2026 South Australian state election

The 2026 South Australian state election will be held on Saturday 21 March 2026, to elect members to the 56th Parliament of South Australia. All 47 seats in the House of Assembly will be up for election, along with 11 of the 22 seats in the Legislative Council.

2026 South Australian state election

← 2022 21 March 2026 2030 →
All 47 seats in the House of Assembly 24 seats needed for a majority 11 of 22 seats in the Legislative Council
Opinion polls
Registered	1,309,809 (as of 18 December 2025)
Leader Peter Malinauskas Ashton Hurn Party Labor Liberal Leader since 9 April 2018 8 December 2025 Leader's seat Croydon Schubert Last election 27 seats 16 seats Current seats 29 13 Seats needed 11 2PP @ 2022 54.6% 45.4%
Map of House of Assembly electorates.
Incumbent Premier Peter Malinauskas Labor

The incumbent Labor majority government, led by Premier Peter Malinauskas, will seek a second four-year term in government. They will be challenged by the Liberal Party, led by Opposition Leader Ashton Hurn, who took leadership of the party following the resignation of Vincent Tarzia on 5 December 2025. It is expected that the South Australian Greens and other minor parties and independents will contest the election.

South Australia has compulsory voting, with full-preference instant-runoff voting for single-member electorates in the lower house, and optional preference single transferable voting in the proportionally represented upper house. The election will be conducted by the Electoral Commission of South Australia (ECSA), an independent body answerable to Parliament, and will be held on the same day as the South Australian First Nations Voice election.

Background

At the 2022 election, the South Australian Labor Party won government after spending four years in opposition. The party, led by Peter Malinauskas, gained 8 seats to have a four-seat majority in the House of Assembly, while the incumbent South Australian Liberal Party government, led by Premier Steven Marshall, lost a total of nine seats to Labor and independents. Statewide the Labor Party won 54.59% of the two-party preferred vote, which was a swing of over 6.5%.

In the Legislative Council, Labor won five seats, the Liberals won four and the Greens and One Nation both won one seat each. As a result, the Labor government held a total of nine seats and the Liberal held eight, with five on the crossbench, including two Greens, two SA-Best representatives and a single One Nation seat held by Sarah Game. Following the election, the Presidency of the council was unexpectedly retained by Liberal MLC Terry Stephens, meaning the Labor government required an additional two non-government votes for passage of legislation.

House of Assembly crossbench

Four independents were successfully elected in regional and rural seats in 2022; Dan Cregan (Kavel), Troy Bell (Mount Gambier), Fraser Ellis (Narungga) and Geoff Brock (Stuart). The lower house crossbench increased to five when Mackillop MP Nick McBride resigned from the Liberal Party on 5 July 2023. The crossbench was reduced back to four when Mount Gambier MP Troy Bell resigned on 2 September 2025. As Bell's resignation occurred sufficiently close enough to the state election, a by-election was not held.

House of Assembly By-elections

Three by-elections were held during the parliament's four-year term.

A by-election in Bragg was held in July 2022 due to the resignation of Vickie Chapman and the seat was retained by the Liberals.

In March 2024 the Labor Party gained the seat of Dunstan, which had belonged to former Liberal Premier Steven Marshall. Labor's majority therefore increased by one, though when Leon Bignell was elected to the position of Speaker of the Assembly the following month, the party composition returned to its post-election state, as the Speaker is required to renounce party ties for the duration of their speakership.

Labor further increased their total seats when they won the November 2024 by-election in the seat of Black with a double-digit swing, when Steven Marshall's successor as Liberal Leader David Speirs resigned his seat.

The by-election results and the resignation of Nick McBride reduced the Liberals to 13 members in the lower house, their worst parliamentary position in nearly a century.

Labor brought their total to 29 seats when the Speaker Leon Bignell, who had to seat as an independent, rejoined the party on 5 September 2025. Labor's 29 seats surpassed the landside number they achieved at the 2006 state election.

Legislative Council changes

As of January 2026, there have been five alterations to the post-election party composition in the Legislative Council. SA-Best MLC Frank Pangallo left the party and moved to the crossbench to sit as an independent in December 2023. Liberal MLC Jing Lee became an independent and moved to the crossbench in January 2025, and Greens MLC Tammy Franks quit the party and sat as an independent in May 2025. Also in May 2025, Sarah Game resigned from the One Nation party, and in August 2025 Pangallo joined the Liberal Party.

Candidates

Registered parties

The following political parties are registered by the Electoral Commission of South Australia:

Name		Date of registration	House of Assembly seats	Legislative Council seats	2022 results
					HA	LC
	Labor	17 October 1985	29 / 47	9 / 22	40.0%	37.0%
	Liberal	17 October 1985	13 / 47	8 / 22	35.7%	34.4%
	Greens	13 February 1996	0 / 47	1 / 22	9.1%	9.0%
	SA-Best	4 July 2017	0 / 47	1 / 22	0.2%	1.0%
	Better Community	22 May 2025	0 / 47	1 / 22	Did not exist
	Fair Go	24 July 2025	0 / 47	1 / 22	Did not exist
	One Nation	16 September 2021	0 / 47	0 / 22	2.6%	4.2%
	Family First	13 January 2022	0 / 47	0 / 22	3.7%	3.1%
	Legalise Cannabis	27 January 2022	0 / 47	0 / 22	N/A	2.1%
	Animal Justice	24 November 2016	0 / 47	0 / 22	0.6%	1.5%
	Australian Family	11 November 2021	0 / 47	0 / 22	0.3%	0.9%
	Real Change	20 January 2022	0 / 47	0 / 22	N/A	0.9%
	Nationals	17 October 1985	0 / 47	0 / 22	0.5%	0.7%
	United Voice	27 March 2025	0 / 47	0 / 22	Did not exist
	For Unley	28 August 2025	0 / 47	0 / 22	Did not exist
	Libertarian	9 October 2025	0 / 47	0 / 22	Did not contest
	Socialists	23 October 2025	0 / 47	0 / 22	Did not exist
	Citizens	18 December 2025	0 / 47	0 / 22	Did not exist

Pendulum

The pendulum includes mid-term affiliation changes and by-election outcomes, in particular the Dunstan by-election and Black by-election which saw Labor take both seats away from the Liberals.

Italics indicates that the member is retiring or has resigned *.

Government seats (29) Marginal Dunstan Cressida O'Hanlon ALP 0.8 Gibson Sarah Andrews ALP 2.5 King Rhiannon Pearce ALP 2.9 Davenport Erin Thompson ALP 3.4 Waite Catherine Hutchesson ALP 4.0 Newland Olivia Savvas ALP 5.4 Elder Nadia Clancy ALP 5.6 Fairly safe Adelaide Lucy Hood ALP 6.2 Black Alex Dighton ALP 9.9 Safe Torrens Dana Wortley ALP 10.0 Lee Stephen Mullighan ALP 11.2 Wright Blair Boyer ALP 11.9 Florey Michael Brown ALP 12.8 Mawson Leon Bignell ALP 13.8 Enfield Andrea Michaels ALP 14.5 Badcoe Jayne Stinson ALP 14.8 Hurtle Vale Nat Cook ALP 15.5 Playford John Fulbrook ALP 16.3 Reynell Katrine Hildyard ALP 16.7 West Torrens Tom Koutsantonis ALP 18.8 Cheltenham Joe Szakacs ALP 19.1 Light Tony Piccolo ALP 19.5 Taylor Nick Champion ALP 19.7 Ramsay Zoe Bettison ALP 19.9 Very safe Kaurna Chris Picton ALP 20.1 Elizabeth Lee Odenwalder ALP 20.5 Giles Eddie Hughes ALP 21.0 Port Adelaide Susan Close ALP 21.8 Croydon Peter Malinauskas ALP 24.8

Opposition seats (13) Marginal Finniss David Basham LIB 0.7 v IND Morialta John Gardner LIB 1.4 Heysen Josh Teague LIB 1.9 Unley David Pisoni LIB 2.2 Flinders Sam Telfer LIB 3.0 v IND Hartley Vincent Tarzia LIB 3.6 Morphett Stephen Patterson LIB 4.5 Colton Matt Cowdrey LIB 4.8 Hammond Adrian Pederick LIB 5.1 Bragg Jack Batty LIB 5.6 Fairly safe Frome Penny Pratt LIB 8.1 Safe Schubert Ashton Hurn LIB 11.9 Chaffey Tim Whetstone LIB 17.2 Crossbench seats (5) Narungga Fraser Ellis IND 8.3 v LIB Mt Gambier Troy Bell * IND 13.1 v LIB Stuart Geoff Brock IND 17.1 v LIB MacKillop Nick McBride IND LIB 22.6 Kavel Dan Cregan IND 25.4 v LIB

Redistributed notional pendulum

Show Adelaide

Electoral districts of the South Australian House of Assembly for the 2022 state election