Electoral district of Giles

Giles is an electoral district of the House of Assembly in the Australian state of South Australia. The electorate, named after explorer Ernest Giles, is the largest in South Australia, covering a 500,738.0km² swathe of outback South Australia. Its main population centre is the industrial city of Whyalla, but also covers significant areas of pastoral leases and Pitjantjatjara Aboriginal land. The electorate also takes in a number of regional towns, including Coober Pedy, Cowell, Kimba, Maralinga, Quorn, Roxby Downs, Tarcoola, Woomera and part of Hawker.

Giles is a comparatively recent creation, having only been created at the 1991 electoral redistribution, where it replaced the electorate of Whyalla. It covers an area that has traditionally been a stronghold of the Australian Labor Party, with support for the party being particularly strong in the city of Whyalla as well as in remote mining towns and indigenous communities. As such, sitting Labor MP for Whyalla and incumbent government minister Frank Blevins had little difficulty winning Giles when it was first contested at the 1993 election, passing a sizable margin on to his Labor successor Lyn Breuer, who held the seat at the 1997 and 2002 elections. Breuer's margin had been halved by the latest redistribution, which moved several heavily Liberal-voting areas into Giles, but with another increase in her margin at the 2006 state election, she appears unlikely to be seriously challenged for the foreseeable future.

Members for Whyalla and Giles

External links

* [http://www.abc.net.au/elections/sa/2006/guide/gile.htm ABC profile for Giles]
* [http://www.pollbludger.com/sa2006/giles.htm Poll Bludger profile for Giles]
* [http://www.seo.sa.gov.au/election2006//maps/images/517.gifState Electoral Office map for Giles]
* [http://www.seo.sa.gov.au/apps/news/?year=2006&districtSearch=3208 State Electoral Office profile for Giles]