LIB 0.5%
Incumbent MP
James Stevens, since 2019.
Geography
Sturt lies in the eastern suburbs of Adelaide. The southern part of the seat covers most of Burnside LGA, while Campbelltown and Norwood Payneham and St Peters LGAs cover the centre of the seat, and parts of the Port Adelaide Enfield and Tea Tree Gully LGAs cover the north of the seat.
Sturt stretches north to Grand Junction Road, and key suburbs include Glen Osmond, Burnside, Magill, Felixstow, Campbelltown, Klemzig, Gilles Plains, Rostrevor, Newton, Norwood, Stepney, Paradise, Athelstone and Highbury.
History
Sturt was created for the 1949 election, and has almost always been held by the Liberal Party. Indeed, except for two terms when it was held by the ALP, the seat was held by the same family from its creation until 1993.
The seat was first won by Keith Wilson in 1949. He lost the seat in 1954 to Norman Makin. Makin had served in the House of Representatives from 1919 to 1946, during which time he served as Speaker of the House of Representatives and a Minister in the Curtin and Chifley governments, before becoming Ambassador to the United States.
Makin abandoned the seat in 1955 for the safer Bonython, and Wilson returned to the seat. Wilson retired in 1966 and was succeeded by his son Ian. Ian served as a junior minister in the last term of the Fraser government before going to the backbench after the election of the Hawke government.
Wilson was challenged for preselection in 1993 by 25-year-old Christopher Pyne. Pyne held the seat for the next 26 years, serving as a minister in the Howard government and as a senior minister in the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government, before retiring in 2019.
Liberal candidate James Stevens won the seat in 2019, and was re-elected in 2022.
Assessment
Sturt is now a very marginal seat. If the Liberal Party is unable to rebuild its support with its former urban base Sturt could be vulnerable.
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| James Stevens | Liberal | 48,579 | 43.1 | -7.4 |
| Sonja Baram | Labor | 34,528 | 30.7 | +0.8 |
| Katie McCusker | Greens | 18,454 | 16.4 | +5.2 |
| Stephen Grant | United Australia | 3,008 | 2.7 | +0.3 |
| Alexander Allwood | One Nation | 2,893 | 2.6 | +2.6 |
| David Sherlock | Animal Justice | 1,531 | 1.4 | -0.3 |
| Thomas McMahon | Liberal Democrats | 1,147 | 1.0 | +1.0 |
| Inty Elham | Democratic Alliance | 1,007 | 0.9 | +0.9 |
| Kathy Scarborough | Federation Party | 755 | 0.7 | +0.7 |
| Angela Fulco | Labor | 457 | 0.4 | -0.1 |
| Chris Schmidt | TNL | 251 | 0.2 | +0.2 |
| Informal | 6,541 | 5.5 | +0.1 |
2022 two-party-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| James Stevens | Liberal | 56,813 | 50.5 | -6.4 |
| Sonja Baram | Labor | 55,797 | 49.5 | +6.4 |
Booths have been divided into three areas: central, north and south.
Labor won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote in the centre (52.4%) and north (53.6%), while the Liberal Party polled 50.4% in the south. The Liberal candidate won thanks to a stronger performance on the pre-poll and other votes.
The Greens came third, with a primary vote ranging from 14.8% on the pre-poll to 19.6% in the south.
| Voter group | GRN prim | LIB 2PP | Total votes | % of votes |
| South | 19.6 | 50.4 | 27,652 | 24.6 |
| Central | 16.9 | 47.6 | 16,291 | 14.5 |
| North | 15.8 | 46.4 | 12,575 | 11.2 |
| Pre-poll | 14.8 | 51.9 | 31,193 | 27.7 |
| Other votes | 14.7 | 52.6 | 24,899 | 22.1 |
Election results in Sturt at the 2022 federal election
Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and primary votes for the Liberal Party, Labor and the Greens.
@Yoh An, Kingston had different boundaries, as did Makin but I still think it could be won. Adelaide is a bit trickier now because the boundaries are different from 2004 when the Liberals lost it but you never know, the then-moderate state party won the state seat of Adelaide in 2010 despite not winning the election and held onto it until 2022.
@Nether Portal There’s no way in any sane world that Kingston and Makin could be won by the Liberals in the foreseeable future. Even during the 2013 Liberal landslide both seats stayed red with daylight to spare. Adelaide won’t be won by the Liberals for as long as that strip of western suburbs remain in the electorate, as many of them have something like 70-80% 2PP coming out of this election. The Greens are more likely to emerge as the next big contender for Adelaide in the future than the Liberals ever becoming competitive here.
This election demonstrated that outer suburbs have become surprise hunting grounds for Labor, Greens and independents (and One Nation lol). The Liberals aren’t even remotely appealing in these areas despite the supposed anger and outrage that’s being perpetrated by the media.
If you Ask Sky After Dark they will say the Libs can win Spence a seat libs did not even get 20%in
The Liberals thought they had a real chance of causing an upset in Spence. Senator Alex Antic, Tony Abbott and Ben Hood all campaigned strongly in Spence. I didn’t expect a 2PP swing of 10%+ anywhere. I was wrong because it actually happened in Tasmania but in Labor’s direction. I didn’t expect normally safe Labor seats to flip to the Liberals.