Low population growth means SA House of Reps seats cut to 10 from 11 with Port Adelaide gone

JOSTLING among major parties has started after senior Labor frontbencher Mark Butler’s seat of Port Adelaide was wiped off the map under a radical redraw of South Australia’s federal electorate boundaries.

• Port Adelaide electorate to go under radical redraw
• Two Labor MPs fight over one seat
• SA to lose a federal seat — but which MP will go?
• Labor tells AEC Christopher Pyne’s seat of Sturt should be cut
• Boundaries redraw could hurt Coalition at next election

SENIOR Labor frontbencher Mark Butler’s seat of Port Adelaide has been wiped off the map under a radical redraw of South Australia’s federal electorate boundaries.

The Australian Electoral Commission’s draft decision to cut the number of SA voices in the House of Representatives from 11 to 10, as a result of low population growth, is set to ignite factional brawls in both major parties.

Mr Butler — one of the Labor left’s most powerful figures — needs to find a new seat and Liberal right winger Nicolle Flint’s seat of Boothby will become the state’s most marginal.

This is viewed as a result of the party’s decision to protect moderate powerbroker Christopher Pyne by sandbagging his seat of Sturtwith more blue-ribbon suburbs.

Overall, 255,784 South Australians — more than one in five people enrolled to vote in the state — would cast their vote in a different federal electorate as a result of the proposed redistribution.

Labor’s Mark Butler is out of a seat.

Hindmarsh Labor MP Steve Georganas.

A senior Labor source pointed out that Mr Butler lives in the proposed new seat of Hindmarsh while his left-wing ally and current Hindmarsh MP Steve Georganas lives in the new Adelaide, which will be vacated by Kate Ellis.

That would suggest an orderly shift where no sitting MP would lose a seat, however, the plan could be thwarted by the party’s powerful right faction.

Julia Gillard adviser Marielle Smith, who is understood to have the backing of the right, told The Advertiser she plans to put her hand up for the seat of Adelaide.

“It’s crucial Adelaide continues to have a strong and progressive voice in our national parliament and it would be an honour to have the opportunity to fight for the polices and investment that will make our community an even better place to live and work,” Ms Smith said.

The proposed new electorate of Spence. Picture: AEC.

Labor’s candidate for Adelaide at the state election, Jo Chapley, is also believed to want to a shot at the federal seat of Adelaide.

While Labor loses a seat, four of the other five electorate it holds become much safer.

The Liberals avoided being stripped of a seat but under the draft proposal, the party gives up ground to Labor in each of its four seats.

SA Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham predicted the redistribution would spark an internal Labor war but did not reflect on factional unrest within his own party. “At a political party sense, the Liberal Party will obviously consider them (the boundaries) carefully and make any further submissions through the AEC processes,” he said.

“I wouldn’t think that (SA Labor leader) Peter Malinauskas’ dominant right-wing faction is going to allow three incumbent left-wing MPs to dominate and occupy three out of those five seats at the next federal election.

“So who’s going to get the chop? Will it be Mark Butler? Will it be Steve Georganas? Will it be Tony Zappia?”

Labor’s Tony Zappia

Boothby Liberal MP Nicolle Flint

Hindmarsh would become a safe Labor seat after traditionally having been a marginal seat which was held by the Liberals as recently as the 2013 election.

Mr Butler emphasised that the proposed redistribution was “a draft”.

“I have been the proud member of Port Adelaide since 2007 and am obviously disappointed in its proposal to abolish the Division of Port Adelaide,” he said. “I will be looking at all my options as I continue to serve my community and as we await a final decision by the commission.”

Mr Butler, the ALP National president, recently called out factional deals which determine preselections as “backroom buffoonery” but it now appears he may need to use his factional power to keep a seat himself.

Labor preselection will not open until after the redraw is finalised. ALP SA branch secretary Reggie Martin said the draft “varied greatly” from earlier submissions to the AEC.

“We now have 28 days before our next submission is due, and we will take this time to closely analyse the proposed changes before we make our submission,” he said.

Ms Flint, the first Liberal women elected to represent the state in the Lower House in 20 years, is set to face a tough battle to keep her seat at the next election because estimates from both major parties put the margin at under 3 per cent.

Labor MP Kate Ellis will vacate Adelaide.

Liberal Sturt MP Christopher Pyne

Ms Flint lost Liberal heartland areas of Flagstaff Hill into Kingston and Craigburn Farm to Mayo while picking up Labor areas around Park Holme.

The Liberal submission to the AEC at the beginning of the redraw process had focused on shoring up Mr Pyne’s eastern suburbs seat.

The draft redraw hands him blue ribbon suburbs Dulwich, Norwood and St Peters.

Last year, it was reported that Mr Pyne had threatened to challenge Ms Flint if Burnside was moved into Boothby but the minister denied those claims.

“On the basis of the first draft of boundaries, I intend to continue to represent the people of the eastern and north eastern suburbs as the Member for Sturt,” Mr Pyne said yesterday.

The Advertiser understands Ms Flint was strongly advised not to make an individual submission.

Adelaide Hills seat of Mayo, currently held by Nick Xenophon Team MP Rebekha Sharkie, would become the SA’s only other marginal seat under the proposal, when votes were split under the two-party preferred system.

But given that NXT won the seat at the last election after the Liberal vote dived after controversy surrounding former MP Jamie Briggs, Labor sources told The Advertiser Mayo was not really winnable.

Labor’s northern suburbs seat of Wakefield, held by Nick Champion, was set to be renamed Spence after Catherine Spence, who in 1891 joined the SA Women’s Suffrage League.

As vice president of that organisation, Ms Spence helped to women secure the right to vote in state elections and to stand for the State Parliament.