ALP 16.4%
Incumbent MP
Amanda Rishworth, since 2007.
Geography
Kingston covers the southern fringe of Adelaide and coastal suburbs to the south of South Australia’s capital, including Aldinga and Noarlunga. The seat covers a majority of Onkaparinga LGA and part of Marion LGA.
History
Kingston was first created in 1949, and in its seventy-year history has been a classical marginal seat regularly changing hands. The seat has been represented by ten MPs in the last seventy years, and every former Member for Kingston lost the seat at an election to the opposing major party. The seat has become much stronger for Labor over the last decade.
The seat was first won in 1949 by former SANFL football player Jim Handby for the Liberal Party. Patrick Galvin of the ALP won the seat in 1951 off Handby and held it for the next fifteen years. Galvin was himself defeated by Kay Brownbill of the Liberal Party in 1966.
Brownbill was defeated in 1969 by Labor’s Richard Gun. The party of government held Kingston from the 1972 election until 1998, with Gun winning re-election in 1972 and 1974.
Grant Chapman won the seat off Gun in 1975, and held the seat for the entirety of the Fraser government. Following his defeat in 1983 he went on to become a Senator for South Australia from 1987 until 2007.
Chapman was defeated in 1983 by Gordon Bliney of the ALP, who went on to serve as a minister in the Hawke and Keating governments. The seat was home to a challenge by Democrats leader Janine Haines in 1990, when she attempted to move to the House of Representatives. She polled over a quarter of the vote but failed to outpoll either major party. Bliney was defeated by Susan Jeanes in 1996, and Jeanes herself was defeated in 1998 before seeking a career in state politics, where she challenged Bob Such for preselection in Fisher, and Such was re-elected as an independent.
David Cox won the seat for the ALP in 1998 and held it until 2004, during which time he served on the Opposition frontbench. He was defeated in 2004 by former police officer Kym Richardson. Richardson was defeated in 2007 by Labor’s Amanda Rishworth, and Rishworth has been re-elected five times.
Assessment
Kingston is a safe Labor seat.
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Amanda Rishworth | Labor | 53,810 | 49.2 | -1.4 |
| Kathleen Bourne | Liberal | 28,273 | 25.9 | -5.9 |
| John Photakis | Greens | 13,603 | 12.4 | +3.2 |
| Robert Godfrey-Brown | One Nation | 5,313 | 4.9 | +4.9 |
| Russell Jackson | United Australia | 4,321 | 4.0 | -1.0 |
| Rob De Jonge | Independent | 2,963 | 2.7 | +2.7 |
| Sam Enright | Federation Party | 1,079 | 1.0 | +1.0 |
| Informal | 4,336 | 3.8 | -0.3 |
2022 two-party-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Amanda Rishworth | Labor | 72,564 | 66.4 | +4.4 |
| Kathleen Bourne | Liberal | 36,798 | 33.6 | -4.4 |
Booths have been divided into three parts: central, north and south.
The ALP won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote in all three areas, ranging from 65% in the north to 74.5% in the centre.
The Greens came third, with a primary vote ranging from 13.8% in the north to 15.3% in the south.
| Voter group | GRN prim | ALP 2PP | Total votes | % of votes |
| North | 13.8 | 65.0 | 29,905 | 27.3 |
| Central | 14.8 | 74.5 | 14,501 | 13.3 |
| South | 15.3 | 72.0 | 8,029 | 7.3 |
| Pre-poll | 10.5 | 64.7 | 33,926 | 31.0 |
| Other votes | 11.1 | 63.4 | 23,001 | 21.0 |
Election results in Kingston at the 2022 federal election
Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and primary votes for Labor, the Liberal Party and the Greens.
This seat had SA’s largest election-day booth at Flagstaff Hill Primary School, with 2752 votes cast.
Fun fact on 2021 Census results this is the most irreligious seat in the country with 54.60% having no religion. The most religious seat in the country is Werriwa where that is only 13.10%
@Nimalan despite being within the “City of Churches”.
@ Nether Portal
I think it is mainly due to it being an Anglo Area. The Tasmanian seats are also very irreligious Braddon more than Clark despite Braddon trending right wing and Clark more socially progressive.
Furthermore, Wentwoth and Goldstein have a lower % of people with no religion than Longman or Gippsland. That can be explained by the former having signficant Jewish community and to a lesser extent in Goldstein a Greek community. Fairfax is the most irreligious seat in Queensland more than the Teal seats.
The Liberals have preselected Amanda Rishworth’s cousin, Jim Rishworth, as their candidate here. Probably one of the few times I’ve seen family members from opposing parties contest the same seat at the same election before.
It’s a way to increase the chances of their family holding the seat.
The whole of Kingston could nominate Amanda would still win
I’m sure there’ll be voter confusion just as how there was a mixup between the Liberals and Liberal Democrats elsewhere in the past. Because it’s a safe Labor seat, Amanda Rishworth’s primary vote is more likely to take a hit unless her name is at the top or well ahead of her cousin on the ballot.
It’s about time Amanda Career Politician Rishworth finally gave somebody else a go. Any other of those candidates should be given a go. ToP candidate is a mechanic and dad, lived in the region his whole life. Surely he knows the value of a hard days labour. Somebody else should have a go.
Jessica Sampson, I know little about the sitting member, but she’s hardly the only career politician going around at the moment. I agree that having a diversity of voices and backgrounds in our Parliament is a good thing, broadly speaking.
@Jessica Samson Rishworth is very popular down in Kingston. She won every election decisively since 2007 and there’s a good reason why Kingston turned from one of the nation’s most active bellwether seats, to one of the safest Labor seats in the country.
The ToP candidate is most likely some sort of disgruntled hack who has no idea of how the world spins or where the sun rises from. No way he gets any traction and neither does his ‘back story’ sound any more convincing than the reality.
Also of note, Amanda Rishworth drew the top spot on the ticket so it’s pretty easy for her to be given first preferences and avoid preferences from Jim instead.
I agree with Tommo in the 2022 Kingston thread i said Rishworth and Zappia maybe some of the best perfoming MPs in the country. Amanda Rishworth also secured funding in her first term for the Seaford extention.
When you look at her results she is obviously doing something very right by her electorate. Always come across well in the media and on top of her brief. Would be interestimg to see her in a ‘hard’ portfolio.
@Redistributed arguably Social Services is already a ‘hard’ portfolio. Michelle Grattan had once written about it as the portfolio that the person who holds it would have a knife ready for one of the other frontbenchers, and that’s not counting the fact that she now also has the NDIS to deal with.
Also on Jess Samson’s point previously. Give someone else a go? It’s a democracy for goodness’ sake. It’s not about goodwill in giving someone else a go just because they’re a career politician who should ‘give way’ to someone who’s had ‘real world experience’ even though the former was democratically elected? I can think of a thousand reasons as to why Rishworth or anyone else wouldn’t just give up the seat for someone who’s one of Clive’s minions this year. It’s mind-boggling madness.
I wonder if Rishworth and Zappia retired, would Kingston and Makin go back marginal or did some demographic/economic changes also happened at the same time that led to a stronger Labor advantage?
@Marh I wouldn’t rule it out given both are outer-suburban seats that are mortgage belts, aspirational, McMansions, disgruntled families etc. Though it has to be said that the suburbs included have pretty much always voted Labor both state and federally since the beginning of time, owing to the manufacturing/working class nature (particularly the northern suburbs).
The Liberals aren’t really well liked in these areas as they’ve been seen as one of the reasons why suburbs such as Elizabeth and Salisbury are much more deprived since Holden moved out. Housing commissions in Kingston also makes it hard for the current iteration of Liberals to cut through (Noarlunga is pretty much the SA equivalent to Frankston), and the Liberals also don’t really try at a federal level anyway so it would be difficult. However, if the national environment was different after Zappia and/or Rishworth’s retirement then the seat could turn into what I imagine Hawke and Gorton will turn into, aka marginal-fairly safe seats rather than lose them.
Kingston feels more naturally Labor than Makin. The only recent Liberal wins in Kingston were the 1996 landslide and the 2004 anti-Latham suburban backlash. And even then, both were narrow.
Makin has always seemed to me to be more naturally marginal – was held all through the Howard era, not just freak one-off wins – so presumably there is more of a sitting member factor there. The problem for the Liberals in Makin is that it’s mostly surrounded by solid Labor territory, so any time it needs to expand, it tends to get safer for Labor.
Maybe Kingston is traditional Labor leaning marginal rather than complete bellwether. Although from 1972 until the 1998 election it was a bellwether and fun fact every single MP has been defeated as no member has retired or resigned since its creation at the 1949 expansion of parliament there has never been a by-election here. Demographically Kingston and Bowman are the least diverse capital city seats. I mentioned above that Kingston is the least religious seat in the country.
Makin was a perfect bellwether from its creation in 1984 expansion of parliament until the 2013 change of goverment. Makin is where the two Adelaides meet the industrial north and the leafy East. The city of Tea Tree Gully IMHO is a perfect example of Middle Australia. Makin in contrast to Kingston, has Adelaide’s Bible belt suburbs and where Family First Party started. It is also more ethnically diverse.
Amanda Rishworth is quite young and was only 29 when elected so i think she will rise up the ranks unlike Tony Zappia due to his age. I think Amanda Rishworth is the most Senior member that Kingston has produced and the only one who has been in Cabinet.
The only way this seat becomes marginal again is if Amanda Rishworth kneecapped a constituent in Rundle Mall.
On current numbers, this is now labor’s safest seat in SA. Amanda Rishworth is over 50% on primaries.