Why SA Best leader Nick Xenophon’s South Australian state election turned into a disaster

RENOWNED political stuntman Nick Xenophon took his shot at becoming premier, but instead became a shooting star as his SA Best party plummeted to ground. Here’s how Mr X lost the war.

• Xenophon’s first terrible cheesy election ad...
• ... and his second ...
• SA Best health plan undervalues budget by $2.6 billion
• Xenophon rules out Canberra return after SA Best flop

NICK Xenophon ended his 20-year political career because he was torn between shooting to become premier or a watchdog – and the public rejected both plans.

The frenetic, almost shambolic personal style that propelled Mr Xenophon from the South Australian parliament to the spotlight in the Senate failed him dismally when he tried to return in the state’s lower house.

Even though Mr Xenophon’s decision to quit the Senate, stunningly revealed in October last year, clearly had been canvassed within his party’s circles for some time, the manner of his exit looked harried, forced and rushed.

Announcing his shock move at a Montefiore Hill press conference, Mr Xenophon was, at the time, facing the prospect of being disqualified from the Senate by the High Court because of a potential dual citizenship issue.

Even though the court subsequently found in his favour, Mr Xenophon had already committed to running in the eastern Adelaide seat of... Hartley.

Right from the start, then, Mr Xenophon was on the back foot. Rather than having engineered a carefully planned transition from senator to candidate/state party leader – complete with clearly thought-out policies and vetted candidates waiting in the wings – Mr Xenophon was flying by the seat of his pants.

His campaign manager for three previous elections, Stirling Griff, was all-but absent, having been elected to the Senate in 2016 – a double-edged sword for Mr Xenophon.

Right from the start, then, Mr Xenophon was on the back foot. Rather than having engineered a carefully planned transition ... [he] was flying by the seat of his pants.

Vetting of candidates was insufficient, at best. One of the first seven was sacked the day after his candidacy was announced when Facebook photos emerged of him appearing to show him holding his fist to the face of a wax model of pop star Rihanna.

She had been a victim of domestic violence, which Mr Xenophon rightly declared was ”a serious issue that cannot be made fun of”.

Unfortunately for him, though, it appears too many voters thought the state’s governance was a serious issue which Mr Xenophon was making fun of, particularly when, on February 20, SA Best released a wacky, cheesy election ad featuring him rapping political messages in a Bollywood-style dance scene.

“That was the jump-the-shark moment,” a senior Liberal strategist told The Advertiser.

“Suddenly, with that ad, that confirmed that he was back where he started from, as a stuntman.”

Until then, the strategist argued, Mr Xenophon had appealed to both disaffected Liberal and Labor voters, along with a core group who had backed him for 20 years in state and federal parliaments.

A pre-Christmas Newspoll showed him streets ahead as preferred premier. An emboldened Mr Xenophon then raced to find candidates, moving far beyond the 20 he had initially planned to eventually field 36 in the 47-seat lower house.

The initially stratospheric polling numbers and sudden rush of candidates, coupled with Mr Xenophon’s refusal to rule out becoming premier, created voter expectation. This led to anticipation that, as a contender to lead the state, Mr Xenophon would produce a suite of detailed, costed, coherent policies.

Nick Xenophon’s channelled Bollywood and ran with the bulls in an election campaign that seemed to promise much.

This was needed to underpin motherhood statements, such as “We’ll fix the health crisis”. Voters wanted to know the detail of how this would happen.

Lacking the resources, staff and capacity of a major party, this was always going to beyond Mr Xenophon. This was confirmed when, on February 9, he released a health policy which underestimated that portfolio’s state budget by $2.6 billion.

This blunder, coupled with the subsequent release of a swathe of hyper-local policies, wrecked Mr Xenophon’s pitch as a serious contender for government.

A senior Labor strategist said Mr Xenophon had been “hijacked by his ego”.

“I think Nick was not a success in Canberra. I think he found the going there too tough and he came back into a little pool thinking he was going to be King Neptune.

“Ever since, during the course of the campaign and afterwards, he was found wanting. So were his candidates. They were a collection of hollow men and women.

Running a government is more about detail than stunts and Nick exposed himself as having absolutely no talent in the detail stakes.

“Running a government is more about detail than stunts and Nick exposed himself as having absolutely no talent in the detail stakes.”

Mr Xenophon was subjected to an advertising barrage from both major parties. Labor feared he would make inroads in Whyalla and Adelaide’s north; the Liberals were worried about the Adelaide Hills. Another blitz from cashed-up hoteliers, scared of his anti-pokies policy, warned he would erode employment in that sector.

Then, on the Tuesday before the election, an exclusive Advertiser-Galaxy poll predicted (correctly) Mr Xenophon was in trouble in Hartley. “I feel a bit like Vegemite. I’ve been spread a bit thin but I’m doing my very best,” Mr Xenophon said at the time.

He admitted that, as a party leader, he had not spent enough time in his own electorate.

Major party strategists were heartened, believing voters would turn away from Mr Xenophon’s candidates if they thought there was a chance they would be leaderless.

This proved correct, with SA Best gathering just under 14 per cent of the statewide vote and no lower house seats. Mr Xenophon now might become the party president, supporting himself with his Paradise-based legal practice. Those elected, including in federal parliament, face questions about their long-term futures in the party.

SA Best has proven to be a shooting star, soaring into the stratosphere, then plummeting to ground.