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Xenophon claims underdog status in Boothby

Sep 04, 2015
Andrew Southcott, left, with fellow MP and Speaker of the House, Tony Smith (right).

Andrew Southcott, left, with fellow MP and Speaker of the House, Tony Smith (right).

UPDATED: South Australian Senator Nick Xenophon says he is “110 per cent certain” to run a candidate in the southern suburbs seat of Boothby, which longtime Liberal incumbent Andrew Southcott is vacating at the looming federal election.

Southcott, who last month lost out in a bid to become Speaker, announced today he will not recontest the seat, a move Xenophon agrees gives his as yet unannounced candidate an advantage.

“You’d presume that, but I think it will be a very tough campaign,” he said.

“There’s a genuine mood in the electorate for change, a change in  approach.”

The Nick Xenophon Team’s Senate vote at the 2013 election was highest in Boothby, where it outpolled the Liberals.

Nonetheless, Xenophon insists his party’s candidate is “definitely the underdog” in the contest. He intends to run candidates in at least eight of the 11 lower house seats in SA, with his former running mate Stirling Griff set to stand for the Senate. He says he is adhering to a “process” of selecting candidates, who “won’t be determined until October or November at the latest”.

Asked if he was certain Boothby would be a seat in his sights, he said: “I’m not 100 per cent certain, I’m 110 per cent certain.”

He described Southcott, who will seek to renew his medical career after serving his electorate since 1996, as a “good bloke having to defend some really lousy policies of the Coalition”, and cited ongoing uncertainty over the Future Submarines contract as a key local issue.

“I think voters in Boothby want a clear choice from the political centre that is sensible, pragmatic and about supporting local jobs,” said Xenophon.

Southcott lost out in a party room ballot last month to become Speaker following the resignation of Bronwyn Bishop – who quit after it was revealed she used a taxpayer-funded helicopter to attend a Liberal Party fundraiser.

He thanked residents of his electorate for their support in seven elections, telling ABC radio it was “time we had a female candidate in a seat like Boothby”.

The MP told News Corp he had neither been pushed aside nor was leaving because the federal Coalition government was consistently trailing in the polls.

The 47-year-old also said his decision was not linked to losing his bid for the speakership.

“This is entirely my own decision, I think this is the opportunity to have someone new, someone fresh,” he said, declining to nominate a preferred successor.

“Everyone enters politics with the goal of achieving as much as they possibly can, of serving in as high a position as they can. That hasn’t happened. It’s not something I dwell on.”

Southcott gathered 57 per cent of the two-party preferred vote in 2013, restoring the seat to being a safe Liberal one.

 

– with AAP

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