Croydon – SA 2018

ALP 19.7%

Incumbent MP
Michael Atkinson, since 2002. Previously Member for Spence, 1989-2002.

Geography
North-western Adelaide. Croydon covers suburbs immediately to the northwest of the Adelaide city centre, including Beverley, Brompton, Croydon, Croydon Park, Hindmarsh and parts of Flinders Park and Kilkenny.

Redistribution
Croydon shifted north, taking in Athol Park from Cheltenham and Angle Park from Enfield, and lost Beverley to Cheltenham and Flinders Park and part of Welland to West Torrens. These changes increased the margin from 18.9% to 19.7%.

History
The electorate of Croydon has existed under its current name since the 2002 election, and was effectively a new name for the previous electorate of Spence, which had existed since 1970. Both Spence and Croydon have always been Labor-held.

Two successive Labor MPs held Spence from 1970 to 1989.

In 1989, Spence was won by Michael Atkinson. Atkinson has been re-elected in the area at six successive elections between 1993 and 2014, under the name of Croydon since 2002.

Atkinson served as Attorney-General from 2002 until the 2010 election, when he moved to the backbench. Atkinson has served as Speaker of the House of Assembly since 2013.

Candidates

Assessment
Croydon is the safest Labor seat in the state.

2014 election result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing Redist
Michael Atkinson Labor 11,872 57.8 +4.8 59.0
Glenda Noble Liberal 5,462 26.6 +3.3 25.0
Cherie Hoyle Greens 2,342 11.4 +2.6 10.5
Nkweto (NK) Nkamba Family First 866 4.2 +0.6 4.7
Others 0.7
Informal 716 3.4

2014 two-party-preferred result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing Redist
Michael Atkinson Labor 14,156 68.9 +3.5 69.7
Glenda Noble Liberal 6,386 31.1 -3.5 30.4

Booth breakdown

Booths in Croydon have been divided into three areas: central, north and south.

Labor won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote in all three areas, ranging from 71% in the north to 72.4% in the centre.

The Greens vote ranged from 6.4% in the north to 12.6% in the south.

Voter group GRN prim % ALP 2PP % Total votes % of votes
South 12.6 71.2 6,522 31.0
Central 9.0 72.4 5,352 25.5
North 6.4 71.0 4,591 21.8
Other votes 13.2 63.3 4,553 21.7

Election results in Croydon at the 2014 SA state election
Click on the ‘visible layers’ box to toggle between two-party-preferred votes and Greens primary votes.

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3 COMMENTS

  1. Good to see Michael Atkinson, one of the worst people ever elected to an Australian parliament if you ask me, finally retire!

    I do wonder whether the ALP vote will go up or down here – this is obviously a safe Labor seat, even in 1993 Labor won (barely) a majority of first preferences, just curious to see what sort of personal vote (or lack thereof) will be evaporating after 29 years.

  2. Mick Atkinson is a very popular local member and knows almost everyone in Croydon by name. His successor Peter Malinauskas has been campaigning for more than the last year and is not taking anything for granted. Should be a very comfortable Labor retain. Although I would expect the margin to drop back marginally due to Mick’s personal standing in the electorate. He does tend to attract voters who would normally vote for another party. As someone who lives in the electorate and is an active local ALP member I dont see the Xenophon team making much of an impact here. The Liberals are also putting zero effort in.

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