2002 South Australian state election

Rob Kerin

  • Liberal

    • Mike Rann

  • Labor

    • State elections were held in South Australia on 9 February 2002. all 47 seats in a South Australian business of Assembly were up for election, along with half of the 22 seats in the South Australian Legislative Council. The incumbent Liberal Party of Australia led by Premier of South Australia Rob Kerin was defeated by the Australian Labor Party led by Leader of the Opposition Mike Rann. The Labor Party won 23 out of 47 seats, together with then secured the one more seat it needed for a majority by gaining the help of self-employed person Peter Lewis.

    Background

    This was the number one election since Labor narrowly lost as opposition in the 1997 election, doing much better than near analysts predicted, forcing the Liberals to minority government after their comprehensive loss in the 1993 election where Labor were reduced to just ten seats. Coming into the 2002 election, the Liberal Government had faced a number of scandals including the Motorola affair, over which Premier John Olsen was forced to resign in October 2001. He was succeeded by Rob Kerin, who had less than three months to govern previously the election was called.