Rachel Sanderson is an Australian politician who represented the seat of

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

in the

South Australian House of Assembly The House of Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. The other is the South Australian Legislative Council, Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House, Adelaide, Parliament House in the st ...

for the South Australian Division of the Liberal Party of Australia from the 2010 election to the 2022 election. Sanderson served as the minister for Child Protection in the Marshall Ministry.

Background and early career

Sanderson's family moved from Melbourne to Adelaide in 1983, settling in Prospect, an inner northern suburb of Adelaide. Sanderson attended

St Peter's Collegiate Girls' School St Peter's Girls' School (commonly known as Saints Girls) is an independent Anglican early learning, primary and secondary day school for girls located in the Adelaide suburb of Stonyfell, in South Australia, Australia. Founded in 1894 and or ...

. Sanderson graduated from the

University of South Australia The University of South Australia (UniSA) is a public research university in the Australian state of South Australia. It is a founding member of the Australian Technology Network of universities, and is the largest university in South Australi ...

with a Bachelor of Arts in Accountancy. She worked for a chartered accountant, a finishing school and then a modelling agency as a financial manager. In 1994 Sanderson established a modelling agency and training school, Rachel's Model Management. Sanderson sold her management agency in April 2013, citing her full-time occupation as being a member of parliament.

Political career

Sanderson was elected to the

seat of

at the 2010 state election, receiving a 14.5-point

two-party A two-party system is a political party system in which two major political parties consistently dominate the political landscape. At any point in time, one of the two parties typically holds a majority in the legislature and is usually referr ...

swing on a margin of 4.2 points against the

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the la ...

incumbent,

Jane Lomax-Smith Jane Diane Lomax-Smith, AM (born 19 June 1950, in the United Kingdom) is an Australian politician and histopathologist who has been the Lord Mayor of the City of Adelaide since 14 November 2022. She was previously in local government for nine ...

. At the 2014 state election she suffered a 1.8-point two-party swing against her finishing with a reduced margin of 2.4 points against the Labor candidate, David O'Loughlin.

2016 redistribution campaign

Upon the release of the 2016 draft electoral redistribution, Sanderson organised the mass distribution of a

pro forma The term ''pro forma'' (Latin for "as a matter of form" or "for the sake of form") is most often used to describe a practice or document that is provided as a courtesy or satisfies minimum requirements, conforms to a norm or doctrine, tends to ...

document in the two inner metropolitan suburbs of Walkerville and Gilberton, which aimed for residents to use the pro forma document to submit their objection to the commission in support of Sanderson's campaign to keep the two suburbs in her seat of Adelaide, which in the draft would have been transferred to neighbouring Torrens. Sanderson's position however was at odds with her own party's submission which in fact agreed with the commission that Walkerville should be transferred to Torrens. Under the commission's draft proposal, the Liberal margin in Adelaide would have been reduced from 2.4 percent to 0.6 percent, but would have also resulted in the Labor margin in Torrens reduced from 3.5 percent to 1.1 percent. Of a record 130 total submissions received in response to the draft redistribution, about 100 (over three quarters of all submissions) were from Walkerville and Gilberton. As a result, the commission reversed the draft decision in the final publication. The 2016 electoral redistribution added the rest of Collinswood to the seat, and moved the seat's northern boundary from

Regency Road Regency Road (and its eastern section as Muller Road) is a main east-west road forming a continuous connection between the inner northern suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia. Located approximately north of the city centre, Regency Road carries ...

to several blocks south of Regency Road, losing a significant amount of northern Prospect. This increased the Liberal margin from 2.4 percent to an estimated 3.0 percent.

2018 election

Despite suffering a further −2.0 percent two-party swing, Sanderson narrowly held onto Adelaide at the 2018 election on a marginal 51.0 percent two-party vote. With the Liberals winning government after 16 years in opposition, Sanderson sat in the Liberals' second most marginal seat. Sanderson was appointed as Minister for Child Protection on 22 March 2018.

2022 election

Sanderson was defeated at the 2022 election by Labor's Lucy Hood.

References

External links

Official website: rachelsanderson.com.auParliament profile: parliament.sa.gov.auParty profile: strongplan.com.au
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanderson, Rachel Members of the South Australian House of Assembly Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of South Australia Living people 21st-century Australian politicians Women members of the South Australian House of Assembly Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Australian women politicians