Liberal candidate Carolyn Habib will take on Labor’s Annabel Digance in the western suburbs seat of Elder after winning preselection
THE woman targeted in one of South Australia’s most divisive election advertisements will again stand at the upcoming state election.
- Gloves off in Elder as Carolyn Habib recontests seat
- Complaint over Labor’s ‘racist’ Habib flyer goes to Human Rights
- New boundary: Liberal MP Sam Duluk to contest seat of Waite
THE woman targeted in one of South Australia’s most divisive election advertisements will again stand at the upcoming state election.
Liberal candidate Carolyn Habib will take on Labor’s Annabel Digance in the western suburbs seat of Elder after winning preselection yesterday.
Their 2014 election battle was marred by controversy after an ALP pamphlet asked voters “Can you trust Habib?”.
The material provoked a furious reaction from Ms Habib and the Liberal Party, with Opposition Leader Steven Marshall dubbing it a “racist dog-whistle”.
Federal Labor MP Ed Husic said it was a “bad” pamphlet and called on his party to apologise, but Premier Jay Weatherill has repeatedly denied it was racist.
As recently as this month, he said the flyer focused on Ms Habib’s record as a Marion councillor, rather than her ethnicity.
In a written statement announcing her preselection, Ms Habib said she would work “day and night” to defeat Ms Digance.
“The people of Elder have been badly let down by this tired Labor Government that can’t even keep the lights on, let alone reduce costs on families and create jobs,” she said.
Questions to Labor state secretary Reggie Martin about whether the party would use the same flyer in the 2018 campaign went unanswered today, saying only that he would not comment on Liberal preselections.
The new electoral boundaries have significantly changed the seat, which is now notionally Liberal.
The redistribution, which resulted in more than 15,000 voters now in other electorates, prompted Ms Digance to consider a move to neighbouring Badcoe, before she again nominated to recontest Elder.
Mr Marshall said he would be “particularly focused” on campaigning in the key election battleground.
“The voters of Elder have an opportunity to right the wrong of 2014 and send Labor a message that Labor’s grubby tactics are not welcome in South Australian politics,” he said.
“Labor’s racist attack, condemned by some members of their own party, was a new low, even for Labor.”
Police intervened in 2014 after supporters of Ms Digance and Ms Habib clashed on election eve, while Ms Habib claimed Ms Digance’s husband harassed her and Liberal supporters on polling day.
Elder was among a swag of metropolitan seats Labor won by slender margins, with Ms Digance winning by 1.8 per cent.
Ms Habib defeated Alex Neill and Nick Greer to win preselection, receiving 20 of the 35 votes cast.
Ms Digance entered Parliament at the 2014 election, replacing former Labor minister Pat Conlon.
She ran as the Labor candidate in the seat of Boothby at the 2010 and 2013 federal elections, where she was twice defeated by Liberal Andrew Southcott. Ms Digance did not respond to requests for comment yesterday.
Ms Habib is the second new candidate to be announced by the Liberal Party ahead of the election, after lawyer Dan Cregan’s preselection in the Adelaide Hills seat of Kavel last week. She did not respond to calls from the Sunday Mail.