Heysen – SA 2026

LIB 2.8%

Incumbent MP
Josh Teague, since 2018.

Geography
Regional South Australia. Heysen covers areas to the south-east of Adelaide, including the suburbs and towns of Aldgate, Bridgewater, Crafers, Clarendon, Echunga, Hahndorf, Kangarilla, Macclesfield, Montacute, Stirling and Summertown. The electorate covers parts of Adelaide Hills, Alexandrina, Mount Barker and Onkaparinga council areas.

Redistribution
Heysen expanded to the north-east, taking in Balhannah and Lenswood from Kavel. These changes increased the Liberal margin from 1.9% to 2.8%.

History
Heysen has existed since the 1985 election, and had previously existed from 1970 to 1977. The seat has always been held by the Liberal Party. The seat has been a stronghold for the Australian Democrats in the past, with the party coming close to winning at the 1997 election.

William McAnaney won the seat for the first time in 1970 for the Liberal and Country League. McAnaney had held the seat of Stirling from 1963 to 1970.

McAnaney retired at the 1975 election, and was succeeded in Heysen by David Wotton. Wotton had to move to the seat of Murray in 1977 when Heysen was abolished, and returned to the restored Heysen in 1985, when Murray was abolished.

At the 1997 election, the Australian Democrats came second in Heysen, achieving a two-candidate-preferred vote of 48.1%. This was followed by a 46% figure in 2002.

At the 2002 election, Wotton retired and Heysen was won by Isobel Redmond.

Redmond was promoted to the Liberal frontbench in 2004, and was elected Liberal leader in 2009. She led the Liberal Party to the 2010 election, when they won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote but failed to win enough seats to win the election. She continued to serve as Leader of the Opposition until her resignation in January 2013.

Redmond was re-elected in 2014, and retired in 2018. Liberal candidate Josh Teague won Heysen in 2018, and was re-elected in 2022.

Candidates

Assessment
Heysen is a very marginal Liberal seat and current polling suggests very unfavourable conditions for the Liberal Party in trying to hold on to this seat.

2022 result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing Redist
Josh Teague Liberal 10,336 43.3 +3.0 42.2
Rowan Voogt Labor 6,410 26.9 +8.0 25.5
Lynton Vonow Greens 4,937 20.7 +8.7 19.7
Alexander Allwood One Nation 1,159 4.9 +4.9 4.7
Belinda Nikitins Family First 1,008 4.2 +4.2 3.9
Others 4.0
Informal 494 2.0

2022 two-party-preferred result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing Redist
Josh Teague Liberal 12,377 51.9 -5.7 52.8
Rowan Voogt Labor 11,473 48.1 +5.7 47.2

Booth breakdown

Booths have been divided into three parts: central, north and south.

The Liberal Party won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote in two out of three areas, with 51.1% in the centre and 52.5% in the south. Labor polled 58.1% in the north.

The Greens came third, with a primary vote ranging from 15.5% in the south to 25.7% in the centre.

Voter group GRN prim LIB 2PP Total votes % of votes
Central 25.7 51.1 7,566 29.1
South 15.5 52.5 5,985 23.0
North 18.0 41.9 3,802 14.6
Other votes 18.2 52.1 8,648 33.3

Election results in Heysen at the 2022 South Australian state election
Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and primary votes for the Liberal Party, Labor and the Greens.

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8 COMMENTS

  1. Labor has announced their 2022 and 2025 Mayo candidate Marisa Bell as their candidate for Heysen in 2026.

  4. @SpaceFish a few things:

    1) It’s a rural seat on paper but there are a number of big urban centres in Heysen: Crafers, Bridgewater, Aldgate, Strathalbyn etc. These places use to be country farm territory but Adelaide’s urban sprawl has led to a lot of tree-changers here –> More progressive politics but in a teal slant rather than Greens. More on that in Point 3.

    2) It’s within the hills, so there’s naturally a conservation theme with an environmental focus of the environment. Additionally, the part of Onkaparinga in the west is particularly conscious of environmental/climatic concerns as that’s where the river flows and it can affect livelihoods of people around there quite intensively.

    3) The entirety of the seat is in Mayo. Used to be conservative heartland until 2022 when Labor won the 2PP and again in 2025 when they made the 2CP. The people here seem to prefer someone who’s quite progressive environmentally and more conservative economically, which is something Rebekha Sharkie was able to do. It used to be the seat of Alexander Downer but it’s trended a long way from the way it was back in the 1980s.

  8. Liberal loss too marginal – a question if Labor wins or Greens pickup.

    It has SA Greens best perfoming seat – apart of their Hills heartland.

    former Democrats heatland