Liberal Party renews bid to recruit Centre Alliance MP Rebekha Sharkie ahead of election

The Liberals have renewed their push to convert the SA independent and bolster the PM’s lines before the election — and they’ve got a quick answer.

The Liberal Party is making a fresh bid to entice Centre Alliance MP Rebekha Sharkie into its ranks to bolster its numbers before Scott Morrison calls an election.

The strategic move is at least the third major attempt to lure the former Liberal staffer into the tent and bring the former blue-ribbon electorate of Mayo back into the fold.

Several political sources said Prime Minister Morrison could call the election for November after Treasurer Josh Frydenberg handed down a big-spending Budget with virtually no losers on Tuesday.

The Budget fired the starting gun for both leaders to enter campaign mode, with Mr Morrison and Opposition leader Anthony Albanese expected to travel widely this week to pitch their policies to voters.

Senior Liberal sources said the party had made several efforts to recruit Ms Sharkie in an effort to reclaim Mayo and shore up Coalition numbers and suggested another was under way.

Rebekha Sharkie during a radio interview on Election Night. Picture: Kelly Barnes

Ms Sharkie had a major win in the Budget on her long-time call for more tax relief for craft distillers and small brewers.

Sources noted the Centre Alliance MP joined Finance Minister Simon Birmingham at Ambleside Distillers in Hahndorf when he announced the $255 million measure to help the sector ahead of the Budget.

The 2021 Budget also included $32m for road upgrades on Kangaroo Island, $5.1 million to finish the Victor Harbor hospital upgrade, $5 million for a planning study into a Greater Adelaide freight bypass and $5.4 million for a recycling plant at McLaren Vale.

Ms Sharkie shot down speculation, telling The Advertiser: “I am not joining the Liberal Party today, tomorrow or ever.”

“The best and most effective way I can serve my community as their elected member is to sit on the Crossbench and that is where I will continue to sit as long as my community votes for me,” she said.

Rebekha Sharkie, left, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Member for Boothby Nicolle Flint and Holdfast Bay mayor Amanda Wilson, right, when a new recycling waste facility at Seaford Heights was announced in March. Picture: Dean Martin

Ms Sharkie said she worked constructively with both sides of politics to get the best results for Mayo.

“You only have to see the results of my advocacy, including in the recent budget, to see how much this benefits my community,” she said.

“I could not have achieved that as a member of a major party.”

One senior Liberal said the renewed recruitment drive would be very unpopular with branch members, regardless of who was pushing the bid.

A recruitment push last August was thwarted when The Advertiser revealed a letter from Mayo federal electorate committee president Rowan Mumford, who bluntly declared Ms Sharkie was “not one of us” and “does not share our values”.

Centre Alliance member for Mayo Rebekha Sharkie at a press conference in Parliament House with fellow crossbenchers Zali Steggall, Helen Haines and Andrew Wilkie. Picture: AAP

Mr Mumford’s letter, to federal Liberal president John Olsen, declared inviting Ms Sharkie into the party would render its values “meaningless”.

Asked last August about the Liberal offer, Ms Sharkie said she was “100 per cent committed to my electorate and my beliefs” and would not “consider any offer that felt short on these fronts.”

Liberal members also revolted against a 2018 push to return Ms Sharkie to the party and bolster the Federal Government’s numbers in parliament.

Before entering parliament with the Nick Xenophon Team, Ms Sharkie was a staffer for former state Liberal leader Isobel Redmond and also for her predecessor in Mayo, Jamie Briggs.