Labor MP Blair Boyer angry over choice of new electorate office for seat of Wright

A NEWLY-elected Labor MP who has been using a motorhome as his electoral base, is furious he was not consulted before the new Marshall Government signed a four-year lease on a new office.

• Why Labor MP Blair Boyer was made to use a motorhome

A NEWLY-elected Labor MP who has been using a motorhome as his electorate office is furious he was not consulted before the Marshall government signed a four-year lease in Salisbury East.

Blair Boyer, 37, was forced out of his Golden Grove Village office soon after the March state election after new electoral boundaries shifted it 370m out of the northeastern Adelaide seat of Wright into the new neighbouring seat of King, won by former Tea Tree Gully councillor and new Liberal MP Paula Luethen.

Mr Boyer opted to use a borrowed motorhome and a temporary office at Virginia, 23km from Golden Grove, while Government officers looked for a new electorate office within Wright.

Treasurer Rob Lucas announced on Friday that an office had been found for Mr Boyer in the Manor Farm Shopping Centre on Northbri Ave, Salisbury East.

Mr Lucas said the 130sqm office was chosen for “its suitability, size, visibility, accessibility and value for taxpayers.”

“The Member for Wright, Mr Boyer, has expressed his desire to urgently move into an office in his seat and, after an extensive and thorough search, the Manor Farm Shopping Centre has proved the best location,” he said.

“It ticks all the boxes. Importantly the office is situated in the seat of Wright, it will be fit for purpose and it represents good value for money,” he said.

But Mr Boyer, who learnt of the new office’s location through the Northern Weekly, criticised the decision, saying residents of Wright deserved “a convenient, centrally-located electorate office”.

Labor MP Blair Boyer with the motor home he has been using as an electorate office. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt/AAP

He said the office at Salisbury was chosen to politically distance him from Ms Luethen and make it difficult for him to meet with his north-eastern constituents.

“Whilst I love Salisbury East, I wrote to Mr Lucas alerting him to the fact that for residents to travel via public transport to Manor Farm from Modbury Heights, Wynn Vale, Redwood Park or Surrey Downs — where the majority of the electorate live — it would take three buses and an hour and a half one-way,” he said.

“There are lots of questions still to be answered about how Rob Lucas has handled this matter.”

Mr Boyer said Mr Lucas and the Liberal Government “was not treating the residents of Wright with the respect they deserve.

“The fact that I learned about this decision from the media sums up the lack of respect Rob Lucas has shown the residents of Wright from day one,” he said.

“Mr Lucas has the audacity to talk about value to the taxpayer, yet he knows I could have moved months ago to vacant office space at Golden Grove Village, a public transport hub just 370 metres outside the seat.

“Instead, he made a political decision to send the Wright electorate office to Virginia.”

Mr Lucas said the former government did nothing to resolve the issue of the Wright electoral office when the electoral boundaries were redrawn.

“Let’s not forget Mr Boyer’s own party, while in Government, simply sat on their hands and did absolutely nothing for the past year, despite the former treasurer being warned they would have to find a new electorate office following the changed electoral boundaries.”

Mr Lucas said constituents having to use multiple bus trips to reach MPs’ offices was an issue for many other electorates.

The new office would be fitted with new airconditioning, internal bathrooms with disabled access and new floor coverings, he said.

A budget of $150,000 for the fit out, plus $36,000 for its annual lease, has been set aside.