The Division of Spence is an electoral district for the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Australian Senate, Senate. Its composition and powers are set out in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. ...

. It is located in the outer northern suburbs of

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

Geography

Federal electoral division boundaries in Australia are determined at redistributions by a redistribution committee appointed by the

Australian Electoral Commission The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is the independent statutory agency of the Australian Government responsible for the management and oversight of Australian federal elections, plebiscites, referendums and some trade union A ...

. Redistributions occur for the boundaries of divisions in a particular state, and they occur every seven years, or sooner if a state's representation entitlement changes or when divisions of a state are malapportioned.

History

It is named in honour of

Catherine Helen Spence Catherine Helen Spence (31 October 1825 – 3 April 1910) was a Scottish-born Australian author, teacher, journalist, politician, leading suffragist, and Georgist. Spence was also a minister of religion and social worker, and supporter of el ...

, an advocate for female suffrage and electoral reform and the first female political candidate in Australia. Spence was created in the electoral redistribution that concluded in July 2018 as a replacement for the

Division of Wakefield The Division of Wakefield was an Australian electoral division in the state of South Australia. The seat was a hybrid rural-urban electorate that stretched from Salisbury in the outer northern suburbs of Adelaide at the south of the seat right ...

. It is essentially the more urbanised southern portion of the formerly hybrid urban-rural Wakefield. The

Division of Port Adelaide The Division of Port Adelaide was an Divisions of the Australian House of Representatives, Australian electoral division in the States and territories of Australia, state of South Australia. The 181 km2 seat extended from St Kilda, South ...

was abolished after South Australia was reduced from 11 electorates to ten, resulting in quite large movements of the remaining divisions' boundaries to fill in the gap. The geographic extent of Spence is approximately the

Adelaide Plains The Adelaide Plains (Kaurna name Tarndanya) is a plain in South Australia lying between the coast ( Gulf St Vincent) on the west and the Mount Lofty Ranges on the east. The southernmost tip of the plain is in the southern seaside suburbs of A ...

between the

Little Para River The Little Para River is a seasonal creek running across the Adelaide Plains in the Australian state of South Australia, whose catchment fills reservoirs that supply some of the water needs of Adelaide’s northern suburbs. Course and features ...

in the south and the Gawler River on the north, plus areas around

Gawler Gawler, established in 1839, is the oldest country town in the state of South Australia. It was named after the second Governor (British Vice-Regal representative) of the colony of South Australia, George Gawler. It is about north of the st ...

and

Salisbury Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wi ...

. It includes all of the

City of Playford The City of Playford is a Local government in Australia, local government area of South Australia in Adelaide's northern suburbs. It was named in recognition of Thomas Playford IV, Sir Thomas Playford, who played a part in the development of the ...

and

Town of Gawler The Town of Gawler is a local government area located north of Adelaide city centre in South Australia containing Gawler and its suburbs. The corporate town was established in 1857 due to the township's residents' dissatisfaction at being govern ...

, along with Concordia and Kalbeeba from the

Barossa Council Barossa Council is a local government area in the Barossa Valley in South Australia. The council area covers 912 square kilometres, and had a population of over 23,000 in the 2016 Census and 25,066 in the 2021 census. History Barossa Council ...

, and Gawler Belt and

Buchfelde Buchfelde is now a suburb of Gawler, South Australia, on the northern outskirts of Adelaide in South Australia. History A property in the area was settled in 1848 by Dr. Richard von Schomburgk and his brother Otto, and is named after their fina ...

from

Light Regional Council Light Regional Council is a local government area north of Adelaide in South Australia. It is based in the town of Kapunda, and includes the towns of Freeling, Greenock, Hansborough, Hewett, Roseworthy and Wasleys. The council is named for ...

on the outskirts of Gawler. Spence includes six suburbs in the

City of Salisbury The City of Salisbury is a local government area (LGA) located in the northern suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia. Its neighbours are the City of Playford, City of Tea Tree Gully and City of Port Adelaide Enfield. Encompassing an area of ...

south of the Little Para River, west and north of

Main North Road Main North Road is the major north–south arterial route through the suburbs north of the Adelaide City Centre in the city of Adelaide, South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, ...

and

Kings Road King's Road or Kings Road (or sometimes the King's Road, especially when it was the king's private road until 1830, or as a colloquialism by middle/upper class London residents) is a major street stretching through Chelsea and Fulham, both ...

. Spence overlaps the final configuration of Bonython before it was abolished prior to the

2004 election The following elections occurred in the year 2004. Africa * 2004 Algerian presidential election * 2004 Botswana general election * 2004 Cameroonian presidential election * 2004 Comorian legislative election * 2004 Equatorial Guinean legislativ ...

and much of it was merged with what had been the southern part of Wakefield. Spence extends further east, west and north than Bonython at the time of its abolition, but Wakefield had historically been a rural seat until 2004. Spence was notionally a comfortably safe

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

seat, with a notional Labor margin of 17.9 percent, making it on paper the safest Labor seat in the state. By comparison, the abolished Wakefield finished with a safe Labor margin of 11.0 percent. Champion retained it in 2019 with only a small swing against him. Spence is the safest Labor seat in SA, with a 14.1 percent swing needed for the Liberals to win it.

Members

Election results

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spence, Division of Electoral divisions of Australia Electoral divisions of Australia in South Australia Constituencies established in 2019 2019 establishments in Australia