Do Senator Nick Xenophon and his team trade in substance or spin?

SENATOR Nick Xenophon is SA’s most popular politician — and his band of NXT candidates are the wildcard in Saturday’s federal election. But does Mr X deliver results or spin? The Advertiser analyses his record.

• Nick Xenophon reveals balance of power wishlist
• Fears of ‘dirty preference deal’ by major parties to keep NXT out
• Former PM John Howard blasts Xenophon, predicts vote will fade
• How the election can hand Xenophon even more power

SENATOR Nick Xenophon is SA’s most popular politician — and his band of NXT candidates are the wildcard in Saturday’s federal election. But does Mr X deliver results or spin? The Advertiser analyses his record.

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Australian Made

Spin: The Nick Xenophon Team says Australians and government, in particular, should support Australian businesses and goods because of the hugely beneficial flow-on effects to the Australian economy.

Senator Xenophon campaigned strongly to save Holden’s Elizabeth plant and for Australian-made submarines. The Liberals say the NXT’s protectionist stance, particularly on free-trade deals, costs jobs and growth.

Substance: Senator Xenophon, like many Australians, does not drive an Australian-made car. The most recent statement of Senators’ interests, which he submitted in August, 2014, shows he drives a 2006 Toyota Yaris.

Pressure exerted upon the Liberals, in particular, by Senator Xenophon and most other SA politicians meant the Coalition risked an enormous electoral backlash if the 12 submarines were not built in Adelaide.

Nick Xenophon with key auto component manufacturers at Precision Automotive following the Holden plant closure announcement.

Ultimately, Liberals spearheaded by Sturt MP Christopher Pyne swayed the April Cabinet decision to build 12 submarines in SA. NXT will not win government and, therefore, has little influence over existing free-trade deals.

No party hacks

Spin: Both Senator Xenophon and NXT campaign director and Senate candidate Stirling Griff have said they did not want or have candidates who were party hacks or members.

Substance: NXT Barker candidate James Stacey was a Nationals Senate candidate in the 2013 federal election. Makin candidate Craig Bossie stood for the Australian Democrats in Boothby at the 2007 federal election.

Mayo candidate Rebekha Sharkie worked as a Liberal staffer and was a party member. A dated ALP international supporters’ website lists Tim Storer as the Shanghai contact. Tim Storer, who has worked in Asian cities including Shanghai, is an NXT Senate candidate for SA.

Senator Xenophon himself was a member of the Young Liberals when he edited the 1977 Adelaide University student newspaper On Dit. “Some people do drugs, I was in the Young Liberals,” he said in 2013.

Poker machines

Spin: Labor and Liberals accuse him of failing to achieve results on his signature issue.

Labor and Liberals accuse him of failing to achieve results on his signature issue.

Senator Xenophon’s website says: “I first saw the damage poker machines were causing while working in my suburban legal practice in the mid-1990s. That’s why I ran for State Parliament in 1997 on a ‘No Pokies’ platform. And I ran for the Federal Senate in 2007 because I believe the best way to bring about real change is to have national laws.”

Reality: Poker machine numbers have risen in South Australia from 10,497 in June, 1997 to 12,314 in March this year, according to the most recent statistics from the State Government Office of the Liquor and Gambling Commissioner.

In the 1997/98 financial year, $394.629 million was spent on SA poker machines. At the end of the March quarter of this financial year, $545.51 million had been spent on SA pokies.

Senator Xenophon says Australians lose “a staggering $19 billion a year on pokies — 40 per cent of that coming from problem gamblers”.

He says more than 80 per cent of Australians support pokies being made safer and blames the major parties for refusing to back a 2010 Productivity Commission recommendation for $1 maximum bets per spin and $120 hourly loss cap.

Penalty rates

Spin: Labor attack ads say Senator Xenophon supports cutting penalty rates.

Substance: Senator Xenophon says the Labor ads are defamatory and false. He says the NXT will support the independent umpire, the Fair Work Commission, and “will not support any cuts to penalty rates”.

But in 2012, he introduced an amendment to the Fair Work Act “to provide that businesses in the restaurant and catering or retail industries with fewer than 20 fulltime and fulltime equivalent employees are only required to pay penalty rates where an employee has worked more than 10 hours in a 24-hour period, or more than 38 hours in a seven-day period.”

Senator Xenophon last month said he “made a mistake” previously supporting penalty rate cuts but did so because smaller businesses were vulnerable to high bills.

NXT campaign director, Senate candidate and former Australian Retailers Association state chief executive Stirling Griff on June 21 said: “We do know that small businesses, in many cases ... a lot of them do not open on Sunday because they cannot afford the rates that they are required to pay. That is a statement just relating to small businesses, particularly with under 20 employees.”

He told ABC Radio a good outcome for small retailers and small hospitality businesses on Sunday would be a penalty rate of about 150 per cent, as opposed to the present 200 per cent.

Preferences

Spin: Senator Xenophon in February last year threatened to direct preferences against the Government if submarines were not built in SA, rather than splitting them between major parties.

Then, in May this year, he said no position had been set and his lower house candidates would help decide.

Opponents argue he tried negotiating in secret with Labor and the Greens.

Substance: NXT is running a so-called open ticket in South Australia in the Senate and Lower House. This means the party is asking voters to mark their first preference for the NXT and then leaving subsequent preferences to their choice.

NXT insiders concede preference talks took place, except for with the Liberals. The Advertiser reported Labor floated a deal, which was rejected, to swap preferences in Liberal-held Mayo and Hindmarsh, which NXT and Labor respectively hope to win.

Leading a party

Spin: Major party opponents argue Senator Xenophon is leading a personality cult and gags his candidates. They say his party is not underpinned by detailed policies or philosophies, arguing renegade Ann Bressington shows his fledgling party will fracture like Clive Palmer’s did.

Substance: Ms Bressington in 2007 described Senator Xenophon as a typical politician and a chameleon, implying he had made requests to State Treasury for illegal funding.

In a parliamentary attack, she said a number of constituents he had represented were left without assistance after he received media attention. Senator Xenophon at the time said he was deeply upset by the comments and pleaded with South Australians to judge him on his record.

The Nick Xenophon Team was registered as a parliamentary party at a federal level in July, 2013. It also was incorporated in SA as an association. There are four voting members of the association: Senator Xenophon, NXT state member John Darley, Mr Griff and NXT SA convener Connie Bonaros. They also form the four-person management committee of the party.

NXT candidates have rarely, if at all, responded directly to media inquiries during the campaign. However, ALP, Liberal and other minor-party candidates also have generally avoided broadcast interviews and submitted statements via email.

Liberal analysis shows Senator Xenophon has voted with the Greens almost 66 per cent of the time and with Labor 49 per cent.

Wind farms

Spin: Senator Xenophon has helped communities spearhead campaigns against wind farms because of noise and health concerns. His website argues wind farms make power more expensive and generation capacity is intermittent.

Substance: SA has the third-highest per capita amount of wind generation in the world, according to a Deloitte report released in December last year.

This is causing problems for the state’s electricity grid, the report says, because of the intermittent nature of generation.

“At current levels, this intermittency, particularly from wind, is having a material impact on South Australia’s energy and contract markets, as well as the stability of the electricity grid,” Deloitte says.

Originally published as Do Senator Nick Xenophon and his team trade in substance or spin?