28/03/2024
🥁🥁🥁 Drumroll please…
All provisional results for Local First Nations Voice positions in the 2024 SA First Nations Voice Election are now in.
Those results can be found at https://www.savoiceelection.sa.gov.au/voting/results, or scroll further down for a summary of the 46 successful candidates from 113 across six regions. Final results are expected on Tuesday 2 April 2024.
Each of the six regional Local Nations Voices will choose two representatives to make up a State First Nations Voice.
Initiated as part of state-based implementation of the historic Uluru Statement from the Heart, the representative body is intended to be ‘a direct and independent line of communication for First Nations to SA’s Parliament and the government’.
Thanks for stepping forward for community, mob. From little things, big things grow.
ELECTION SNAPSHOT
According to the Electoral Commission SA website, a total of 2619 votes (2583 formal votes and 36 informal) were cast across the six regions. That total is about 11.7% of an estimated 22,400 First Nations people living in SA and of voting age (out of a total 43,000 people representing 2.4% of SA’s overall population).
By comparison:
• SA voter turnout in elections for the former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) was reported to be 2190 in 1990, 2335 in 1993, 2412 in 1996, and 2719 in 1999
• Voter turnout in SA local government area (LGA, i.e. local council) elections sits at about 33%
Like local council elections in SA, voting in the SA First Nations Voice Election was not compulsory. Only Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 18 years and above were eligible to vote. Region 1 – Central is the most populous SA Voice region, with the Playford, Salisbury, Onkaringa, Port Adelaide/Enfield, and Charles Sturt LGAs combined accounting for 38.5% of the SA First Nations population. The APY Lands LGA accounts for 4.8%, whilst Port Augusta LGA accounts for 6.6%.
According to the Australian Electoral Commission, the enrolment rate for SA’s First Nations population at 30 June 2023 was 92.7% (ahead of WA and NT, and up from 82.0% six months earlier). The enrolment rate likely changed by the time of the SA First Nations Voice Election, which took place on 16 March 2024 – five months after the federal referendum for a national Voice to be enshrined in the Australian Constitution.
PROVISIONAL RESULTS BY REGION
Region 1 – Central
1145 votes were cast – 1130 formal votes and 15 informal
After distribution of preferences and pending any recounts, 11 members have been elected:
Male candidates: Moogy Sumner; Douglas Clinch; Robert Leidig; Tony Minniecon; and Scott Wilson
Female candidates: Susan Dixon; April Lawrie; Tahlia Wanganeen; Deb Moyle; and Rosalind Coleman
The candidate of any gender: Cheryl Axleby
Region 2 – Far North
305 votes were cast – 301 formal votes and 4 informal
After distribution of preferences and pending any recounts, 7 members have been elected:
• Male candidates: Mark Campbell; Johnathon Lyons; and Christopher Dodd
• Female candidates: Melissa Thompson; Dharma Ducasse-Singer; and Dawn Brown
• The candidate of any gender: Donald Fraser
Region 3 – Flinders and Upper North
380 votes were cast – 378 formal votes and 2 informal
After distribution of preferences and pending any recounts, 7 members have been elected:
• Male candidates: Charles Jackson; Rob Singleton; and Ralph Coulthard
• Female candidates: Lavene Ngatokorua; Kerri Coulthard; and Candance Champion
• The candidate of any gender: TJ Thomas
Region 4 – Riverland and South East
289 votes were cast, 285 formal votes and 4 informal
After distribution of preferences and pending any recounts, 7 members have been elected:
• Male candidates: Rob Wright; Tim Hartman; and Darryle Barnes
• Female candidates: Danni Smith; Eunice Aston; and Sheryl Giles
• The candidate of any gender: Lisa Rigney
Region 5 – West and West Coast
368 votes were cast – 360 formal votes and 8 informal
After distribution of preferences and pending any recounts, 7 members have been elected:
• Male candidates: Jack Johncock; Duane Edwards; and Leeroy Bilney
• Female candidates: Lorraine Haseldine; Cecilia Cox; and Rebecca Miller
• The candidate of any gender: Keenan Smith
Region 6 – Yorke and Mid-North
132 votes were cast – 129 formal votes and 3 informal
After distribution of preferences and pending any recounts, 7 members have been elected:
• Male candidates: Raymond Wanganeen; Doug Milera; and Quentin Agius
• Female candidates: Joy Makepeace; Kaylene O’Loughlin; and Denise Wanganeen
• The candidate of any gender: Eddie Newchurch
(Image – slightly cropped – courtesy the Electoral Commission of SA website)
