SOUTH AUSTRALIAN ELECTION 2010

NORWOOD Labor 3.7%
Region: Inner Eastern Suburbs Federal divisions: Adelaide/Sturt
	STEVEN MARSHALL Liberal (bottom) DAVID EGGE Gamers 4 Croydon PHILIP HARDING Save RAH PAUL THEOFANOUS Family First RICK NEAGLE Dignity for Disability PAMELA ANDERS Fair Land Tax - Tax Party KATIE McCUSKER Greens VINI CICCARELLO Labor (top)
Electoral District Boundaries Commission map

Neighboured by the electorate of Adelaide to the west, Norwood is a gentrified old working class area currently famed for its café strip. The suburb itself is at the far southern end of an electorate that extends northwards through Payneham across the river to Vale Park and Klemzig. Labor is relatively weak where the western part of the electorate skirts the edges of the city at Hackney and St Peters, and in the Vale Park area to the north. The redistribution has added the affluent suburb of Kensington to the east of Norwood proper, cutting the Labor margin from 4.3 per cent to 3.7 per cent.

Norwood has had an unbroken existence since the abolition of multi-member electorates in 1938, and was a hotly contested seat until Don Dunstan consolidated it for Labor after his election in 1953. Dunstan held the seat through his two spells as Premier, from 1967 to 1968 and again after 1970, before retiring due to ill health in 1979. Labor felt its first taste of defeat here in three decades when Dunstan's successor as Premier, Des Corcoran, called an early election later in the year. However, the Liberal win was overturned after a legal challenge and Labor recovered it at the re-match. The seat joined the long list of Labor casualties in 1993 when it was won for the Liberals by John Cummins, who had contested for Labor preselection way back in 1979.

Cummins did well to come within 0.8 per cent of retaining the seat in 1997, but was nonetheless defeated by Norwood mayor Vini Ciccarello. Ciccarello had won Labor endorsement at the insistence of Mike Rann, and remains factionally unaligned. She crucially held on at the 2002 election, but her 3.7 per cent swing in 2006 was Labor's smallest in Adelaide, comparing with a city-wide swing of 9.3 per cent. One explanation was the popularity of Liberal candidate Nigel Smart, a former Adelaide Crows star with management experience at Lion Nathan and Toyota.

Ciccarello's declared lack of ministerial ambition combined with infrequent contributions to parliament and time spent at Norwood Parade cafés (also frequented by another Norwood resident, Mike Rann) have led opponents to brand her as lazy. Christian Kerr of The Australian reported suggestions from the Labor camp that Ciccarello should make way for Mia Handshin, Labor's narrowly unsuccessful candidate for the federal seat of Sturt in 2007, who had unexpectedly withdrawn from a second attempt at the 2010 federal election. Kerr also related that Greg Crafter, who held the seat from 1979 to 1993 and reportedly remains influential in local branches, would like to see Ciccarello succeeded by his son Sam, an executive with oil and gas exploration company Santos and former adviser to Mike Rann.

The Liberals have nominated a somewhat lower-profile candidate this time in the person of Steven Marshall, a manager with a wool and textile export firm. His preselection win over two female candidates contributed to complaints about the party's male-dominated election line-up.

A hardy perennial local issue is the notoriously hazardous Britannia Roundabout, a five-way junction located in the south-western corner of the electorate. An $8.8 million proposal to regulate the knotty five-way traffic snarl was scrapped by the Rann government in 2005. Residents groups complained plans for the development of the adjacent Victoria Park racecourse missed an opportunity to fix what is said to have been a problem for half a century. Ciccarello said in parliament in September 2007 there was “nothing wrong” with the roundabout, later telling radio listeners the problems were largely the fault of drivers who “don't actually know how to use a roundabout”.

In the first week of the campaign, the Liberal member for Bragg, Vickie Chapman, complained to the Electoral Commission about a newsletter in which Vini Ciccarello claimed credit for two projects in Kensington. The projects were actually located in the area that was to be transferred from Bragg to Norwood in the redistribution. In the last week of the campaign, the Britannia roundabout was targeted by the Liberals with a promised $12 million upgrade that would include the installation of traffic lights.

PREDICTION: LIBERAL GAIN