SA election 2018: Profile of new-look Mawson electorate

IT boasts great wineries, stunning beaches and the beautiful Kangaroo Island, and on March 17, the new-look Mawson electorate could shape the 2018 state election.

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FROM the wild and pristine Kangaroo Island, to the stunning beaches at Aldinga and Sellicks and the world-beating wineries at McLaren Vale, Mawson is an electorate of awe-inspiring beauty.

But that beauty is about the only thing that unites the seat’s key areas and the 24,000 electors who live in it.

The South Rd upgrade between Seaford and Sellicks Beach is the key concern in the seat’s northern reaches, but barely registers a murmur on beautiful Kangaroo Island or sleepy Yankalilla.

Now a regional seat where the bulk of its voters still live in the suburbs, Mawson is a unique electorate.

Peter Symons — who manages the bar at the Aldinga Surf Life Saving Club — lived in coastal Aldinga when it had a population of fewer than 100 people.

Now it’s Mawson’s main population hub with just over 12,000 residents.

Mr Symons said Aldinga was out of step with the rest of Mawson as it became more and more an extension of metropolitan Adelaide.

He said it was more akin to Hackham, Seaford, Woodcroft and Noarlunga — all southern suburbs that were moved into neighbouring electorates during the most recent boundaries distribution. “For us, traffic issue in the area is one of the biggest issues, but it’s hard to know about the rest of the electorate,” Mr Symons said.

Aldinga Surf Life Saving Club bar manager Peter Symons. AAP Image/RUSSELL MILLARD

“Each area is going to have different demands”.

Mr Symons said locals had less disposable income to splash behind the bar at the Surf Lifesaving Club, pointing the finger at rising cost of living pressures, including rapidly escalating power prices.

“They (people at the club) whinge about power, that’s for sure,” he said. “I’m lucky because I’ve got solar panels but a lot of them don’t.”

On Kangaroo Island, Lenore Boxer — the president of KI Cottage Homes, who manage independent living units for the elderly — said the condition of the island’s roads was a key concern.

And she said the prohibitive cost of getting freight to and from the island had been particularly hard for her family, who manage a farming operation. “SeaLink provide a great freight service but it’s not cheap,” she said. “It’s a wonderful place to live apart from that but I love it, I wouldn’t live anywhere else.

That’s the price you pay for living in paradise.” But Mrs Boxer said she wasn’t holding out hope for election promises to fix the difficulties.

“They promise you everything at election time and then never deliver,” she said.

SA Best candidate Hazel Wainwright said issues varied wildly from place to place.

“In Yankalilla, it’s public transport and overnight doctors services, while on Kangaroo Island, it’s about access to services like Pap smears,” she said. “In Aldinga the issues are domestic violence, ice use and unemployment and in McLaren Vale it’s biosecurity issues. It’s completely different in each part of the seat.”

Tourism Minister Leon Bignell, who has held the seat since the 2006 election, acknowledged the boundary shift had up-ended the electorate as he knew it, but said it wasn’t as radical as it appeared.

“I think there’s actually more commonality between McLaren Vale and Kangaroo Island than there is between McLaren Vale and Hackham, even though they’re much closer to each other,” he said. “And the concerns are pretty much the same all across the electorate: job security, cost of living — they want power prices to come down — and good health and education.”

A January YouGov Galaxy poll showed Mr Bignell coming third in Mawson, with his 22 per cent primary behind Ms Wainwright (38 per cent) and Liberal candidate Andy Gilfillan (25 per cent).

Mr Bignell dismissed the poll as having “no credibility”.

“That’s not what it feels like on the ground,” he said.

FOCUS ON MAWSON

WHERE: Aldinga, Sellicks Beach, McLaren Vale, Willunga, Yankalilla, Kangaroo Island

HELD BY: Labor, Leon Bignell

MARGIN: As a result of redistribution, the seat is now nominally Liberal, with a margin of 3.2 per cent.

HISTORY: The seat is named after geologist and Antarctic explorer Sir Douglas Mawson. Traditionally Mawson is held by the party that forms government, with only former Liberal MP Robert Brokenshire’s 2002 election victory bucking the trend.

KEY CANDIDATES: Tourism Minister and former ABC sports journalist Mr Bignell has held the seat since 2006. Mr Bignell was a media adviser to former Labor minister Pat Conlon after hanging up his microphone.

Liberal candidate Andy Gilfillan is the son of former Australian Democrats MP Ian. He’s a Kangaroo Island-based farmer, whose family property is thought to be the oldest on the island.

SA Best’s Hazel Wainwright is an Onkaparinga City councillor with a high profile in Mawson’s suburban areas.

Other candidates: Ami-Louise Harrison (Greens) and Heidi Greaves (Conservatives).

THREE KEY ISSUES

Power prices: Mawson contains lots of power-intensive companies who have been particularly impacted by exploding power prices.

K angaroo Island ferry and roads: The high cost of getting people and goods to and from the island is a particular concern, as is the condition of a lot of roads on the popular tourism hub.

Education: Rapid population growth forecast in parts of the electorate is expected to put pressure on schools. A 2012 Commonwealth Government report into the region found literacy and numeracy skills were increasingly preventing people from gaining employment.