When longtime Labor power broker Clyde Cameron announced his retirement ahead of the 1980 federal election, Scott was elected his successor in the north Adelaide seat of Hindmarsh.
As a result, Scott's margins were nowhere near as large as the ones Cameron had tallied over the previous 31 years.
A redistribution ahead of the 1993 federal election merged much of the abolished seat of Hawker, based on Glenelg and Holdfast Bay, into Hindmarsh.
Additionally, the writs were dropped at a bad time for the South Australian state Labor government, which was hobbled by a massive debt load brought on by the collapse of the State Bank of South Australia.
This article about an Australian Labor Party member of the House of Representatives is a stub.