The seat's first member, Roger Vale, transferred here after his former electorate of Stuart was made somewhat less friendly for the CLP.

Braham, who served as Speaker and later a cabinet minister, was stripped of her CLP preselection before the 2001 election amid accusations of branch-stacking.

Although opinion polls and commentators had already universally written off the CLP government both before and during the 2016 election campaign, there was no suggestion that Giles was in any danger in his own seat.

He sat on a seemingly insurmountable margin of 19.6 percent, and Labor had never come close to winning the seat.

However, in a result not foreseen by any commentators, let alone either party, Labor challenger Dale Wakefield narrowly led Giles on election night.