Hamilton-Smith incensed his colleagues when he sensationally quit the party in 2014 to join Premier Jay Weatherill’s frontbench, but now he has landed what could prove an even more damaging blow.

He has told the Electoral Districts Boundaries Commission that the Liberals’ longstanding failure to snare a majority of seats was down to its “lack of a party platform, confusion over values, an absence of cogent and targeted policy development and flawed marginal seat campaigning”.

He has requested the opportunity to front the commission next month to expound his arguments which, if accepted, would unravel Liberal Party entreaties that the electoral map is fundamentally skewed against it.

“As a former leader of the SA parliamentary Liberal Party I have a detailed and well-informed understanding of the 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014 election campaigns,” Hamilton-Smith writes in a submission published by the commission overnight.

“In my opinion, the SA Liberal Party has won the two-party preferred vote whilst losing the majority of seats through failings in their election campaigning, principally: the lack of a party platform, confusion over party values, an absence of cogent and targeted policy development and flawed marginal seat campaigning.”

He points out that the party has “subsequently criticised the Commission for [its] failure to be able to form Government”, an allusion to his long-standing nemesis Isobel Redmond’s parliamentary attack on former electoral commissioner Kay Mousley.

“I believe it would be helpful for the Commission to have a better understanding of why, in my opinion, the SA Liberal Party has consistently misdirected their election efforts,” he writes, suggesting he has more to say in his oral submission.

Hamilton-Smith also says he wants to detail “the role of independent MPs in our democracy”, adding: “This will include an explanation of why over a period of time many conservatives have resigned from the SA Liberal Party to run or serve as independents.”

“This reflects the history of division within the party dating back to the 1970s, turbulent leadership decisions during the 1990s and confluent factional tensions,” he says.

The current minister for Defence Industries and Trade said the commission’s task of ensuring the party which wins the two-party vote holds government “as far as practicable” – as stipulated by the contentious Fairness Clause in the constitution act – is “almost impossible to achieve”.

He suggests the commission “may need to consider providing advice to the Government on the continued feasibility of these arrangements”.

He also argues it has “become increasingly difficult to foreshadow how people will vote at an election based on voting records”, and suggests the constitution may need to be amended to remove the fairness clause – and the corresponding need for regular redistributions – altogether.

If his submission is given weight by the review, it will be a major blow to his former party, which has peppered the commission with submissions from head office, sitting MP Mitch Williams and one-time Liberal Treasurer Stephen Baker, who InDaily reported in February was also a member of the 1990 parliamentary inquiry that initially recommended the insertion of the Fairness Clause into the constitution act.

It is a blight on democracy in this state which needs to be redressed

Baker’s submission continues the line of attack on past electoral commission reviews, saying: “It is a relatively simple matter to orient the electorate boundaries in SA to provide the probability of a fair outcome, but this has continually eluded the EDBC.”

“It is a blight on democracy in this state which needs to be redressed,” he continues.

Baker argues the notorious Tom Playford gerrymander “pales into insignificance compared with the four losses the ALP should have sustained over the same time frame, namely the last 27 years”.

“If the EDBC performed as required under the constitution, fair and equitable elections would prevail,” he concludes.

The party’s own submission, from state director Sascha Meldrum on behalf of the Liberal Party of SA, provides a marked contrast to the argument of Hamilton-Smith, reflected in an earlier submission from academic Clem Macintyre, that the fairness clause is impossible to achieve.

It insists the framing of the Act suggests the fairness objective must “take priority”, and “will be achieved if the particular group which attracted more than 50 per cent of the popular vote has won 24 or more of the seats in the House of Assembly”.

The party “respectfully submits” the commission has acted inconsistently with the fairness clause by applying faulty methodology to assigning nominal major party incumbency to seats held by independents for the purposes of redistributions.

The party is particularly concerned that seats such as Frome, Fisher (now held by Labor with a nine-vote margin) and Hamilton-Smith’s seat of Waite have been nominally ‘allocated’ to the Liberals, which it argues “distorts the fairness objective under the Act”.

“[Independent Frome MP] Mr Geoff Brock has acted in concert with the Labor Party to assist it in forming Government,” the submission argues.

The Liberals suggest independent-held seats could instead be excluded from consideration on the two-party pendulum.

The author of the pendulum model, Malcolm Mackerras, told InDaily last month he also devised the fairness clause around the time of the 1990 parliamentary review, but that he now regarded it as “silly”.

“Frankly, it’s been a failure – simple as that,” he said.

In three of the six state elections held since the clause was enshrined in law, the Liberals have won more than 50 per cent of the two-party vote – but failed to win government.

Labor’s submission to the EDBC insists the playing field for the 2014 election was “just about as level as it could possibly be”, with the difference between a party forming government or not “miniscule”.

“Indeed, the difference between the Liberal Party not forming Government and forming Government in its own right with a wide margin of seats was very narrow,” it says.

“The election was therefore not determined by the way the electoral districts boundaries were set out, but by other factors.”

The ALP insists any boundary changes prior to 2018 therefore should be “minimal”.

There was also a submission from the City of Salisbury asking that Mike Rann’s former seat of Ramsay – now held by Zoe Bettison – be renamed in honour of former state MP John Harvey and Jack Snelling’s seat of Playford be renamed in honour of Edith Baynes, the council’s first female administrative employee.

That will be measured against the ALP’s own submission, which wants Playford renamed “Ingle Farm”, while Labor also wants Little Para to be changed to “Elizabeth”.