| Spence AustralianHouse of RepresentativesDivision | |||||||||||||||
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  Interactive map of boundaries since the2019 federal election | |||||||||||||||
| Created | 2019 | ||||||||||||||
| MP | Matt Burnell | ||||||||||||||
| Party | Labor | ||||||||||||||
| Namesake | Catherine Helen Spence | ||||||||||||||
| Electors | 138,092 (2025) | ||||||||||||||
| Area | 532 km2 (205.4 sq mi) | ||||||||||||||
| Demographic | Outer metropolitan | ||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 34°42′S138°42′E / 34.7°S 138.7°E /-34.7; 138.7 | ||||||||||||||
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TheDivision of Spence is an electoral district for theAustralian House of Representatives. It is located in the outer northern suburbs ofAdelaide inSouth Australia.
Federal electoral division boundaries in Australia are determined at redistributions by a redistribution committee appointed by theAustralian Electoral Commission. 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.[1]
It is named in honour ofCatherine Helen Spence, an advocate for female suffrage and electoral reform and the first female political candidate in Australia.[2]
Spence was created in the electoral redistribution that concluded in July 2018 as a replacement for theDivision of Wakefield. It is essentially the more urbanised southern portion of the formerly hybrid urban-rural Wakefield. TheDivision of Port Adelaide 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.[3]
The geographic extent of Spence is approximately theAdelaide Plains between theLittle Para River in the south and theGawler River on the north, plus areas aroundGawler andSalisbury. It includes all of theCity of Playford andTown of Gawler, along withConcordia andKalbeeba from theBarossa Council, andGawler Belt andBuchfelde fromLight Regional Council on the outskirts of Gawler. Spence includes six suburbs in theCity of Salisbury south of the Little Para River, west and north ofMain North Road andKings Road.[4]
Spence overlaps the final configuration ofBonython before it was abolished prior to the2004 election[5] 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.[6]
Spence was notionally a comfortably safeLabor 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.[6] 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.
| Image | Member | Party | Term | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Nick Champion (1972–) | Labor | 18 May 2019 – 23 February 2022 | Previously held the Division ofWakefield. Resigned to transfer to state politics. Subsequently elected to theSouth Australian Legislative Assembly seat ofTaylor in2022 | |
 | Matt Burnell (1978–) | 21 May 2022 – present | Incumbent | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labor | Matt Burnell | 49,463 | 44.33 | +0.47 | |
| Liberal | Daniel Wild | 20,852 | 18.69 | −6.87 | |
| Greens | Luke Skinner | 16,166 | 14.49 | +3.14 | |
| One Nation | Darryl Bothe | 10,654 | 9.55 | −1.31 | |
| Family First | John Bennett | 4,901 | 4.39 | +4.39 | |
| Trumpet of Patriots | Paul Morrell | 4,454 | 3.99 | +2.36 | |
| Independent | Kym Hanton | 2,749 | 2.46 | +2.46 | |
| Animal Justice | Miranda Smith | 2,343 | 2.10 | +2.10 | |
| Total formal votes | 111,582 | 91.80 | −3.25 | ||
| Informal votes | 9,968 | 8.20 | +3.25 | ||
| Turnout | 121,550 | 87.51 | +0.94 | ||
| Two-party-preferred result | |||||
| Labor | Matt Burnell | 72,903 | 65.34 | +2.44 | |
| Liberal | Daniel Wild | 38,679 | 34.66 | −2.44 | |
| Laborhold | Swing | +2.44 | |||