By election SA - Labor wins Fisher first time in 30 yrs

Another poll another Lieberal debacle. This time a real poll in the vacated seat of Fisher, South Australia. You know, where the Lieberals wouldn't trust the shipyards there to build a canoe, after the Lieberals said they'd give the submarine contracts to them before the election.

Is it just me or is there a change in the air?

Labor will have the numbers to govern in its own right in South Australia because of a surprise by-election win. 

The distribution of preferences in a closely fought poll in the southern Adelaide electorate of Fisher has seen Labor candidate Nat Cook triumph. 

The Liberals had been widely expected to snare Fisher but scrutineers said Ms Cook would take the seat by 23 votes over Liberal candidate Heidi Harris. 

Ms Cook said she was very happy to be heading into Parliament. 

"I think we'd been written off only a couple of weeks out," she said of the campaign. 

"[But out in the electorate] we knew our numbers were stacking up better than everyone was saying they were, so I'm just really happy that my gut feeling was right." 

Long-serving Bob Such had been the independent MP in Fisher until he died from a brain tumour last October. 

He had won four elections as an independent, having quit the Liberal Party in 2000. 

The ALP last held the southern Adelaide seat about three decades ago. more