Brock is one of four independents considered a serious prospect of victory on March 17 – in addition to the threat posed to the major party duopoly by Nick Xenophon’s SA Best.

Xenophon is not running a candidate in Brock’s Port Pirie-based seat of Frome – although, as InDaily has revealed, not for want of trying to find a candidate – making Brock’s re-election more likely with ALP preferences.

I’m happy to talk to any of the three major parties regarding moving forward after the election

Of the remaining three sitting independents – each of whom quit their respective parties in the past year – former Liberal Troy Bell is favoured to retain Mount Gambier despite facing charges of dishonest dealing, while his former colleague Duncan McFetridge is battling a crowded field in an unpredictable Morphett contest. In Florey, former Labor maverick Frances Bedford could prevail against her former party; she today received the expected endorsement of Xenophon at a Modbury Hospital media conference, but dismissed questions about whether that made her a de facto SA Best candidate.

“Is Nick a de facto independent? What a stupid question,” she said, adding Labor “can’t rely on me to support them with anything that’s stupid” and pointing out she was closer to the Liberals on the future of Modbury Hospital than her former party.

Frances Bedford greets Nick Xenophon as he arrives for their press conference at Modbury Hospital. Photo: Tony Lewis / InDaily

Bell and McFetridge have both said they could support either major party to form government, although Labor has ruled out dealing with Bell and have already rejected his ‘non-negotiable’ policy commitment, a 10-year fracking moratorium in the south-east.

But despite having served for four years as Regional Development and Local Government Minister in Jay Weatherill’s cabinet, Brock today told InDaily: “I’m open to talk to all parties about what’s best for my electorate, and my support if it eventuates.”

“I’ve never been a member of any political party… my only position is to get the best for my electorate,” he said.

“I’m happy to talk to any of the three major parties regarding moving forward after the election – I’m not welded to any political party.”

Brock expects a hung parliament after March 17, saying: “I don’t think either [Liberal or Labor] party’s going to have enough seats to govern in their own right.”

“You don’t know where SA Best will finish up [so] the scenario could be, provided we get elected, there could be four or five true independents out there away from three major parties – because there are now three major parties.

“All I want to know is who has the best policies for my electorate first up… if someone came up with a good proposal I’d be silly not to consider it.”

Brock concedes he gets “labelled as Labor, because I supported a Labor Party” but argues “if I’d supported the Liberals I would have been tarnished as Liberal, most probably”.

“But I’m open to whoever.”

Brock said his goal in backing Labor after the 2014 poll was providing stability, particularly on the future of the Nyrstar smelter.

“When Bob Such got sick there was only one way to go to give us security to that $600 million [redevelopment] project, otherwise Nystar had to report to the European stock exchange and they might have closed the plant down – that’s how close it was.”

He said he secured a $291 million State Government guarantee for the project, as well as “$115 million in four years for my electorate through various grants” – although he insisted he had no ministerial oversight over any project connected to his Frome electorate.

This time round, Brock says his three priorities are providing employment opportunities, more funding for regional education and the health sector, as well as energy security.

“I believe in renewables in the right locations, but it’s got to have storage,” he said.

Brock said he was currently “putting a challenge” to all parties over Port Wakefield traffic congestion. The Liberals have already committed $12.1 million towards building a single lane road overpass at the intersection of the Augusta and Copper Coast highways, but Labor has claimed the Opposition has understated the cost of the project.

Asked if any party had yet provided a regional agenda he could endorse, he said: “Not at this stage, no.”

And he said no party had lobbied him for his vote ahead of the poll.

“Nobody has made contact with me, I’ve had no approaches… the Liberal Party haven’t approached me with anything,” he said.

But he insists the bad blood that has flowed since he threw his lot in with Labor would not preclude him working with Steven Marshall’s party.

“No, that’s one of the things – I don’t hold grudges,” he said.

“I’ve had people that have been abusive to me in the state [and] I’ve helped them on many occasions… I don’t look at those sorts of things, I look at the whole big picture as best I can.

“I try to keep everything separate… if they haven’t spoken to me, that’s fine – it’s up to them to make the approach.”

Perhaps helping his cause locally is a newly-released biography – penned by former Port Pirie Recorder editor Greg Mayfield, who ironically once sought a Liberal senate seat after the resignation of Mary Jo Fisher in 2012.

In it, political scientist Haydon Manning muses that Brock would find it “really difficult” to retain Frome as he is “tagged with the Government”.

“Independents who join cabinet are not doomed,” he said.

“The dilemma will be that the voters like you, but they don’t like the government and that overrides the like for you when they want to change the government.”

Manning has since issued a self-imposed ban on commentating on the election, as his wife Hazel Wainwright is running as SA Best’s candidate in Mawson.

Marshall would not be drawn into ruling a deal with Brock in or out today, telling InDaily in a statement that “the Liberal Party has an outstanding Liberal candidate for Frome, Kendall Jackson”.

“People living in Frome have been telling us they want a new government and Kendall will make a great Member of Parliament… I look forward to working with Kendall in government after the election,” he said.