Black by-election 2024

The electorate name commemorates Dorothea Foster (Dorrit) Black (1891-1951) who is regarded as one of Australia's most important modern artists. Born in Adelaide, after training in Sydney and living in Europe, she returned to Adelaide in 1935 to live and work as a professional artist. As a teacher she influenced some of South Australia's most important artists including Jeffrey Smart.

Black was first contested at the 2018 election. It was fashioned from the southern ends of the former seats of Bright and Mitchell. Both had been marginal seats for two decades and both had been won by the Liberal Party in 2014.

The only real continuity between Black and the former seat of Bright is that Black MP David Speirs had first been elected as the member for Bright in 2014. Speirs had a 6.4% swing in his favour on the election of the Marshall government in 2018, cancelled out by a 6.5% swing to Labor on the government's defeat in 2022.

A the 2022 election, Liberal two-party preferred majorities were recorded at all nine polling places conducted within the district, though Labor recorded 56.8% at Seaview High School, a joint polling place conducted in neighbouring Davenport. Being outside the district, Seaview High will not be a polling place for the by-election.

The Liberal results in the other nine polling places were relatively even, ranging 50.9% at Hallett Cove East Primary to 58.9% at Hallett Cove South Primary.


(Click on polling place for results)

65.5% of votes were taken on polling day in 2022, 34.5% as declaration votes. South Australian election results report only a single total for declaration votes and do not separately report pre-poll, postal and absent votes.

The Liberal two-party preferred vote was 52.5% on the day and 53.2% for declaration votes. Recent South Australian by-elections have seen a much higher incidence of declaration voting and a considerably larger gap between polling day and declaration vote results.

At the Bragg by-election in July 2022 the Liberal two-party vote was 50.9 on polling day and 62.3% with declaration votes lifting the final Liberal result to 55.6%. At the Dunstan by-election in March 2024, the Liberal two-party vote was 46.0% for election day votes but 53.8% with pre-poll votes, narrowing the Liberal Party's losing percentage to 49.2%.

Click for table of 2020 polling place and count centre two-party preferred results.

(Victories by a party of government are indicated by thick coloured underlining.)

Black shares many coastal suburbs with the former seat of Bright first won by David Spiers in 2014. As the chart below shows, Bright followed the state-wide two-party preferred vote for the first two decades of this century. The narrow victory of Labor MP Chloe Fox in 2010 was one of Labor's key victories to retain office at an election where Labor shed votes in safe seats but clung on to its marginal seats.

After Labor had won both the 2010 and 2014 elections with less than half of the state-wide two-party preferred vote, a major redistribution was undertaken under the state's electoral fairness provision. The new seat of Black was created as part of a major re-arrangement of boundaries designed to improve the Liberal Party's chances of victory at the 2018 election. Overall there was a swing to Labor in 2018, but Black saw a significant swing to the Liberal Party and David Speirs was re-elected. This may be evidence of a significant personal vote for Speirs, or a sign of strategic withdrawal for Labor, putting more effort into retaining its own marginal seats in 2018 rather than trying to claw back seats like Black.

In 2022 the swing in Black closely match the state swing, leaving a gap of about six percentage points between Black and the state-wide result. If this gap reflects a personal vote for Speirs above a generic Liberal vote, it could spell problems for the Liberal Party at the by-election.

David Speirs announced his resignation from Parliament in early October after revealing he had been charged by police with supplying a controlled substance. This followed the publication of a video in early September that appeared to show him sniffing powder from a plate. At the time Speirs criticised the video as being a 'deepfake or elaborate hoax'. Speirs faces a court appearance on the charges on 15 November, the day before the by-election polling day.

Further Reading

White powder scandal: David Speirs on medical leave, (Video) Hannah Foord, Seven News

David Speirs formally resigns from parliament, Thomas Kelsall, InDaily, 5 October 2024

David Speirs to face court after drug charges and Labor announces its candidate, (Video) Rory McLaren, ABC News

David Speirs formally quits SA parliament days after police said former Liberal leader was facing drug charges, Rory McLaren, ABC News, 10 November

A by-election in Black is looming, but what impact will outgoing Liberal leader David Speirs have on the political race?, ABC News, 15 October

As with the Liberal Party's choice of candidate at the Dunstan by-election, stories emerged concerning the political history of its candidate Amanda Wilson. Wilson had only joined the Liberal Party a few days before being chosen as candidate. After Labor attacked her for not living in the electorate, Wilson argued the attack was hypocritical given Labor had approached her to contest Gibson at the 2022 election, a seat she also did not live in. Wilson also stated that Penny Wong had approached her to contest the Federal seat of Boothby in 2022. Wilson was also revealed to have been a member of the Greens, but this was a more youthful dalliance two decades earlier.

Lib candidate was asked to run for Labor in 2022, Thomas Kelsall, InDaily 14 October

South Australia has a unique provision in its Electoral Act that permits each candidate to have its preference recommendations displayed on the voting partition in front of the voter. A copy of the how-to-vote recommendations lodged by each candidate are linked from the candidate profiles below. In summary the recommendations are -

• The ordering of the ballot paper has allowed the Australian Family Party candidate to publish a straight down the ticket preference ordering with a recommended second preference for the Liberal candidate.
• The ordering of the ballot paper with the Greens last has also allowed the party to issue a straight up the ticket how-to-vote with a recommended second preference for Labor.
• Labor and Liberal how-to-votes have obvious second preferences, Labor for the Greens and Liberal for the Australian Family Party. The Labor and Liberal candidates are certain to finish as the final pairing after preferences which means vote cast for both parties will not have their preferences distributed.

Jonathan Parkin

Aust Family Party

Parkin is a former commercial airline pilot and has lived in the electorate for most of his life. He is married with two children and has been involved in a number of community activities, including the Nipper program at the local Seacliff Surf Life Saving Club.

Website How-to-vote

Amanda Wilson

Liberal Party

Wilson is currently Mayor of the City of Holdfast Bay, a council that covers the coast of Adelaide from from Glenelg in the north to Seacliff in the electorate of Black. Wilson was first elect to council in 2014 representing Somerton Ward further north along the coast. She was elected Mayor by popular vote in 2018, the first woman to hold the position, and re-elected with more than 90% of the vote in 2022. Wilson worked in a law firm before taking a break for motherhood.

Website How-to-vote

Alex Dighton

Australian Labor Party

Dighton has been a teacher for the past fifteen years, holding various school leadership roles at Sacred Heart College, including Deputy Principal and as Head of Marcellin Campus, the college's Senior School. Dighton was the unsuccessful Labor candidate for Black at the 2022 state election.

Website How-to-vote

Sarah Luscombe

Australian Greens

Luscombe has lived in Hallett Cove for 15 years and has represented the area as local councillor for Coastal Ward on the City of Marion since 2022. She is a clinical psychologist with experience across health, child protection and education settings.

Website How-to-vote

Information on candidates and how-to-vote material can be sent to

Legislative Council results

Liberal 37.3%, Labor 36.8%, Greens 10.7%, Liberal Democrats 3.0%, One Nation 3.2%, Family First 2.0%, Legalaise Cannabis 1.8%, Animal Justice 1.3%, Other Groups (12) 3.8%

The substantial gap between Liberal support in the two houses suppoorts the view that David Speirs had a significant personal vote as member for Black.