Former prime minister John Howard says voters waking up to Nick Xenophon in South Australian election

FORMER prime minister John Howard says support for Nick Xenophon is drifting as people wake up to his game-playing failure to produce policies and give them a reason to vote for him.

Former PM John Howard and current SA Opposition Leader Steven Marshall walk along the Torrens River. Picture: Mike Burton/AAP

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FORMER prime minister John Howard says support for Nick Xenophon is drifting as people wake up to his game-playing failure to produce policies and give them a reason to vote for him.

In an exclusive interview with The Advertiser on his morning walk during an Adelaide campaign visit, Mr Howard also condemned Premier Jay Weatherill’s “excessive preoccupation with renewable energy” for causing “runaway energy prices and the disgrace of blackouts and power failures”.

Mr Howard, the Liberal prime minister from 1996-2007, will campaign with Opposition Leader Steven Marshall on Thursday ahead of the March 17 state election.

Australia’s former Prime Minister — and South Australia’s next Premier? Picture:Mike Burton/AAP

Declaring the public was entitled to be cynical about Mr Xenophon and his SA Best team, Mr Howard seized on comments by SA Best candidate Gary Johanson that the party was “not there at the moment to form policy, necessarily”.

“Well you can’t ask people to vote for you without giving them a reason and the reason is your policies,” Mr Howard said.

“He’s quite happy, Xenophon, to contemplate sharing power, contemplate even, perhaps, being premier, but one of his candidates says, well, they’re not really focusing much on policy.

“Well, the public is entitled to be cynical about them, it really is.”

“And I do think that is coming through, because, in the end, people want stability in government. They want to know what they’re going to get.”

“ ... He’s sort of playing this game of don’t mention the policies and you can’t get away with that.”

Mr Howard said there were signs in Advertiser-Galaxy polls in Heysen and Morialta that “people are starting to wake up to Xenophon”.

Declaring he had detected a mood for change over time in visits to South Australia, Mr Howard said people were aghast that, in the 21st century, the state had an energy crisis.

“There’s a sense of exasperation in South Australia that the state with all its qualities and natural advantages that it’s got itself into an economic hole,” he said.

“The runaway energy prices and the disgrace of blackouts and power failures through an over-obsession and an over-reliance on renewable energy, which is not sustainable when you get any kind of pressure put on the system.”

Referring to Mr Weatherill’s campaign promise of a 75 per cent renewable energy target by 2025, Mr Howard branded the over-reliance on renewables “not accidental, it’s quite deliberate”.

Asked about doubts within some sectors of business and the Liberal Party about Mr Marshall’s ability to win government, Mr Howard said he had not “met a more ready opposition leader for years”.

“I think the last ready opposition leader I met was the federal opposition leader early in 1996 (himself). Steven has been leader of the Liberal Party for five years and he is very well prepared and, very importantly, he’s kept the party together, which is no mean feat,” Mr Howard said.

“He’s developed a plan for the future. When you get into government you’ve got to do something with the authority you’ve been given ... he will hit the ground running, he won’t look around and try to work out what to do.’

The Liberals are seeking to portray Mr Howard’s stable leadership as a contrast with Labor chaos, timing his campaign visit a day after a scathing Independent Commission Against Corruption report into the Oakden nursing home scandal.

Mr Marshall said when Mr Howard became prime minister in 1996 many thought Australia’s best days of Australia were behind it but his strong leadership transformed the nation’s confidence.

“People now realise that our best days for this wonderful country are in front of us and the same transformation needs to occur in South Australia,” he said.

“Our best days for South Australia are definitely in front of us”.