The 2024 Black state by-election was held on 16 November 2024 to elect the member for Black in the South Australian House of Assembly, following the resignation of Liberal Party MP David Speirs.
The Labor candidate Alex Dighton won the seat, with ABC election analyst Antony Green calling the result at 7:26pm ACDT on election night. It would be the second seat Labor has gained from the Liberals in a by-election in 2024, following their victory at the March by-election in Dunstan.
The by-election was triggered by the resignation on 5 October 2024 of sitting Liberal MP and former Opposition Leader David Speirs, after he was charged with two counts of supplying a controlled substance on 26 September 2024. Speirs maintained his innocence and announced he would fight the charges.
On 15 October 2024, Speirs formally resigned to the Speaker of the South Australian House of Assembly, with the election date held on Saturday, 16 November 2024.
Candidates who nominated for the by-election are (in ballot paper order):
On 8 October 2024, the Labor Party preselected Sacred Heart College senior leader Alex Dighton, who previously ran for the seat at the 2022 election.
Amanda Wilson, the mayor of Holdfast Bay, was preselected as the Liberal Party candidate. Wilson does not reside in the electorate, but said she has not ruled out moving to Black "in the longer term". Labor accused Wilson of being "parachuted" into the role.
It was revealed that Wilson had been a member of the Greens before joining the Liberal Party one week prior to her preselection. Wilson subsequently revealed that she had been approached by Peter Malinauskas to run for Labor in the seat of Gibson at the 2022 election, which he confirmed, as well as by Penny Wong to run as a Labor candidate for the federal seat of Boothby.
On 17 October 2024, The Greens announced that Marion councillor Sarah Luscombe would run as their candidate.
The Australian Family Party chose pilot Jonathan Parkin as their candidate for the by-election.
The Liberal Party claimed that Labor had introduced a âÂÂLettuce TaxâÂÂ, however the ECSA intervened, ordering the posts to be removed, deeming the claim was misleading, inaccurate and breached section 113 of the Electoral Act. Liberal Opposition leader Vincent Tarzia denounced the ECSA findings as âÂÂfake newsâÂÂ.
On 11 November 2024 it was revealed that the Liberals had spent $25,000 of public money on internal party polling by Sydney-based Freshwater Partners for the by-election. The Electoral Act requires registered political parties engaged in the public funding regime to abide by a strict spending cap of $94,482 in a by-election.
While the same day, Liberal figure Nicolle Flint accused Labor of sexism, after they released a corflute that stated Dighton was âÂÂworking withâ Malinauskas while Wilson was âÂÂworking underâ Tarzia. Flint called for Labor to remove the advertising.