THE POLL BLUDGER
South Australian House of Assembly Election 2006

NAPIER
Labor 14.2%

Napier contains the northern part of the city of Elizabeth in the outer northern metropolitan area, and an undeveloped area to the east around One Tree Hill that goes against the grain of the electorate's strong support for Labor. As Tony Wright of The Bulletin puts it, mid-century Premier Sir Thomas Playford "built the city of Elizabeth on Adelaide’s outskirts, peopled it with immigrants and established manufacturing industries to give them work". Most of those industries have ceased to exist, leaving the area with the second highest unemployment in the country after the Hunter Valley.

Annette Hurley won Napier in 1993 upon the retirement of Terry Hemmings, overcoming an independent challenge from Terry Groom, the former Labor and independent member for Hartley. Groom had quit the party after a preselection defeat but was taken into cabinet as an independent by Premier Lynn Arnold in September 1992, making the election a contest between an endorsed Labor candidate and an Arnold government minister. Antony Green noted that Arnold "noticeably avoided campaigning in Napier" during the 1993 campaign. Hurley was back on easy street at the 1997 election and received a handy promotion to the deputy leadership when the Right's initial nominee, Croydon MP Michael Atkinson, was rebuffed by a rebellion from the Left. In 2002 she boldly abandoned Napier to boost Labor in the neighbouring electorate of Light, a traditional Liberal seat that had been made winnable for the first time after a redistribution. She was unsuccessful, but has since been compensated with a Senate seat and a spot in the federal shadow ministry.

Napier was passed on to Michael O'Brien (left), also of the Right faction and said to be a close friend of Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Union heavyweight Don Farrell. O'Brien has worked as a manager for Elders and an adviser to Hawke/Keating government minister Neal Blewett, and more recently made a crust as a bakery owner. Many locals and Labor members perceived O'Brien, resident of a luxury home in Springfield with no firm plans to move to the electorate, to be a silvertail blow-in imposed by head office, perhaps explaining the 5.9 per cent swing he suffered. O'Brien became parliament's unofficial "Yes Pokies" member when he successfully moved for licensed clubs to be exempt from a bill reducing the number of gaming machines, arguing it would damage SANFL clubs including his beloved Central Districts.

The Liberal candidate is Joe Federico (right), a Playford councillor and also the candidate in 2002.

The electorate will benefit from the government's expenditure of $300 million on construction of the Northern Expressway, announced in mid-2005. It will extend the Sturt Highway by 22 kilometres, from just outside Gawler to the intersection of Port Wakefield Road and Waterloo Corner Road, cutting travel times to Port Adelaide and the city.

ASSESSMENT: Labor retain

Michael O'Brien didn't need much extra padding on his healthy margin going into the election, but he got it anyway – a 9.2 per cent lift on the primary vote and a 10.1 per cent two-party swing. The other noteworthy feature of the result was the strength of Family First, who polled 10.7 per cent (their best result in Adelaide and second-best in the state after Kavel, which was an exceptional circumstance owing to the candidacy of Tom Playford Jr) in a seat they did not contest in 2002.

OUTCOME: Labor retain (24.3%)