Lib’s Dr Rachel Swift concedes as Labor’s Louise Miller-Frost ends 70-year Liberal hold on Boothby

Liberal candidate for Boothby Dr Rachel Swift has conceded the seat to Labor’s Louise Miller-Frost, marking an end to 70 years of Liberal representation in the seat.

The longtime Liberal bastion of Boothby has fallen to Labor in a vital win for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Liberal candidate, the highly-credentialed Dr Rachel Swift, conceded in a statement released on Monday night.

Dr Swift said while nearly 30 per cent of the vote remained to be counted, “on a two-party preferred basis, it is most likely that Labor has secured a majority of votes”.

She congratulated new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Dr Swift, a medical researcher, said she was disappointed that as a country, Australia has not put more scientists in parliament.

“I firmly believe our country is in greatest need of these skills in order to thrive now and into the future,” she said.

Dr Swift said it had been an honour to be the Boothby candidate over the past 12 months, and called for the community to unite around Ms Miller-Frost in “challenging times”.

Liberal candidate for Boothby, Dr Rachel Swift voting in Mitcham on Saturday. Picture: Matt Loxton

Signed and sealed

Boothby winner Louise Miller-Frost thanked her “tireless” campaign team on Sunday after the first batch of postal votes counted returned a “better than expected” result and sealed the historic win for Labor.

Ms Miller-Frost becomes the first Labor candidate to win the southern suburban Adelaide seat since 1946.

“We can be confident we will win Boothby – for the first time in more than seven decades,” she said on Sunday evening.

“We have a strong lead in counting, and the first postal votes have returned a better than expected result.

“As soon as the result is confirmed, the real work begins, and I am ready.”

Ms Miller-Frost thanked her “hardworking and amazing” volunteers.

ALP Boothby Candidate Louise Miller-Frost celebrating at Kenilworth Football Club with Premier Peter Malinauskas on May 21. Picture: Simon Cross

The former charity boss had 53.3 per cent of two party-preferred votes at 5.30pm.

Premier Peter Malinauskas celebrated the win on Sunday morning.

“It looks as though for the first time since 1946, Labor has won the seat of Boothby,” he said.

“That’s a very significant showing and one that I think speaks to the culture of South Australian Labor, where regardless of factional affiliations we get behind one another.”

The key result will help Mr Albanese form government.

Liberal candidate Rachel Swift secured the highest number of primary votes, but Ms Miller-Frost should be catapulted to victory off the back of preferences from the Greens and Climate 200-backed independent Jo Dyer.

Greens candidate Jeremy Carter achieved a 3.5 per cent swing towards his party, revealing growing concerns about the climate in the sprawling southern Adelaide electorate. About 70 per cent of the vote had been counted by Sunday morning.

Addressing supporters gathered at the Kenilworth Football Club at St Mary’s on election night, Ms Miller-Frost said “it’s looking very positive”.

“There are still some preferences to be counted but I’m feeling really very hopeful,” she said.

“This is really a grassroots campaign, this is a campaign about us delivering for the people of Boothby.”

Ms Miller-Frost, who arrived at the event just after 9pm with her husband and 22-year-old triplet sons, was introduced by Premier Peter Malinauskas.

Liberal candidate for Boothby, Dr Rachel Swift arriving to vote in Mitcham. Picture: Matt Loxton

Speaking with more confidence, he said success in Boothby had been elusive for Labor.

“Since the late 1940s, Boothby has felt like a mirage in the desert for South Australian Labor,” he said.

“Always there but we can’t quite make it. But tonight might be the night that we get to drink the water.”

Both major parties suffered a swing against them in the primary vote count, with Greens candidate Jeremy Carter polling 10,500 first preference votes, and independent Jo Dyer polling 4600.

The seat, which has been in Liberal hands since 1949, had been held by retiring MP Nicolle Flint on a margin of 1.4 per cent.

At the Liberal event, held at the Morphett Arms Hotel at Glengowrie, Dr Swift stayed hidden away for much of the night but addressed supporters just before 10pm.

ALP Boothby Candidate Louise Miller-Frost celebrating at Kenilworth Football Club. Picture: Simon Cross

“We are still in the game,” she said. “We’ve still got more than 20,000 postal votes to count and we are not conceding tonight.”

Conceding before polls had closed, Ms Dyer said she doubted she would be the local MP and instead put her support behind Ms Miller-Frost.

“I’d obviously be happier if I was going to be the incoming member for Boothby but I do detect in the electorate that there is a mood for change,” she said on election night.

Labor sources told The Sunday Mail voter contacts in Boothby – doorknocking and candidate meetings with voters – had doubled since the 2019 election. Fundraising had also doubled for its Boothby campaign, which was managed by Senator Penny Wong’s chief-of-staff, Tom Mooney.