Electoral district of Flinders Information & Electoral district of Flinders Links at HealthHaven.com

Flinders is an electoral district of the House of Assembly in the Australian state of South Australia. It is named after explorer Matthew Flinders, who was responsible for charting most of the state's coastline. It is a 55,260.6 km² coastal rural electorate encompassing the Eyre Peninsula and the coast along the Nullarbor Plain. It encompasses the major towns of Ceduna, Cleve, Elliston, Port Lincoln, Streaky Bay and Venus Bay, as well as many small farming communities.

Flinders is the oldest electorate in the present House of Assembly, having been the only one of the original 17 electorates to survive to the present day. It was a multi-member electorate from 1856 to 1938, as with the rest of the state, and has been single-member since 1938. The electorate is amongst the safest in South Australia for the conservative parties, with the Liberal Party holding a massive margin in the seat despite being out of government. The seat fell to the rival conservative National Party on one occasion, with Peter Blacker representing Flinders from 1973 to 1993, but he was defeated when Kangaroo Island was briefly included in Flinders, and without the advantages of incumbency, was unable to regain his seat when it was removed four years later. It has since remained a safe seat for the Liberal Party.

[edit] Members for Flinders since 1938

	Party	Term
Edward Craigie	Single Tax League	1938–1941
Rex Pearson	Liberal and Country League	1941–1951
Glen Pearson	Liberal and Country League	1951–1970
John Carnie	Liberal and Country League	1970–1973
Peter Blacker	Nationals SA	1973–1993
Liz Penfold	Liberal Party of Australia	1993–present

[edit] Election results

South Australian state election, 2006: Flinders
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Liz Penfold	10,052	53.2	-12.1
	Nationals SA	Hank Swalue	4,596	24.3	+15.1
	Labor	John Lovegrove	2,380	12.6	-3.6
	Family First	Errol Schuster	785	4.2	+4.2
	Greens	Felicity Wright	773	4.1	+4.1
	Democrats	John Hunwick	316	1.7	-4.4
Total formal votes			18,902	97.6	-0.6
Informal votes			473	2.4	+0.6
Turnout			19,375	91.3	-1.6
Two Candidate Preferred Result
	Liberal	Liz Penfold	11,358	60.1	-18.3
	Nationals SA	Hank Swalue	7,544	39.9	+39.9
	Liberal hold		Swing	-18.3

[edit] External links