Orwellian preference moves

If there was any doubt this was an extraordinary campaign (which there wasn’t) Labor made another bit of history on the weekend, opting to go into a campaign with a commitment to preference against SA Best and the Liberals equally.

The Orwellian question to be asked is: are some preference tickets more equal than others?

The answer to which will be known in coming days, once all candidates have nominated and both major parties formally submit their preference tickets to the electoral commission.

Over the weekend the ALP moved to neutralise some potential bad publicity ahead of the campaign proper, announcing it would run a split preference ticket in Liberal-held Hartley, where Nick Xenophon is running to enter state parliament’s lower house.

That means the party will hand out double-sided How To Vote cards giving its supporters the option to place Xenophon above the Libs’ Vincent Tarzia, or vice versa. Likewise, it will submit a split ticket to the electoral commission.

(In SA, voters must number every box in the Lower House, but there is a savings provision to allow voters who number just one box to still have their ballot paper allowed. As long as the candidate for whom they vote has lodged a preference ticket with the electoral commission, the preferences are still allocated accordingly.)

Of more interest, though, Labor has announced it will preference the Libs ahead of SA Best in half the remaining lower house seats – 23 out of 46.

They argue this is about “fairness”, treating both their major competitors equally, in line with their campaign mantra that Xenophon is a Liberal in SA Best clothing.

The key point in all of this is that Labor’s preference flows don’t matter a whit unless they don’t finish in the top two of any given seat. At the last election, there were only four seats to which that applied, Fisher, Frome, Mount Gambier and Heysen – and they placed the Liberals last in each one. Behind the right-wing Family First (now the Australian Conservatives) – which is a salient point for anyone buying this line about preferences being dictated by ideology.

(True, Labor has a standing commitment to put One Nation last on preference tickets, but given Pauline Hanson’s party didn’t register to run in the SA election, that’s neither here nor there.)

In this election, however, there is a swag of seats in which Labor is unlikely to finish among the top two candidates. And it is those seats in which its preferences – and where they flow – become vital.

Labor and Liberal are likely to be analysing every bit of information they can get their hands on about each of Xenophon’s candidates; the ones they reckon might side with their political opponents in the likely event of a hung parliament are odds-on to be the ones being bumped down the ticket.

Is the”gang-up” on?

The other option looming large is the political “gang-up” recently spruiked by Labor veteran Peter Duncan. The ALP may claim to be treating SA Best and the Libs with equal disdain, but the Liberals (we imagine) will be contesting every seat, while SA Best have thus far announced 35 candidates. So if Labor preferences against SA Best in 23 seats, that represents around two-thirds of their candidates who will be placed below the Liberals.

Moreover, there is every chance the Liberals will likewise preference half-and-half against Labor and Xenophon – with a quid pro quo deal with the ALP that will allow each major party to sandbag their heartland seats that are under fire from SA Best.

An Advertiser Galaxy poll today suggested the Liberals are leading on primaries in both Labor-held Lee and Liberal-held Morialta, with the former a 50-50 proposition after preferences.

The latter is an intriguing prospect, with the Libs holding sway against SA Best 52-48 two-party preferred, but with a fight on between Labor and SA Best about who finishes in third place, with just four per cent separating SA Best (25 per cent) and the ALP (21). If nothing else, it suggests Xenophon’s influence is waning since the December Newspoll that put him a mile ahead of both major parties statewide.

Morialta would have been seen as one of his party’s ‘gimme’ seats, and if he can’t snatch it, it raises serious questions about whether his own gambit in neighbouring Hartley is also doomed to fail.

So a preference deal that sees Labor, for example, putting SA Best’s James Sadler below rising Liberal star John Gardner in Morialta could be a near-fatal blow for Xenophon.

And of course, in return, the Libs could protect Labor in one of their own heartland seats, such as Taylor, Elizabeth, Enfield or Playford.

Like everything in this election, the permutations are endless and intriguing.

But you can be sure they’ve all been contemplated.

It’s a pudding party

Premier Jay Weatherill launched his campaign yesterday with a big, fat $2 billion promise at the heart of it.

With that money, he says Labor will get rid of seven level crossings in suburban Adelaide. He also restated Labor’s longstanding promise to rebuild the suburban tram network, and plough money into a deepwater port for Spencer Gulf, which the Government has talked about for years.

While $2 billion sounds like a lot of dough to you and me, Weatherill was perfectly relaxed today, bringing Norman Lindsay’s spindly-legged “Magic Pudding” to mind, with its amazing ability to replenish itself after being chomped into.

The Premier says the money will simply be there because…. it’s really not that much, really.

“We’ve been spending in the order of a minimum of about $1.5 billion each year on infrastructure, so across the four years an extra $2 billion is affordable and we’re about to do that because of sound budgetary management,” he told FIVEaa. “You’ll see how we pay for that as we account for all our promises later in the campaign.”

Some might argue that this “sound budgetary management” has more to do with selling stuff off than anything more sophisticated but, no doubt, all will be revealed suitably late in the campaign.

The Premier also provided a few more details about the promises, saying that a new “Level Crossing Removal Authority” will snaffle $1.33 billion of the promised new expenditure, coupled with a $5 million fund to help businesses affected by the roadworks connected to this commitment and the extension of the light rail network.

That doesn’t leave much money left for trams or the deep sea port.

Meanwhile, Liberal leader Steven Marshall says his Government will deliver a deep sea port much more quickly than Labor.

That promise, however, seems a little premature as Marshall will outsource advice on such matters to a new body called Infrastructure SA who will recommend what happens and in what order of priority.

When pushed on his timeline on ABC radio today, Marshall said: “Herein lies the problem. Making these promises in the lead up to an election without doing the work doesn’t even bear looking at. And that’s what Labor have done, time and time again.”

All clear?

The Liberals also promised today to spend $2.5 million to complete a detailed business case for all the incomplete section of the North-South corridor by the end of the year.

That work would then be submitted to Infrastructure Australia, with the hope of getting federal funding.

There is no doubt that the state would also have to pitch in but, again, it’s all gain, no pain in this campaign.

Marshall says the Liberals do not support tolls and “rule out tolls for financing any section of the North-South Corridor”.

Labor’s skate park promise falls flat

Adelaide’s skating community say they weren’t consulted about a Labor promise to fully fund a new $3 million skate park in the city’s west.

Skaters have been without a proper home in the city since 2015, when the former North Terrace skate park was demolished to make way for the University of South Australia’s Health Innovation Building.

The new park would be constructed in Narnungga/Park 25 on West Terrace.

SA Skate Space Association spokesperson Andy Walker said the skate community wasn’t convinced Labor would follow through with the promise.

“I think it’s all good and well that they say they will do it but they haven’t committed to a date,” he said.

“They didn’t contact me about the location… the last I heard they had a few spots in mind.”

Walker said the proposed site wasn’t ideal as it would be less accessible by public transport than the former North Terrace skate site.

Greens MLC Tammy Franks said it was “too little too late” from the Labor Party.

“It’s a shame that Jay Weatherill said five years ago that they would fund the new skate park and only now they’re promising funding,” she said.

– Reporting by Stephanie Richards, Tom Richardson and David Washington