2014 Fisher state by-election

A by-election for the seat of Fisher in the South Australian House of Assembly was held on 6 December 2014. The by-election was triggered by the death of independent MP Bob Such on 11 October 2014. Originally elected to Fisher for the Liberal Party of Australia at the 1989 election, defeating the one-term Australian Labor Party MP Philip Tyler, Such left the party in 2000.

2014 Fisher state by-election

6 December 2014
  First party Second party Third party
 
IND
Candidate Nat Cook Heidi Harris Dan Woodyatt
Party Labor Liberal Independent
Popular vote 5,495 7,413 4,789
Percentage 26.7% 36.1% 23.3%
Swing 9.0 1.0 23.3
TPP 50.02% 49.98%
TPP swing 7.27 7.27

Electoral district of Fisher in the southern metropolitan area of Adelaide.

MP before election

Bob Such
Independent

Elected MP

Nat Cook
Labor

Though the Liberals were favourites to win the traditionally Liberal seat, Labor's Nat Cook won the by-election by five votes, a 50.02 percent two-party-preferred vote from a 7.27-point swing away from the Liberals, resulting in a change from minority to majority government. Despite this, the Jay Weatherill Labor government kept crossbench MPs Geoff Brock and Martin Hamilton-Smith in cabinet, giving the government a 26 to 21 parliamentary majority.

ABC psephologist Antony Green described the by-election as a "very poor result for the Liberal Party in South Australia both state and federally", and that a fourth term government gaining a seat at a by-election was unprecedented in Australian history. Much of the anti-Liberal swing was attributed to the unpopularity of then Prime Minister Tony Abbott, and additionally, the remark from then Defence Minister David Johnston several days before the Fisher by-election, where he stated he wouldn't trust South Australia's Australian Submarine Corporation to "build a canoe".

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