Light is a single-member electoral district for the South Australian House of Assembly. Light is named after Colonel William Light (1786 – 1839), who was the first Surveyor-General of South Australia. The electorate was created in 1857, abolished at the 1902 election and recreated at the 1938 election. It is based on the township of Gawler, and stretches southwards into the outer northern metropolitan suburbs of Adelaide in the City of Playford. Although Adelaide's northern suburbs have spilled into Gawler, Light has traditionally been counted as a non-metropolitan seat.

Light consists of the suburbs of Buchfelde, Evanston Gardens, Evanston Park, Evanston South, Gawler, Gawler East, Gawler South, Gawler West, Hewett, Hillier, Kudla, Munno Para, Munno Para Downs, Munno Para West, Reid, and Willaston.

History The electorate was held by the Liberal Party and its predecessor, the Liberal and Country League, for all but one term from its re-creation in 1938 until 2006. For most of that time, it was a fairly safe to safe LCL/Liberal seat.

The electorate's first member in its current incarnation as a single-member seat was Premier and LCL founder Richard Layton Butler, who held the electorate for a few months in 1938 before making an unsuccessful attempt to transfer to federal politics. Other particularly notable members include Bruce Eastick, leader of the LCL/Liberals from 1972 to 1975 and Speaker of the South Australian House of Assembly during the Tonkin government who held the seat for 23 years until his retirement in 1993.

A redistribution prior to the 2002 election pushed Light further into the outer northern Adelaide suburbs, paring back the margin from a fairly safe 6.3 percent to an extremely marginal 1.1 percent. At the 2002 election, Liberal incumbent Malcolm Buckby defeated Labor's Annette Hurley, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, who attempted to change seat from Napier, by picking up a small swing in his favour and retained the electorate even as the Liberals lost government.

In 2006 Tony Piccolo became the second Labor member to win the electorate when he defeated the incumbent of 13 years Malcolm Buckby, and the first Labor member for the electorate in 62 years. At the 2010 election he increased his margin against the statewide trend and decades of voting patterns in the seat, and became the first Labor member to be re-elected to Light. His victory was one of two that allowed Labor to hold onto a narrow majority despite losing the two-party vote.

A redistribution prior to the 2014 election reduced Labor's margin significantly from 5.3 percent to 2.8 percent, but Labor again retained the electorate with an unchanged margin. After a redistribution slightly increased the Labor margin to 5.4 percent, Piccolo retained the seat in 2018 with a healthy swing of almost six percent, enough to make Light a fairly safe Labor seat (and just on the edge of being safe). This came even as Labor lost government, marking only the second time that the conservatives won government without holding Light.

Members

Two members (1857–1875)Member Party TermMember Party Term J. T. Bagot 1857–1865  Carrington Smedley 1857–1857  William Maturin 1858–1858  David Shannon 1858–1860  Francis Dutton 1860–1862  John Rowe 1862–1862  Francis Dutton 1862–1865  P. B. Coglin 1865–1868  John Rounsevell 1865–1868  John Hart Sr. 1868–1870  William Lewis 1868–1870  Edward Hamilton 1870–1871  James Pearce 1870–1875  James White 1871–1871  Mountifort Conner 1871–1873  R. I. Stow 1873–1875

Three members (1875–1884)Member Party TermMember Party TermMember Party Term James White1875–1881  David Nock 1875–1878  Jenkin Coles 1875–1878 James Shannon1878–1881  F. S. Carroll 1878–1878  David Moody 1878–1881  Jenkin Coles 1881–1884  H. V. Moyle 1881–1884  Robert Dixson 1881–1884

Two members (1884–1902)Member Party TermMember Party Term Jenkin Coles1884–1891  David Moody 1884–1887  Paddy Glynn 1887–1890 J. W. White 1890–1891  Defence League 1891–1896  Defence League 1891–1896 1896–1902  David Moody 1896–1899  F. W. Paech 1899–1902

Single-member (1938–present)Member Party Term  Richard Layton Butler Liberal and Country 1938–1938  Herbert Michael Liberal and Country 1939–1941  Sydney McHugh Labor 1941–1944  Herbert Michael Liberal and Country 1944–1956  George Hambour Liberal and Country 1956–1960  Leslie Nicholson Liberal and Country 1960–1962  John Freebairn Liberal and Country 1962–1970  Bruce Eastick Liberal and Country 1970–1974  Liberal 1974–1993  Malcolm Buckby Liberal 1993–2006  Tony Piccolo Labor 2006–2026  James Agness Labor 2026–present

Election results

Notes

References ECSA profile for Light: 2018 ABC profile for Light: 2018 Poll Bludger profile for Light: 2018