Boothby will have its first female MP in Liberal candidate Nicolle Flint
IT took more than a century but the southern suburbs seat of Boothby will have its first female MP in Liberal candidate Nicolle Flint.
IT took more than a century but the southern suburbs seat of Boothby will have its first female MP in Liberal candidate Nicolle Flint.
Ms Flint, 37, also will be the first South Australian female Liberal MP in almost a decade, since the retirement of Makin MP Trish Draper at the 2007 election.
Ms Flint was on track for victory despite a two party preferred swing against the Liberals of 3.6 per cent.
She received 41 per cent of first preference votes and was projected to win with a two party preferred vote of 53.4 per cent.
Dark horse NXT candidate Karen Hockley polled strongly with 20 per cent of first preference votes, behind Labor’s Mark Ward on 25 per cent and the Greens Jane Bange with 8 per cent.
Ms Flint declined to claim victory last night while thanking jubilant supporters packing into the large function room at the Tonsley Hotel.
“I am cautiously optimistic but we will wait a bit longer — we have held our key booths,” she said.
The Liberals have held Boothby since 1949, and retiring MP Andrew Southcott was the member for 20 years.
Transport was a key issue in the 130sq km electorate and Liberal promises included $43 million to extend the Tonsley rail line to Flinders Medical Centre — matched by Labor — and $40 million for the Oaklands Crossing.
Labor pledged $44 million to floodproof the Brownhill and Keswick creek catchment, while the ALP’s promise of $500 million towards the AdeLINK tram network would see it eventually extend to Belair Rd in Torrens Park.
Boothby was contested by eight candidates: Ms Flint, Labor’s Mr Ward, the NXT’s Ms Hockley, the Greens’ Jane Bange, Family First’s Gary Wheatcroft, Animal Justice Party’s Evelyn Carroll and independents Jamie Armfield and Robert de Jonge.
Ms Hockley, a Mitcham councillor, said several days of counting would be needed to distribute preferences.
“We might be counting preferences for days,” Ms Hockley said. “I hope we are because that means it would be in my favour.”
Volunteers at booths said there seemed to be support for minor parties.
“A lot of people aren’t taking how-to-vote cards but that’s for both parties,” Liberal volunteer Ralph Walker said at Colonel Light Gardens. “That’s usual in this booth — there’s a lot of Greens and Xenophon.”
Labor’s Mark Ward, a teacher and former deputy mayor of Mitcham, was not daunted by the Liberal margin going into the election, having achieved a 6 per cent swing when he ran for the state seat of Davenport last year.
“We’ve had a good campaign,” he said. “I’ve extensively door knocked and phone called.”
Ms Flint voted at Colonel Light Gardens Primary School, where her great-grandmother and grandmother were teachers.
“It’s been positive but it’s up to the voters,” Ms Flint said.
“We have worked so hard to tell the people of Boothby about jobs and growth and getting the state’s economy back on track.”
Ms Flint grew up in the Southeast, graduated from Flinders University and now lives at Mitcham.
She worked as a solicitor and adviser at the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, was a policy adviser to Malcolm Turnbull and former Liberal leader Brendan Nelson, and has written columns for The Advertiser.
Originally published as Boothby will have its first female MP in Liberal candidate Nicolle Flint