Greens	Alison Sentance	942	4.9	−7.2
Total formal votes			19,072	97.0	+0.6
Informal votes			581	3.0	−0.6
Turnout			19,653	86.5	−1.6
Two-party-preferred result
	Labor	Eddie Hughes	10,877	57.0	−4.9
	Liberal	Bernadette Abraham	8,195	43.0	+4.9
	Labor hold		Swing	−4.9

Notes

1. 2014 State Election Results – Giles, ECSA.
2. 2014 State Election Results – Giles, ABC.

References

• ABC profile for Giles: 2014
• ECSA profile for Giles: 2014
• Poll Bludger profile for Giles: 2014